Too clever by half: Kansas Democrats may be stuck with Chad Taylor on the Kansas-SEN ticket.

Let me summarize the Hill article: as of this moment, hastily-withdrawn Chad Taylor is back on the ballot for Kansas’s Senate race. Turns out that state law has very specific criteria for withdrawing from the ballot after the primary – like being dead, or being incapable to do the job. And if it’s the latter, you have to say so. Chad Taylor, in his withdrawal letter, did not. Better and better, even if Taylor is allowed to withdraw then the state Democratic party is obliged to put up a replacement.

This puts Democrats in a definite bind. It would seem that Chad Taylor has a bad reputation for not prosecuting domestic abuse cases for the sake of a headline or two; after it blew up in his face in 2011 the man’s been damaged goods*. So, basically, even if the Kansas Secretary of State – Republican; and, a reminder, these elections matter – decides to let Taylor off of the hook then the Democrats have to decide whether to put up another Democrat, or just admit that Greg Orman is really a Democrat who will caucus with Democrats if he was elected. Fairly clearly, either scenario makes yesterday’s ploy absolutely blipping useless. If a Democrat has to stay on the ticket, then they’re back to losing the election. If Greg Orman is tagged as a Democrat once and for all, then they’re back to losing the election.

Mind you, there’s no realistic scenario where Orman was going to win the election. This was a desperation play, created by people who understand dimly that conservative Republicans in Kansas are a little annoyed right now, but who do not understand why those Republicans are annoyed, or even indeed how those conservatives think. Can’t wait to see the Democrats try to fight this one out in the courts!

Via

Whether to take Chad Taylor’s name off the ballot may be up to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach http://t.co/QEn0VxLjVi

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 4, 2014

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Amazing how Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the rest of the DNC didn’t go ballistic over that, huh? Democratic Politicians must absolutely love that D after their name: it apparently lets them do anything that they want.