Patricia Lightner Comes Out Swinging in Video

One of the subjects we plan on tackling in the next few months here at Kaw & Border is the question on whether the 3rd District can be won. For the last six elections, the 3rd District has increasingly been out of the Republicans' reach, as candidate after candidate, from well known long time State Senators like Nick Jordan to moderate heros like Adam Taff to conservative icons like Phill Kline -- have failed to defeat the 12-year-incumbent, Congressman Dennis Moore.

Some of this was due to bad campaign plans. Some of it was due to the fact the last two cycles were largely disasters for Republicans nationally, and it may have been impossible to win anyway. The good news for conservatives, however, is that politics is never permanent and as we enter 2010, there are whispers that perhaps the 3rd District can be won.

It is our view that it can be won -- but only with an aggressive strategy and a compelling message that is backed up by a candidate who can effectively communicate it, who has the background of credibility to win over votes from an electorate preprogrammed to vote for the guy they know.

Well, Republicans may have found that candidate in former State Representative Patricia Lightner, who today came out swinging in a compelling 8-minute video on her website, http://www.patricialightner.com.

During the course of the video, Lightner continually talks about her message of liberty -- about what it means and how it is being taken away by the liberals in Congress and President Obama. She then blisters Moore for essentially being the lap dog he is, rather than the ridiculous blue dog label he's attempted to wrap himself around in order to win in the right-of-center 3rd District. Lightner then goes into her own background and beliefs -- pro-life, pro-liberty, pro-growth,, and invites people to join her campaign in a door-to-door, grassroots effort to win over voters individually -- a refreshing theme given the past few campaigns which had a striking lack of presence on the ground.

Patricia Lightner may have been out of the legislature six years, but she was indeed a six-year incumbent who had an iron grip on the 29th District when she held it -- and she's been through this process before, running for Congress in 2004. She has a conservative record, a reputation for being both tough and independent, and doesn't seem beholden to anyone, a quality that seems to be needed in Washington these days, with everyone up there seeming to be in someone's back pocket.

Right now, there are about a half a dozen candidates patrolling Johnson County -- some declared, some not. It will remain to be seen which of these candidates campaign the most aggressively and which get both grassroots support as well as traditional endorsements.

However, at this point, if conservatives/libertarians/independents are looking for a horse to ride, they very well may want to consider Patricia Lightner.