Washington Post.: Inside the Red Wave with a Roberts Lead November 5, 2014

The Washington Post
Battle for the Senate: How the GOP did it

From the Senate to gubernatorial races, here are the key winners Republican from the 2014 midterm elections. (The Washington Post)
One night in early September, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called a longtime colleague, Sen. Pat Roberts, from his living room in Louisville, furious about the 78-year-old Republican’s fumbling and lethargic reelection campaign.

Roberts had raised a paltry $62,000 in August. He was airing no ads. His campaign staff, mostly college students, had gone back to school. Most worrisome, McConnell had in his hands a private polling memo predicting Roberts would lose in Kansas — an alarming possibility that could cost the GOP a Senate majority.

McConnell was blunt. A shake-up was needed. Roberts unleashed a flurry of expletives at McConnell. Ultimately, though, the ex-Marine gave in. The next day, he led campaign manager Leroy Towns, 70, a retired college professor and confidant, into a Topeka conference room and fired him. There were tears. “It hurt,” Towns said.

Eleven hundred miles away in Richmond, Va., Chris LaCivita, a hard-charging Republican fixer, was on his back deck picking apart steamed crabs and drinking beer with friends when he got the order to fly to Kansas. The Republican rescue was underway.
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/battle-for-the-senate-how-the-gop-did-it/2014/11/04/a8df6f7a-62c7-11e4-bb14-4cfea1e742d5_story.html

153,000 Kansas Have Voted in Advance October 31, 2014

(AP) – More registered Republicans have cast early votes in Kansas than voters affiliated with other parties in the state.

GOP officials are trumpeting the data as a signal that Gov. Sam Brownback and U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts will be re-elected Tuesday.

Democrats and independent Senate candidate Greg Orman’s campaign say many Republicans are breaking with the party’s top nominees.

Recent polling has suggested close races between Roberts’ and Orman, and between Brownback and Democratic challenger Paul Davis.

Nearly 153,000 people had voted as of Thursday.

Of those, 54.2 percent were registered Republicans, 30.6 percent were Democrats and 14.9 percent were unaffiliated. Among the state’s 1.74 million registered voters, 44.6 percent are Republicans, 24.5 percent are Democrats and 30.2 percent are unaffiliated. Libertarians comprise less than 1 percent of either group.

K-State Coach Endorses Roberts October 30, 2014

(AP)– Beloved Kansas State University football coach Bill Snyder has endorsed Sen. Pat Roberts for re-election and is appearing in a new television ad for the three-term Republican incumbent.

Roberts’ campaign launched the statewide spot Thursday, just five days before the election and with Roberts locked in a tight race with independent candidate and wealthy Olathe businessman Greg Orman.

Snyder is highly respected and has largely remained aloof from politics. His 6-1 Wildcats are the only unbeaten team in the Big 12 and are generating buzz because they’re ranked ninth for a national football playoff spot.

Snyder describes Roberts in the ad as a good friend and “as good as it gets for the state.”

Orman has argued that Roberts is part of the gridlock in Washington.

Rand Paul PAC Kansas Spot October 28, 2014

Rand Paul PAC Buys Kansas Air Times October 28, 2014

Politico:
Sen. Rand Paul’s political action committee is going up with its first on-air television advertising on behalf of Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, RAND PAC announced Monday evening.

Paul (R-Ky.), a likely 2016 contender, has made frequent appearances on the midterm campaign circuit as a surrogate, and now his PAC is hitting the Kansas airwaves with a six-figure ad buy on behalf of Roberts, who is locked in a close race against independent Senate candidate Greg Orman.

RAND PAC had $242,000 on hand as of October 15, according to its most recent FEC filing, but Doug Stafford, the group’s executive director, told POLITICO Monday night that it has since raised an additional $300,000.

RAND PAC announced in a release that it plans to dip into Senate races in Kentucky, North Carolina and the early-voting presidential states of New Hampshire and Iowa.

The spot hits on a favorite theme of the libertarian-leaning Paul, praising Roberts for opposing foreign aid to countries “where radicals storm our embassies, burn our flag and kill our diplomats” — a position held by Paul, and one over which he has clashed before with other more hawkish members of his party.

“Pat Roberts: Fighting for our American home by bringing our tax dollars home,” the spot says.

Paul will make three stops in Kansas on Tuesday to campaign for Roberts and GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, who is in a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Paul Davis.

RAND PAC said the buy will amount to six figures on broadcast, cable and online — starting Tuesday and running through Election Day. So far, they have spent nearly $70,000 on television ads in the Wichita market, according to ad trackers.

The group is also spending $16,000 in each of the following Senate races, Federal Election Commission filings show: Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire and North Carolina.