With Nov. 4th 31 days away, Kansas remains most in doubt of all the toss-up states for control of the U.S. Senate. While Republicans continue making big gains in many other polls, the traditionally red state in the heartland has become evermore questionable as embattled Sen. Pat Roberts fights to fend off the Independent challenge from Greg Orman.
In recent weeks the confident race for the GOP turned bad when Democrats successfully sued to have their candidate removed from the ballot to make way for Orman, who continues to poll better than Roberts in a head-to-head match.
Despite that national polls have been trending Republican for weeks, Roberts’ lackluster campaign and his decades-long entrenchment have not fared well among conservative voters who are decidedly not happy with the establishment in Washington.
But the race has entered a new phase of doubt in which Republicans are pushing back against Orman and his questionable business associations and a strong tie to now-imprisoned businessman Rajat Gupta, reports The Washington Post.
Add to that controversy the fact that Orman is increasingly being painted as too coy with voters as he refuses to offer an opinion on some of the most important issues of the day.
On the Keystone Pipeline, Orman says he doesn’t have enough information. And on whether he’ll caucus with Democrats in the Senate if elected, he refuses to say as well. But the Roberts campaign is having none of it.
On the campaign trail, joined by GOP leading names like Sarah Palin, former Sen. Bob Dole, and Congressman Paul Ryan, Republicans point out the obvious: Orman voted for Obama in 2008, has donated mostly to Democrats, and ran against Roberts in 2008 as a Democrat. Palin summed up, “Let’s be honest — he’s a Democrat. He walks like a duck and he quacks like a duck and he is a duck.”
