GOP donors not flocking to Barnett this time in Kansas governor’s race

In a story that was posted online Thursday and carried in Friday’s print edition summarizing campaign finance reports in this year’s governor’s race, we inadvertently omitted Republican candidate Jim Barnett.

According to his report, Barnett’s campaign took in a total of $564,645 in 2017. Of that, however, $505,000, or 89 percent of the total, came from loans the candidate made to his own campaign, meaning he raised only $59,645 from outside sources.

Barnett is a Topeka physician who formerly served as a state senator from Emporia.

He was also the Republican Party’s nominee for governor in 2006 when he ran unsuccessfully against then-incumbent Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. He received just over 40 percent of the vote.

In that race, Barnett reported having raised $281,7825 in his January 2006 report, and then another $238,253 in the months leading up to the August primary. He had only two major rivals in that primary, though: former Kansas House Speaker Robin Jennison; and social-conservative activist Ken Canfield.

In the general election cycle in 2006, Barnett reported raising $670,700.

Barnett has been out of politics now for a number of years, and this time around, he faces a wider and more competitive field of contenders.

There are those who say, however, that it matters less where a candidate gets his money than how he spends it.