Republican Sen. Pat Roberts bragged during his re-election campaign that he has taken care of Kansas. On Election Day, Kansas took care of him.
Voters returned the Kansas political fixture to the Senate for a third term with 60 percent of the vote against Democrat Jim Slattery, who called the race his final political outing.
Roberts celebrated his victory with fellow Republicans at a Topeka hotel, praising his staff for getting people registered to vote. He called the win a “humbling honor.”
Asked if this was his final term, the 72-year-old senator said, “My word, that is six years down the road. I might be playing for the K-State defense.”
Roberts was the favorite in a GOP-leaning state where a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race since 1932 and where 57 percent of the voters backed Republican John McCain for president. He also raised 3 1/2 times as much money as Slattery — more than $5.2 million by mid-October.
“We fought the good fight and came up short,” Slattery said. “I congratulate Senator Roberts and his team. They did an outstanding job and won.”
Slattery blamed his loss on being outspent by Roberts.
“The bottom line is when you have such a tremendous money advantage, you just can’t overcome that. That was the major difference,” he said. “I don’t anticipate running for public office again.”
Roberts pointed to numerous projects for which he helped secure federal dollars, including highway improvements, flood-control projects, a new Command and General Staff College center at Fort Leavenworth and a bioscience center at Kansas State University that bears his name.
But Slattery, a Washington lobbyist and former 2nd District congressman, suggested Roberts was on the wrong side of the biggest issues facing the nation. He called the Iraq war a “trillion-dollar mistake.”
Roberts began a four-year stint as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman just before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and he supported the war.
Slattery also said two laws deregulating the financial industry, supported by Roberts, were largely to blame for the current economic meltdown. Roberts blamed faulty lending practices by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Roberts has worked in Washington for more than four decades, starting as a congressional aide. He represented the 1st District in the House for 16 years before winning his Senate seat in 1996.
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On the Net:
Slattery campaign: http://www.slatteryforsenate.com/?home
Roberts campaign: http://www.robertsforsenate.com/
TOPEKA —
