Missouri Primary-Transportation Tax
A proposed transportation sales tax has been defeated in Missouri.
Voters rejected proposed Constitutional Amendment 7 to impose a three-quarters cent sales tax that was projected to raise at least $540 million annually over the next decade.
It would have funded more than 800 state projects, including the widening of Interstate 70 to three lanes in each direction between Kansas City and St. Louis.
The measure drew opposition both from tax-hike opponents and from those concerned about using a general sales tax to finance highways instead of traditional user fees. For nearly a century, Missouri roads have been funded primarily by taxes on fuel and vehicles.
It’s been about two decades since Missouri raised its fuel taxes. Voters also defeated a transportation tax plan in 2002.
Missouri Primary Right to Bear Arms
Missouri voters have approved an amendment enhancing the state’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
The passage Tuesday of Constitutional Amendment 5 will expand state gun rights to cover ammunition and other accessories. It also will declare those rights to be “unalienable” and require any gun-control restrictions to be subject to strict legal scrutiny.
The amendment was referred to the ballot by Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature, which has pursued numerous pro-gun measures in recent years.
Opponents ran no advertising campaign against it but had challenged the measure unsuccessfully in court. They said the ballot wording failed to inform voters of all of the amendment’s key provisions, including the fact that it deletes current constitutional wording allowing restrictions on concealed guns.
Missouri Primary Right to Farm
A proposed constitutional amendment creating a right to farm in Missouri appears to have prevailed in a close election.
Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1 had 498,751 votes for it and 496,223 against it with all precincts reporting — a margin of less than three-tenths of a percentage point.
The amendment proposed to make farming an official constitutional right, similar to existing protections for the freedoms of speech and religion.
North Dakota is the only other state with farming as a constitutional right.
The Missouri proposal prompted an intense campaign that generally split urban and rural areas.
Supporters said it could help ward off future initiatives limiting genetically modified crops or restricting the way animals are raised.
Opponents contended the measure could be cited by corporate farms to try to escape regulations.
Missouri Legislature
Republicans have re-gained a two-thirds majority in the Missouri House heading into a big showdown with Gov. Jay Nixon over his vetoes of tax breaks, abortion restrictions and other issues. Republicans won two of the three special elections for vacant House seats Tuesday. That will give them 110 House seats — one more than the two-thirds majority required to override vetoes. Republicans already hold a two-thirds majority in the Senate.
Kansas Primary US Senate GOP
U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts has defeated tea party-backed challenger Milton Wolf in Kansas’ Republican primary.
The results Tuesday dealt a blow to a national tea party movement that’s targeted longtime Washington incumbents.
Two lesser-known candidates trailed Roberts and Wolf in the race for the GOP nomination in the conservative state.
Roberts is expected to win his fourth, six-year term and extend a career in politics that dates back to the late 1960s, when he was a congressional aide.
Wolf is a 43-year-old Leawood radiologist who was making his first run for public office. He called the 78-year-old Roberts an out-of-touch career politician.
But Roberts had a far better-funded campaign and attacked Wolf over questionable postings of graphic X-ray images on a personal Facebook page in 2010.
Kansas Primary US Senate Democrat
A northeast Kansas prosecutor has won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, but faces a difficult fall campaign in the Republican-leaning state.
Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor prevailed over Lawrence attorney Patrick Wiesner in Tuesday’s primary. Taylor had the backing of party leaders.
Taylor was elected district attorney in the county that includes the state capital of Topeka in 2008 and re-elected without opposition in 2012.
Wiesner ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the Senate in 2010.
Taylor will be seeking the seat held by three-term Republican incumbent Pat Roberts.
Republicans enjoy a nearly 20 percentage-point advantage among registered voters and have won every U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932.
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Kansas Primary Secretary of State
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has won the Republican primary, despite criticism of a proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters enacted at his urging.
Kobach defeated challenger Scott Morgan in Tuesday’s primary. Morgan is a Lawrence attorney and businessman who entered the race in May and couldn’t match Kobach’s fundraising. Kobach is seeking his second, four-year term.
He will face former state Sen. Jean Schodorf of Wichita in November. She was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Kobach championed the law requiring new voters to provide a birth certificate, passport or other citizenship documents to register. He said it is preventing election fraud.
About 18,000 are on hold because the prospective voters haven’t complied. Morgan said the law suppresses turnout.
Kansas Primary Governor
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has won the state’s Republican primary as expected, but the results suggest significant dissention within the GOP over his policies.
Officials in both parties were watching for signs of a protest. Jennifer Winn is the owner of a Wichita-area property management firm, and her platform included legalizing marijuana.
They had agreed that a single challenge was likely to receive about 20 percent of the vote under any circumstances.
But Brownback is facing a tougher-than-expected race from Democratic challenger Paul Davis because of questions about whether massive personal income tax enacted at the governor’s urging are boosting the economy as promised or wrecking the state’s finances.
Kansas Primary Insurance Commissioner
An accountant and industry executive has won the Republican nomination for Kansas insurance commissioner.
Ken Selzer, of Leawood, emerged from a field of five candidates in Tuesday’s primary. His nearest rival was Eudora health insurance consultant Beverly Gossage, followed by state Sen. Clark Shultz of Lindsborg.
Selzer will face Democrat and Overland Park businessman Dennis Anderson in the November election.
Three-term Republican Commissioner Sandy Praeger didn’t seek re-election after breaking with most of the GOP and praising the federal health care overhaul.
Selzer is a critic of the law. He is a certified public accountant and an executive managing director of Aon Benfield, a global company providing coverage for insurance companies against catastrophic claims.