Part 4 of our ongoing election

coverage series takes a look

at Chad Taylor’s attempt to

withdraw his name from the

U.S. Senate race.

Previous installments of the

series have been posted at

www.washburnreview.org.

Pat Roberts has been a part of Washington politics since before the majority of Washburn students were born, but this year he’s been fighting to keep the status quo.

His primary run against a tea party contender who posted morbid photos of gunshot victims along with inappropriate joking comments ended with only a 7 percent lead, shocking many within his own party and nationwide with vulnerability they did not expect.

This leads to the current topic being debated by the Kansas Supreme Court. Robert’s democratic contender, Chad Taylor, has dropped out of the race for the Senate and wants his name removed from the ballot.

Normally, with precedent, this would not be an issue. In this case, however, lines in the sand are being drawn and both parties are moving to secure their interests before the absentee ballots are sent out on Saturday.

The reason is because the timing of Taylor’s withdraw and the fact that the third name on the ballot, independent candidate Greg Orman, is slightly leading the polls against Roberts before Taylor’s name has been removed from the ballot. Robert’s camp is extremely worried about his position in the upcoming race and wants to be sure that Taylor’s name stays on the ballot in case any Democrats still wish to vote for him, as opposed to the Independent candidate, even though Taylor no longer will accept the role of the office and has officially withdrawn.

Mark Peterson, Washburn political science professor, explains:

“Taylor filled out his letter of request to withdraw from the race, signed it, had his signature notarized and took it to the secretary of state’s office. He submitted it then said he wanted to withdraw from the election. The employee of the secretary of state accepted the letter and then a couple of days later the secretary said it was insufficient and the democratic voters of Kansas are still entitled to make their choice. The secretary states that Taylor didn’t provide any explanation of inability to hold office, in the letter, so hecited the language of the statute to deny it.“

However, the story doesn’t end there.

“If you read the statue it says that a candidate has to state that they would be unable to hold the position,” said Peterson. “It doesn’t require any disclosure of what the reasoning involved. The secretary of state’s main objective is to keep Taylor on the ballot.”

A poll released to them by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling stated the following:

“Six percent said they’d still vote for Democrat Chad Taylor, who has announced he’s leaving the race, but whose name may remain on the ballot pending a lawsuit being heard Tuesday. Another 4 percent opted for libertarian Randall Batson, with the remaining 15 percent undecided.”

If the Kansas Supreme Court agrees with Taylor, as the wording of their questioning seems to suggest they will according to Peterson, then Taylor’s name will be removed and in theory those six percent will likely vote for Orman, leaving the independent candidate with enough votes to win the race.

The Senate race will be decided Nov. 4.