A New Year's Eve Shocker: Laura Kelly Drops Out

Early this morning the Topeka Capital Journal broke some good news - JV candidate Laura Kelly is dropping her bid to take on Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins in the 2nd district. Kelly claims demands of conducting the U.S. House campaign and responsibilities of being a member of the State Senate were incompatible. The obligation to serve her constituents proved stronger than the desire to defeat Jenkins, she said. "I can't do this race and do the Senate," Kelly said.

Our thoughts: As an extremely liberal member of the Kansas State Senate who will probably have to vote for a tax increase this year, loves unions and would support everything Pelosi pushes - Kelly just didn't stand a chance against Jenkins. So what's the REAL reason Kelly is dropping out? A personal scandal? Can she really not run a campaign and govern at the same time? Could she not raise money in a climate that has become toxic for Democrats (especially here in Kansas)? Maybe she just doesn't have the fire in her to run a rigorous campaign. I guess we'll take her at her word.

Nancy Boyda got 46% of the vote in 2008 against Jenkins in the general election. We'd estimate that number is padded with an extra 2-3% from people turning out for Obama. Kelly really isn't known outside of her district and would need a lot of money to get her name out there. We'd guess against Jenkins in the general in 2010 - Kelly would have been lucky to break 42%.

We'll go ahead and add Laura Kelly to the 'Democrat Candidates That Weren't' Club - Tom Wiggins, Greg Orman, Dan Glickman, Mark Parkinson...So let's recap. Democrats are now without a candidate for U.S. Senate, Governor, the 2nd Congressional seat, the 3rd Congressional Seat, and pretty much, the 1st Congressional seat.

We can hear Democrats saying: Help us Raj Goyle, you are our only hope.

So with that, we wish you all a Happy New Year! We'll be back in 2010 to continue telling you What's Right With Kansas!