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Barnett lagging in governor's race

By tfk on September 23, 2006.

Anderson: Poll shows Barnett not a household name - CJOnline Blogs:

Overall, only one of the 10 people I approached this week in downtown Topeka for a random political poll could correctly identify Barnett as the Republican candidate for Kansas governor.

Five said they'd never heard of him. Four said the name rang a bell but admitted, when pressed, that they didn't know what office Barnett was seeking.

The one guy who was familiar with Barnett was a lobbyist.

This comes around the time that Barnett is running his first ads, a convoluted attack on drivers licenses for undocumented workers and a requirement that you have a photo ID to vote. While I can see the argument about restricting access to drivers licenses, I'd prefer to make it possible for people to get licensed so they can get insurance.

As far as requiring ID at polling places, this is just a voter suppression scheme, from a line of schemes stretching back to the poll test and literacy tests in the Jim Crow South. No one has demonstrated any major problem with ineligible voters casting votes, and my bias would always be to remove barriers to voting and to avoid anything that smacks of asking people "Your papers please."

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Policy and Politics

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