By NICK BUDD
Hays Post
It seemed fitting that Gov. Sam Brownback began his remarks in Hays on Tuesday with the Royals. The Royals recently took the World Series to a seventh game and, now, Brownback and his Republican colleagues are in their own form of a Game 7 with the election Tuesday.
“(The Royals) didn’t quite get it done, but we’ll get them next time,” Said Brownback.
Brownback along with Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Treasurer Ron Estes, Republican Insurance Commissioner Candidate Ken Selzer, and 1st Congressional District Congressman Tim Huelskamp all made a stop in Hays on Tuesday as part of the Republican Party’s Clean Sweep bus tour.
“We’re surging right into the end. This is a tight race for Pat Roberts and I, but I don’t know about these other guys. We need the voters to surge, and we are going to win,” Brownback proclaimed.
Related story: Protesters also make a stop on the tour.
Roberts was not in attendance at Tuesday’s stop, but his daughter Ashley Roberts was there. Roberts said politics isn’t “a path to popularity.”
“My dad, Sam Brownback and everybody up here don’t ask for votes to be loved,” Roberts said. “They do it because they love our country and they’re concerned in the way it is going.”
“Whether he is fighting over-regulations that are stifling our small businesses, ensuring farmers can feed a growing population in an unstable world or ensuring our rural citizens have basic access to services … my dad is working hard for you, me and our children,” she said.
Huelskamp also advocated for all of the candidates during his speech.
“If you want to grow our economy, you’ve got to elect Pat Roberts. If you want to push back on an agenda that’s shutting down industries in western Kansas, you have to put me back in the House,” said Huelskamp. “If you want to get our economy going again and continue to do the great things that Sam Brownback has done in this state, if you want to continue those, you have to re-elect Sam Brownback.”
Brownback also took time to talk about his challenger, State House Minority Leader Paul Davis, saying he has one of the “Top 10 liberal voting records” in the state Legislature. Brownback also said he is pushing policies forward that will move the state in the right direction.
“I’m a Reagan conservative. We’ve been pushing the policies that he believed in,” Brownback said. “It’s really getting the government smaller, getting your taxes down and doing the core functions better.”
“We’ve invested record numbers in education and highways. We’re down 3,000 employees in the state of Kansas because we’ve been able to make things more efficient,” he added.
After the stop in Hays, the group traveled to Russell for their lunch stop. A recent Rasmussen poll has Davis leading Brownback 46-43. Another poll released by SurveyUSA has independent candidate Greg Orman leading Roberts 44-42.