Posted by Joel Mathis November 4, 2004 at 11:38 a.m.

The Brownback Watch begins

The election campaign is dead. Long live the election campaign.It took two miliseconds, maybe three, after Sen. John Kerry conceded the race to President Bush for speculation to begin about the crop of candidates for 2008.Sens. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are considered frontrunners in the Democratic Party; Sens. Bill Frist and -- everybody's favorite name to drop -- John McCain are considered early Republican contenders.What's all this have to do with Kansas?Well, we might have a contender of our own. And so Congressional Briefing unveils what we believe will become a running feature: The Sam Brownback in 2008 Watch.Now Brownback hasn't publicly talked about a run for president. And his name isn't among the tops listed by prognosticators for 2008,. But it invariably pops up in the "others who might run" portions of stories that look to the future.This [Baltimore Sun][1] story, for example, lists Rudy Giuliani and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as top Republicans in the next race.But, it adds, "Other possibilities include New York Gov. George Pataki, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Virginia Sen. George Allen and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback." The "Brownback in 2008" speculation has been brewing for some time, as you can see from past Congressional Briefings [here][2] and [here.][3]Moral values Exit polls from Tuesday's election might bode well for Brownback. Many voters said they made their decisions on "moral values," and Brownback is nothing if not a politicians whose made his name on such issues.[The New York Times][4] today, reports that those issues will be big on the agenda of the next Congress."Christian conservatives said they believed the expanded Republican majority in the Senate and the defeat of the Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, put them in striking distance of both amending the constitution to ban same-sex marriage and approving the appointment of enough conservative Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade and other abortion rights cases. "'I think it is a real possibility,' said Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, a champion of social conservative causes. In the meantime, he said, he also hoped to pass other measures conservatives had campaigned for this year, including an 'Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act' requiring some women seeking abortions to be offered anesthesia for their fetuses."Other links today:Pat Roberts links [After Election, Changes Are Likely for Agriculture Committees][5] [Possible lineups for committee chairmen in the next Congress][6]How to contact As always, you can find information to contact members of the Kansas congressional delegation [here.][7] [1]: http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041104/REPOSITORY/411040367/1037/NEWS04 [2]: http://blogs.ljworld.com/kansas_congress/2004/sep/01/brownback_spotlight/ [3]: http://blogs.ljworld.com/kansas_congress/2004/aug/31/president_brownback/ [4]: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/04conserve.html [5]: http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.cfm?Id=1155&yr=2004 [6]: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/11/03/politics0658EST0708.DTL [7]: http://ljworld.com/extra/where_to_write.html#fed