Quitting my campaign got a Republican election-rigger into trouble he deserves

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/18/republican-election-kansas-secretary-of-state

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Kansas supreme court Justice Carol Beier, your apology is accepted – but a cup of coffee the next time I’m in Topeka would be nice.A bit of background for the rest of you: at a hearing here in Kansas on Tuesday, Beier apologized for turning my withdrawal from a state House campaign into the center of a lot of unexpected national attention, as she and the other justices considered whether our Republican secretary of state, Kris Kobach, was right to prevent the Democratic candidate for United States Senate, Chad Taylor, from withdrawing from his race.

Earlier this year, I filed as a Democratic candidate for the fifth district of the Kansas state House of Representatives – a rural district in east-central Kansas comprising farms, hobby farms and some small blue-collar towns.Although I was still in college, and still am, some of the local Democrats asked me to run because they had trouble finding a candidate to challenge an unpopular, one-term conservative Republican incumbent. What’s the point of a democracy if no one runs against the incumbents?

But as the school year approached and I began gauging the demands of my course work and a research study I was assisting, it became clear that it would be difficult for me to do my classwork and my campaign at the same time. And, because of deep state funding cuts to Kansas public universities by the very Republicans I wanted to challenge – as well as federal cuts to college aid – I have to work two or three jobs to pay for college.

Plus, in 2008, one of my older brothers challenged a Republican incumbent in a statehouse race when he was in college. My brother lost and, though he said it was worth it, the time he spent campaigning wasn’t kind to his grades.So after long reflection – and discussions with my parents and teachers – I sent a letter to Kobach, the secretary of state, to withdraw my candidacy for the Kansas House of Representatives. I had no idea that I would become embroiled in a supreme court case.

Taylor’s letter to Kobach was considerably more important than mine: withdrawing his challenge to the long-serving senator, Pat Roberts (a Republican who I think has been in office far too long), created a national uproar because it would eliminate a three-way race between him, Roberts and a well-financed independent, Greg Orman. Without Taylor in the race, Orman might actually beat Roberts – or so conservatives like Kobach fear – and create problems for national Republicans who are hoping to seize a majority of the Senate in November.

So, although Kobach – a very close Roberts ally – accepted my letter and withdrew my name from the ballot, he refused to accept Taylor’s letter. Thus, the justices, Kobach and attorneys for Taylor spent several hours comparing the intricacies of my withdrawal letter with Taylor’s.

I won’t re-argue their case, but I will say that Kobach has indeed politicized the office of secretary of state, which is normally a dull position dealing with election matters and commercial and business registrations.The secretary of state successfully pushed a draconian voter identification law designed, as he said, to fight “voter fraud”, although in reality it seems designed to prevent young people, the poor and people of color – those most likely to vote Democratic – from voting. Almost 18,000 of my fellow Kansans are in voting status limbo (and the state is facing two lawsuits) because of his voter ID law.Before – and while – he was been secretary of state, Kobach has been moonlighted, writing and pushing controversial anti-immigrant laws that have been adopted by some cities and states ... but not Kansas. He’s only faced problems doing so here because, these days, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce is dominated by large corporations – such as meatpacking houses, corporate farms and large construction companies – who depend on a steady supply of cheap labor provided by undocumented workers, and they lobbied vigorously against Kobach’s efforts.There are those who say my little letter to end my campaign may crimp Kobach’s further political ambitions – which is funny because, in it, I wrote that I am a person who hates to quit any endeavor that I start. But in this case, my quitting may have done more public good than if I had stayed in the race and been elected.