In the months before the 2012 election, Republican legislators who had made public minor disagreements with Brownback and his True Believers over birth control, budget cutbacks, tax cuts, renewable energy and redistricting were systematically targeted by a well financed secretive network of operatives.
Long established, lifetime members of the Kansas Republican Party who were considered "moderate" on issues like outlawing abortion, education and social welfare programs had their district constituents' mailboxes flooded with anonymous large printed color "postcards."
One case among many was Rep. Bill Otto (R-9th) of tiny southeast LeRoy, Ks. who had served for eight years in the Topeka statehouse, never received Koch donations or been a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) but who is a long-time "pro-life" Republican.
Otto had several small skirmishes with Brownback's True Believers over the public employees' pension fund, rural public schools and mental health programs and is perhaps the most grassroots victim of Brownback's scorched earth policy. His constituents received repeated mass mailings of postcards saying he cared for "pigs more than babies."
A man who had won election after election and campaigned on a Theodore Roosevelt theme of "The No Bull Zone," Otto traveled the 75 miles to Olathe where the postal permit "office" was listed. He found a UPS mailbox that had been cash rented for a couple months and was unable to identify the vacated owner without a court order.
A prominent life-long, but now former leader of the Kansas Republican Party reported on condition of anonymity to this reporter that an estimated $20 million was spent in broadcast ads and postcards against him and others leading up to the 2012 election.
A State Fair Debate Gone Awry
The Hutchinson debates exposed for all to see the huge divide now in the Kansas GOP; like daylight after a howling, wind-filled night of lightning, when a dear old tree ends up lying splayed upon the ground.
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