A barrage of political ads, campaign phone messages and appeals for money highlight the final push toward the Nov. 5 election as candidates criss-cross the state trying to seal the deal with Kansas voters.

“Chaos, heartburn and checks issued without sufficient funds to cover them  that’s what goes on in a lot of campaigns” at this time, said Ron Faucheux, a former state legislator from Louisiana who now is editor of several nonpartisan, national political magazines.

“It’s really crunch time. You’ve reached a point when the campaigns have to do everything, raise money, spend money, direct mail. Campaigns are still in the throes of attack, counterattack and they have to shift toward get-out-the-vote efforts,” he said.

The need to raise money can be seen in a recent fund-raising letter by Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Shallenburger, in which he accused his Democratic opponent Kathleen Sebelius of being a “lying, dangerous liberal who will ruin our schools and endanger our children.”

In that letter, Shallenburger writes: “Please help me purchase more television. … I am asking you to give until you reach $2,000. If you have given $250, please send another $1,750. If you have already given $1,000, please send another $1,000.” Two thousand dollars is the maximum contribution allowed by law for an individual.

Sebelius also is busy raising money. She will stage a fund-raiser Nov. 3 at Abe & Jake’s Landing featuring singer-songwriter Marcia Ball with a reception earlier at the home of Kansas University professor Bill Tuttle.

The candidates also are hitting the road with Shallenburger leading a four-day, 2,000-mile bus tour with 30 stops, including a Saturday swing through Emporia, Beto Junction, Ottawa and Johnson County. The state slate of GOP candidates, along with former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, is traveling on portions of the trip.

Sebelius plans a van caravan that will start Monday and continue to near the end of the campaign and include a Nov. 2 stop at the KU-Kansas State football game in Lawrence.

And while the candidates are on the road, phone banks and computers will be contacting thousands of voters through automated, recorded messages. Yes, political campaigns are exempt from the new no-call law.

A recent telephone message from Shallenburger’s campaign has angered some voters in the area.

The recorded message says that when Sebelius was a state legislator she worked against Peggy and Gene Schmidt, who successfully lobbied for tougher sexual predator laws after their daughter Stephanie was killed by a convicted sex offender.

“We cannot let Kathleen Sebelius victimize us again,” says the female voice on the message.

Byron de Freese of Lawrence, who is an unaffiliated voter, said he was incensed by the tone and content of the message, which was left Wednesday night on his answering machine.

“I think it’s despicable. It’s obviously a collection of half-truths,” he said.

Alan Cobb, a spokesman for the Shallenburger campaign, said Sebelius voted against the bill that allowed for the indefinite confinement of sexual predators, while Shallenburger, who also was a state lawmaker at the time, voted for the bill. Peggy and Gene Schmidt have endorsed Shallenburger.

Sebelius’ campaign has said Sebelius wanted a stronger bill because the one that became law contained flaws that have allowed some sexual offenders to be set free when they should have remained confined.

The Sebelius campaign said it also would launch automated phone messages, but that they mostly would urge voters to go to the polls.

Faucheux, the political magazine editor, said the campaigns soon would switch gears, focusing mostly on voter turnout.

“Usually the persuasive story that you are going to tell pretty much has to be told no later than a week before the election, so candidates really have to be finishing up telling their story in the next three or four or five days. After that it becomes pretty much a grass-roots, get-out-the-vote effort,” he said.