New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made another trip to Kansas City Wednesday to stump for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and attend a fundraiser in Mission Hills.
Christie heads the Republican Governors Association (RGA).
“Kansas is an important race for us in the country, and that’s why I’m here and told the governor I’ll be back between now and election day as well,” says Christie. “RGA is going to make a significant investment here in Kansas, because we believe in Sam.”
Polling shows the incumbent Republican governor locked in a tight race with Paul Davis, a Democratic state representative from Lawrence. Registered Republicans vastly outnumber Democrats in Kansas. Brownback says the race is tight because people don’t know the facts about his four years in office.
“I don’t think they know the truth about the education investment that we’ve made, record amounts of state money in K-12. I don’t think they know the truth about how we fixed the pension system that was in the bankruptcy zone, and is now above that and moving on forward. I don’t think they know the truth about the job creation numbers, private sector job creation numbers in the state of Kansas, but that’s what a campaign’s about,” says Brownback.
The Governor has some work to do. A recent poll indicates that only about one third of Kansans approve of the job Brownback has done over the last four years. Democrats point out that rating agencies have recently downgraded the state’s credit rating, following big drops in state tax revenue. They say growth in the Kansas economy has lagged behind similar states, and that classroom spending has fallen under Brownback.
