Sen. Roberts acts confident of re-election
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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TOPEKA — Republican Sen. Pat Roberts sounds like a lot of incumbents confident of re-election. Asked how the campaign is going, he professes disinterest. He’s busy with his congressional duties, he says.
That tone of indifference frustrates Democrats and their Senate nominee, former Rep. Jim Slattery.
Slattery insists he can beat Roberts, especially with the nation’s financial markets in turmoil, gasoline prices high and the federal budget running a deficit. He contends Roberts’ support is soft and that voters want an alternative.
But even fellow Democrats who agree say the odds are long for Slattery in the Nov. 4 general election.
‘‘To be very candid about it,’’ said Lee Kinch, a Wichita-area attorney who serves on the Democratic National Committee, ‘‘you’d have to say that we’re an underdog by a long shot.’’
Roberts, 72, is seeking his third-term in the Senate, having won his seat in 1996 after serving 16 years in the House representing the 1st Congressional District of western Kansas. His highest-profile assignment was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2003-06, beginning just before the Iraq war.
Slattery, 60, represented the 2nd District of eastern Kansas in the House in 1983-94, before an unsuccessful run for governor in 1994. After that loss, he spent 14 years as a Washington lobbyist.
Roberts had no Democratic opponent to his re-election in 2002, but Democrats believed Bush’s lack of popularity, weariness with the war in Iraq and the souring economy could make him vulnerable.
Some analysts outside the state agree this year could be bad for congressional Republicans. But some of them also say that the GOP’s political problems would have to reach Biblical proportions for a Democratic tide to wash out Roberts in GOP-leaning Kansas.
‘‘If the Republicans lose the seat — I think there’s something about that in the Book of Revelations,’’ said John J. Pitney, a former researcher at the Republican National Committee who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. He said races in North Carolina, New Hampshire and even Minnesota are far more competitive.
Democrats in Kansas have waged spirited campaigns for the Senate in the past. In 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Democratic challenger Bill Roy, another 2nd District congressman, nearly unseated Republican Sen. Bob Dole and derailed Dole’s rise to national prominence.
But a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate election in Kansas since the now-forgotten George McGill rode Franklin Roosevelt’s massive presidential coattails in 1932. About 45 percent of the state’s 1.67 million registered voters are affiliated with the GOP, and registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by nearly 300,000.
In past elections, Roberts has managed to keep the GOP’s often-fractious conservative and moderate wings behind him. He’s also kept up with raising money, collecting more than $4.2 million through mid-July, about four times as much as Slattery.
Roberts launched his television advertising in mid-June and broadcast a half-dozen ads within seven weeks. Slattery and other Democrats saw it as an attempt to prevent the challenger from gaining traction and attracting national dollars.
Slattery said his pollsters tell him he still can win because of voters’ discontent with the economy and war in Iraq. Slattery has said it was a mistake for the U.S. to go to war and that it should withdraw its troops as soon as reasonably possible. Roberts supported going to war.
Slattery also has attempted to tie Roberts to a record federal budget deficit and the growing federal debt.
‘‘I’ve said from the beginning that this is going to be a late-closing race. There are a lot of people in Kansas who are undecided,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve all known that this is truly a David-versus-Goliath race.’’
Roberts said the federal government does need to deal with its budget problems and show fiscal responsibility.
He said he believes the GOP was on the right track, offering tax cuts to stimulate the economy, before it lost its congressional majorities. He said it would be easy for him to blame the Democrats who took charge, but that Congress faces tough budget choices, including controlling entitlement spending.
As for the campaign, Roberts expects to return to it after Congress finishes its business for the fall. Aside from a debate with Slattery at the Kansas State Fair in early September, he said, he’s been too busy with duties in Washington.
‘‘I have not had any time,’’ he said. ‘‘Right now, I’ve got a job to do.’’
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