# Race for Kansas governor **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 10, 2018, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-for-kansas-governor/808572 "2018-02-10T04:29:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-for-kansas-governor/808572/1 "2018-02-10T04:29:01Z")
Feel free to offer any thoughts you might have on the subject. As I recall, in the last race, Sam Brownback had many Republicans standing in opposition to his re-election and yet he failed to lose. This year, there is an interesting twist, > [@"\[KC Star](#): > > ([http://amp.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article198664404.html](http://amp.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article198664404.html))"]As it stands, Kansas law requires no qualifications of a candidate for governor. which has led to > [@](#): > > … six teenagers joined the 2018 governor’s race … a few of whom may be under 18 at the beginning of the upcoming term. And of course > [@](#): > > …Under a bill that was passed out of a House committee on Monday, minors would no longer be able to be a candidate for governor or any of the state’s other top elected offices … legislators scrambling to plug the “loophole”. Perhaps a good idea, since it has become evident that trusting the voters to make decent choices is not always (ever?) wise. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-for-kansas-governor/808572/2 "2018-02-10T06:30:12Z")
Does Kansas law require that candidates be human? [I hear Ferry McFerryface is out of a job](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=848244), so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-for-kansas-governor/808572/3 "2018-02-10T13:17:26Z")
I used to have a pretty good opinion of Kansas. It was the home of reasonable people like Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum. Arlen Specter was raised there, I believe. These days it’s more like…Kansistan. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-for-kansas-governor/808572/4 "2018-02-10T19:04:56Z")
What gets me about this is it’s not the first time something like this has happened. Except that normally it’s just one high school joker and only gets a small writeup in the local paper that’s quickly forgotten. The only thing different this year is how the press picked up the first one, which led to the others me-too-ing. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/race-for-kansas-governor/808572/5 "2018-02-11T00:47:52Z")
I’m a lifelong Kansan, and it saddens and sickens me to see what has happened to our state politically. IMO, this is a prime example of what happens when our hometown boys, the Koch brothers of Wichita, are able to influence virtually every contested race on the state level. Kansas used to have a ‘3 party’ system, consisting of Democrats, moderate Republicans, and conservative Republicans. Beginning in about 2010. the Koch-backed candidates began to win the Republican primaries; the number of Democrat winners severely declined, and the legislature was soon dominated by right-wing Republicans. The 2010 election of Sam Brownback helped to seal the deal, and we have been suffering the consequences ever since. However, there was a glimmer of hope in 2016, as a number of incumbent Republicans were defeated in the primary, and the number of Democrats in the legislature is now approaching pre-2012 levels. Last year the legislature was able to overturn the disastrous tax bill that was passed in 2012 that has bankrupted our state. Brownback won a close election in 2014 over state Senator Paul Davis; one of the clinching issues was the disclosure that Davis, at age 26, was in attendance at a Gentlemen’s Club during a 1998 drug raid by the authorities. That fact was trumpeted every day throughout the campaign, and I have no doubt that it was a major factor in the election. Fortunately, Brownback just resigned, so we no longer refer to our state as Brownbackistan.