KC Buzz Blog

Transfusion pumps half-pint of much-needed blood Sam's way

    End-of-year campaign finance reports showed that Sen. Sam Brownback transferred $575,000 from his Senate campaign treasury to his presidential campaign. The money gives the underfunded Kansan a financial boost as he brings his grassroots campaign to Iowa and other early states.

    “Mr. Brownback is committed to competing aggressively for the Republican nomination,” campaign manager Ron Wasinger said. “We transferred the resources necessary to jumpstart our campaign in the early primary states, and to start organizing our national effort.”

Posted by Matt Stearns

Brownback, Romney campaigns mix it up

   Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback unleashed his first attack of the 2008 presidential campaign Tuesday, skewering the campaign of fellow Republican Mitt Romney for claiming Brownback once supported abortion rights.

   Brownback, a leading social conservative who hopes to position himself as the favored candidate of that wing of the Republican party, accused Romney’s campaign of sending a misleading e-mail to pro-life activists in Michigan.

   “Just like Sam Brownback, Mitt was once pro-choice but changed his views upon being elected to office,” wrote Stefani Zimmerman, a regional field director in Michigan for Romney. “Sam Brownback used to identify himself with Nancy Kassebaum and rebuffed being pro-life when he first ran for office. Kassebaum was a prominent GOP senator that was known for being pro-choice. When Brownback was elected to office, that is when he also had a conversion and voted with the pro-life movement. The same is true for Mitt Romney.”
    Rob Wasinger, Brownback’s campaign manager, called Zimmerman’s comparison of the two “absurd.”
   “Mitt Romney’s flip-flops are enough to make John Kerry blush,” Wasinger said.

Posted by Matt Stearns

MoveOn PAC misses mark

    MoveOn.org Political Action, a liberal group, is airing ads in Kansas and around the country this week criticizing Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback for supporting President Bush’s troop escalation in Iraq.

   The problem: Brownback doesn’t support the 21,500-troop escalation. In fact, he was among the first Republican senators to publicly oppose it and remains the party’s only presidential candidate in the anti-surge camp. More here.

Posted by Matt Stearns

Huckabee, Brownback: 'kindred spirits'

   Former Arkansas Mike Huckabee was asked on Fox News about the differences between him and Sen. Sam Brownback:

   "I think there it's a matter of Senate versus executive experience. Senator Brownback and I would be very much kindred spirits in terms of many of the social issues. I don't know that we have a big disagreement there. So, it would primarily be in terms of experience and what we would bring to an executive branch job."

Posted by Darryl Levings

Talking warming in a cold state

    "On a day when the temperature didn't reach double digits," Sam Brownback called for reduction greenhouse gases while campaigning Tuesday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the AP reports. "It seems to me just prudent that we recognize we have climate increase and temperature change. We have CO2 loading and we need to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere."
      Brownback spent most of the day meeting with "conservative activists" and answering reporters' questions. It was his first trip to Iowa since officially launching his campaign this month. He said he wasn't concerned about his place in the race and that more time and visits across the state would help him solidify his standing as a conservative candidate.
      According to the Des Moines Register, Brownback said he would focus his campaign on bipartisan issues, "a break from his trademark social conservatism." "The political discourse automatically goes to the most difficult issues, and then we can't talk about them. I'd rather work on a core set of issues that we can agree on." Brownback identified some of these issues as human trafficking, climate change and poverty.

Posted by Darryl Levings

Brownback goes a-barnstorming

   Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback hits the campaign trail this week, jetting through Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina and Florida.

  Those states, of course, hold early presidential contests.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Brownback's Iowa schedule

   Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback goes back to Iowa for some presidential campaign events Tuesday, Jan. 30.

  Brownback will hold a press conference at the Cedar Rapids Crowne Plaza Hotel at 2 p.m.

   At 6 p.m., he'll appear at a Cedar Rapids reception for Dan Abolins, the GOP candidate for Linn County auditor.

   And presumably, the all-important "private meetings" and fundraising calls in between the public events.

Posted by Matt Stearns

No blue whales for Brownback

    RedState's Erick Erickson writes about the entire GOP field: "They all suck. Let's just admit it...
       "From the lecherous adulterer to the egomaniacal nut job to the flip-flopping opportunist with the perfect hair to the guy who hates brown people to the guy we've never heard of to the guy who has a better chance of getting hit by a meteor while being consumed by a blue whale being struck by lightning. They all suck. (Well, okay, Brownback doesn't suck at all, but I perceive no viability for his candidacy.)

Posted by Darryl Levings

Brownback update

   Kansas Republican Sen. (and GOP presidential candidate) Sam Brownback did a teleconference with local media this morning. Highlights:

   The biggie: He did not rule out voting against funding for President Bush's troop escalation in Iraq, saying only "I'm not at that point." (Brownback was among the first Republicans to publicly oppose the 20,000-plus troop escalation). Brownback said he'd like Congress to focus on "what we can support, not what we're opposed to."

   He was "delighted" by the president's State of the Union challenge to get Americans to cut gasoline use by 20 percent in the next 10 years: "I think that will be fantastic for Kansas," Brownback predicted, citing ethanol, bio-diesel and other emerging alternative fuels.

   He will vote for an increase in the minimum wage if the bill includes tax breaks for small business. Brownback missed a vote on a Democratic effort to cut off debate yesterday because he was campaigning in Boston. He said he would have voted no (The effort failed. Democrats want to pass a "clean bill" with no amendments relating to tax breaks).

Posted by Matt Stearns

Limbaugh: Sam who?

  Rush Limbaugh doesn't think too much of Sen. Sam Brownback's presidential chances. (Thanks to Instapundit.)

Posted by Keith Chrostowski