What's The Matter With Kansas?

Kansas, a state brought into the Union by the Republican Party in 1861 and so Republican it hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since the early days of the Depression, might decide the fate of majority control in that chamber in the next Congress.  

In that state's U.S. Senate election campaign, Chad Taylor, the Democratic challenger to Republican incumbent Pat Roberts, was running behind in a three-way race that also included moderate independent candidate Greg Orman,  with  Senator Roberts only polling in the low thirties.  When it became apparent that Orman was the stronger challenger to Roberts in a two-way race, Taylor ended his candidacy under pressure from other Democrats.  Roberts, it turns out, is increasingly unpopular with conservative Republicans for working with Democrats and increasingly unpopular with moderate Republicans for being out of touch with state issues and for not even keeping a Kansas address.  The Kansas Democratic Party isn't strong enough to unseat him, but this Orman fellow, who has a decent chance of winning and who has indicated that he might - might - caucus with the Democrats if elected, could be the silver bullet that ends Roberts' political career.  Roberts is still recovering from a strong Tea Party primary challenge and is damaged goods.  

Who is Greg Orman?  He's a millionaire who founded Environmental Light Concepts, which designs and installs energy-efficient lighting systems for commercial and industrial companies.  That alone will help Roberts portray Orman as "too liberal" for Kansas, a state with a town actually named Liberal.  Orman sold his company to the Kansas City Power and Light utility in 1996, though, when he was a mere 28 years old.  He also voted for Mitt Romney for President in 2012, having voted for Obama in 2008 and switched sides when he thought the President botched health care reform.

In a midterm election cycle where Democratic chances of holding onto the Senate are slim but not hopeless, mainly because of too many Senate races this year being in red states where folks don't buy Obama's version of why nothing gets done in Washington, every last Senate contest counts.  But Democrats shouldn't get their hopes up too much regarding Kansas; even if Orman wins, he might end up caucusing with Republicans.  And if he's the deciding vote in the 114th Senate, well, Democrats will understand that old saying: "Be careful what you wish for."