Tea-party candidate Milton Wolf wants six debates with Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts
How powerful is the tea party in Kansas? Judging by the state’s tax policies, it would appear to wield quite a bit of influence. But can a tea-party upstart pose a legitimate threat to a well-liked establishment Republican in the state?
That’s the basic narrative of Milton Wolf’s candidacy for U.S. Senate. Wolf is challenging Pat Roberts, who has been in the seat since 1997, and, prior to that, served in the U.S. House of Representatives starting back in 1981.
Wolf’s strategy has been to brand Roberts as a Washington insider disconnected from Kansas. His argument was bolstered by a February New York Times article that revealed Roberts did not keep a home in Kansas. Wolf, a Johnson County radiologist, has been hammering away at Roberts about it ever since.
Today, in a release on his campaign website, Wolf demanded six debates with Roberts – two in each of Kansas’ major markets of Topeka, Wichita and Kansas City – prior to their August primary:
If Pat Roberts refuses this debate schedule he should offer a counter plan, or an explanation as to why he refuses to debate the issues with me in this campaign. Kansans deserve better from their U.S. Senator than a permanent resident of Virginia who won’t appear before Kansans.”
Wolf pointed to a similar scenario playing out in Mississippi, where a tea-party challenger is on the verge of unseating Sen. Thad Cochran, a 34-year-old establishment Republican. “Will Pat Roberts continue channeling Thad Cochran by dodging debates?” Wolf asked.
