Not sure what to make of this. The only way Sebeilus has a shot of winning is if we get really lucky and Roberts becomes this year's Dick Lugar (R. IN):Ms. Sebelius is considering entreaties from Democrats who want her to run against that old friend, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas.Several Democrats said this week that Ms. Sebelius had been mentioned with growing frequency as someone who could wage a serious challenge to Mr. Roberts, 77, who is running for a fourth term and is considered vulnerable. One person who spoke directly to Ms. Sebelius said that she was thinking about it, but added that it was too soon to say how seriously she was taking the idea.
It was only last week, after all, that Ms. Sebelius, 65, said that she would step down from her cabinet job.
Even if Ms. Sebelius had not presided over the Department of Health and Human Services at a time of turmoil and self-inflicted distress — and while carrying out a law that inspires such anger on the right — her candidacy would be a tough sell in Kansas. Democrats have not held a Senate seat in the state since 1939. And even before the president’s popularity started to take a steep slide last year, he fared especially poorly in Kansas, winning only 38 percent of the vote there in 2012.
Democrats say that Ms. Sebelius would be their best hope at winning in a tough state, especially if Mr. Roberts loses his primary to Milton Wolf, a Tea Party-backed radiologist who has alarmed mainstream Republicans with some of his actions, such as when he posted gruesome pictures of gunshot victims on Facebook.
Perhaps more significant, Ms. Sebelius would force Republicans to spend money in Kansas as they tried to fight off her challenge. Her family has a long history in the state, and she was a popular, twice-elected governor. In 2006, she was re-elected with 58 percent of the vote.
But friends and Democrats who know her said that they seriously doubted she would follow through and mount a campaign, considering how personally difficult the past six or seven months had been. She has been mocked and excoriated by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who made her the face of the Affordable Care Act’s problems. And she has told people that she anticipated staying on in her job as secretary for a while longer. President Obama has already nominated a successor, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, but her appointment must be approved by the Senate. - New York Times, 4/16/14
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/...
Wolf's been making the case that Roberts has been in Washington for too long and it's time for some new blood in the U.S. Senate:Pat Roberts has seen his net approval rating decline 12 points over the last year, in the wake of news media reports that he spends little time in the state. In February of 2013 we found him on slightly positive ground at a 31/28 spread, but now only 29% of voters approve of him compared to 38% who disapprove. Roberts doesn't appear to be at too much risk of losing his seat to a Democrat though. He leads Chad Taylor 48/32 in a hypothetical contest and on the off chance the state's most well known Democrat, Kathleen Sebelius, were to make a Senate bid she would trail Roberts 52/38. Sebelius' time in the Obama administration has badly hurt her popularity back at home- she has a 38/55 favorability rating now.Roberts could be in trouble in the primary though. He starts out with a 49/23 lead over Milton Wolf, but a lot of that is simply a function of name recognition since only 24% of GOP primary voters are familiar with Wolf. Roberts leads a generic 'more conservative' primary opponent just 43/39. And concerns about his lack of attention to the state ring through with Republican voters just as they do the overall electorate- by a 42/34 spread they think Roberts is more focused on being a Washington DC insider than he is in representing Kansas and by a 40/32 one they think he doesn't spend enough time in Kansas.
Wolf leads Taylor only 33/32 in a hypothetical contest, so Democrats might have a shred of a chance in the general election if Roberts loses the nomination. But it seems likely that at the end of the day Barack Obama's 34/60 approval spread in the state could preclude any hope the party has of sending someone to Washington. - PPP, 2/21/14
http://washingtonexaminer.com/...
Sebeilus has until June 2nd to decide if she wants to give the Senate bid a shot. I think we have a better shot at winning the Governor's race here and we'll have to see some some new polling in the GOP primary to see if Wolf still has a shot at beating Roberts.The Republican challenger to Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., thinks nobody should spend 47 years in Washington.
Dr. Milton Wolf, a diagnostic radiologist from the Kansas City area, on Wednesday released a television ad criticizing Roberts for his nearly five decades in the nation's capital.
"After 47 years in Washington, Kansas is a distant memory for Pat Roberts," the ad opens, before pivoting to Wolf's daily routine as a Kansas doctor.
The ad goes on to mention Wolf's plan to "repeal and replace Obamacare,""fight wasteful spending" and pass congressional term limits. - Washington Examiner, 4/16/14