Some accuse Democratic leader of playing favorites in primaries

? In February, as Kansas Democrats gathered for their annual Washington Days convention, House Minority Leader Tom Burroughs of Kansas City was already feeling optimistic about the 2016 elections.

With poll numbers showing Republican Gov. Sam Brownback growing increasingly unpopular, and a large number of new candidates coming out of the woodwork to run against conservative incumbents, Burroughs told a luncheon gathering that Democrats planned to hone in on “eight to 10 targets, with an expectation that we will win five to seven.”

He even went so far as to identify nine specific districts, including some where no Democrat had yet filed to run.

At the time, that seemed overly optimistic to many observers, but not out of line for the kind of rally-the-troops speech one expects to hear at a political party convention.

But in the wake of the Aug. 2 primaries, when more than a dozen sitting conservatives were ousted by more moderate Republicans, and many more now facing potentially tough general elections, some people are now saying Burroughs may have been too cautious in his estimate and that the number of Democratic gains in the House could be even larger.

Growing field of targets

University of Kansas political science professor Patrick Miller recently published a list identifying as many as 23 Republican House districts that could be in play come November, including all nine that Burroughs identified nearly six months ago.

Burroughs, however, said his focus hasn’t changed much since making that speech in February.

“The list still remains the list,” he said. “Those were seats that were targeted based on what we had heard back from constituents in those areas. Those were seats that had formally been held by Democrats.”

As leader of the House Democratic caucus, it is largely Burroughs’ job to decide where to put the party’s limited campaign resources. He is in charge of the caucus’ official political action committee, Kansans for a Democratic House, which at last report had nearly $90,000 on hand going into the general election cycle.

That’s more than double what the PAC had on hand going into the general election two years ago, but it’s still far short of the $147,000 that the Republican House Campaign Committee has to work with.

But with the field of potentially winnable seats now expanding, competition within the party to get a share of those resources is heating up, along with allegations that Burroughs may not be completely objective in deciding which races to target.

Suspicions of bias

Because of the long-running rivalry within the party between Kansas City and Wichita — the two cities with the largest concentrations of Democratic voters — it is perhaps not surprising that many of the complaints are coming from Wichita-area Democrats.

Burroughs was elected leader after the 2014 elections, when Democrats lost five seats in the House, in a hard-fought competition with Wichita Rep. Jim Ward. He succeeded former Rep. Paul Davis of Lawrence who stepped down that year in an unsuccessful run for governor.

Specifically, some Democrats are alleging that in choosing which districts to target, Burroughs is picking candidates who not only have a good shot at winning, but who also will support him in the next leadership elections in December, and who will vote in unison with him on controversial bills in the Legislature.

One of those is Justin Kraemer of Wichita, who ran and lost in one of the few contested Democratic primaries Aug. 2.

“I was certainly left under the impression that Mr. Burroughs was personally responsible for recruiting my primary opponent because of my unwillingness to follow House leadership on every single issue,” Kraemer said.

Kraemer, a former TV news reporter in Wichita, filed on Friday, Feb. 26, the day before Burroughs gave his Washington Days luncheon speech. And he filed in the 98th District against incumbent Rep. Steve Anthimedes, one of the nine target districts that Burroughs identified in that speech.

He spent the following weeks and months campaigning in the district, and raising a significant amount of money. But he said one of his campaign themes was that he would be independent of party leadership.

Then, more than two months later, another Democrat filed to run in that district, Haysville City Councilman Steven G. Crum, who had ran unsuccessfully against Anthimedes two years earlier.

Crum confirmed that he initially did not plan to run again this year, but changed his mind after he was approached by Burroughs and his staff.

According to campaign finance reports, Kraemer raised nearly $10,000 during the primary campaign while Crum raised less than $1,000. Nevertheless, Crum edged out Kraemer in the primary by 26 votes, 269-243.

Crum now goes into the general election with only a few hundred dollars in his campaign account against Anthimedes, who has more than $13,000 to spend. But Crum said he doesn’t think fundraising will be an issue because traditional Democratic donors will be more willing to contribute now that the primary is over.

Kraemer, who had never run for public office before, didn’t blame Burroughs entirely for his loss, admitting that Crum had more name recognition and a large base of support from previous elections.

But he did say that he thinks his pledge to be independent from party leadership was a motive for Burroughs’ office to recruit a primary opponent.

“When we came into the race, I made it very clear that while I was certainly a Democrat, I was independent-minded, that my priority was to make votes that would benefit my constituents regardless of what leadership wanted,” he said.

Burroughs, however, denied that he had any such motive.

“Leadership races occur after the election. That doesn’t come into consideration,” he said. “My job is to protect our incumbents and to grow our caucus. That’s my focus. We will have that (leadership) discussion after the election.”

He also denied that he was trying to block Kraemer when his staff recruited Crum for the race.

“I don’t interfere with primary races. As a matter of fact, we stopped a few primary races (from occurring),” he said. “I think it sets a poor precedent. Don’t know where Crum got that information. We were recruiting statewide and we contacted a lot of former candidates. I don’t play in primaries.”

But another Wichita-area candidate said the complaints about Burroughs came as no surprise to her.

Elizabeth Bishop, who is running in the 88th District against Rep. Joe Scapa, who is widely considered the most vulnerable Republican House incumbent, said she has had several conversations with Burroughs and his staff, but she is neither asking for nor expecting any help from the leadership team.

“I have the kind of assistance that I want and need,” she said. “I’m focusing on own race. I have a good campaign team and the best volunteers in the world.”

Kansas Democrats will gather in Wichita this weekend for their annual mid-year Demofest convention where much of the focus will be on strategies for winning more legislative seats.

It’s expected that’s where Burroughs will be lobbied hard by Democratic House candidates to share whatever wealth the party has in as many districts as possible.