GOP Earmarks $3.5 Million For Kansas Governor's Race; Moran Draws Ire Of Public Citizen

By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

March 8, 2022

TOPEKA — The Republican Governor’s Association said Tuesday the organization booked $3.5 million in television advertising in the Kansas City and Wichita markets in preparation for the general election in Kansas.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is seeking re-election and likely will face Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican.

Dave Rexrode, executive director of the RGA, said $31.4 million in advertising was pre-booked for gubernatorial contests in Kansas, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin. The commercial slots run from September to November.

“The RGA is committed to investing in these states to ensure Americans know life is better when a Republican governor is in charge,” Rexrode said. “Democrat governors have failed to adequately address the problems at the front of every voter’s mind.”

He blamed inflation, education challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, crime rates and immigration issues on Democratic governors and President Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, the advocacy group Public Citizen launched an advertising campaign urging U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., to end his obstruction of Biden’s nominees to the Federal Reserve Board. The Senate commerce committee, which includes Moran, boycotted votes on five nominees in an attempt to sink Biden’s selection of Sarah Bloom Raskin as the head of banking oversight at the Fed.

Senate Republicans objected to Raskin’s climate views in relation to oil and gas production and her private-sector work with the company Reserve Trust.

“Quite frankly,” Moran said on Fox Business, “the president’s nominees are troublesome. Sarah Bloom Raskin leads that list.”

Last week, Moran joined GOP colleagues in a statement explaining the nominations were delayed due to Raskin’s failure to “produce forthright answers” to committee members’ questions.

Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, said Moran and other GOP senators locked horns with the president on Fed nominees at a time when the central bank was under pressure to control inflation.

“If Republicans are worried about inflation, as they claim, it’s beyond reckless for them to stall the institution responsible for keeping our economy stable,” Weissman said.

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