The pattern we've seen in recent years is one of moderate Republicans being replaced by Tea Party types who endlessly rail against the government, but those types suffered a series of setbacks in Kansas last night.
In total, 11 Republican state legislators, including the top ranking Republican in the state Senate, lost their primary battles last night because they were too closely allied with Governor Sam Brownback's failed economic regime.
Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce was among the lawmakers ousted amid a backlash against Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his allies. [...]
Five other conservative senators lost in races that spanned the state. So did five conservative House members, all of them from affluent Kansas City-area suburbs in Johnson County, the state's most populous, where voters have cherished good public schools for decades.
Sam Brownback and his henchmen could not be arsed to fund education at a level that is constitutional without a years-long war against the entire state judiciary and, much to my surprise, they're actually paying a price for it.
Things must be truly bad indeed if suburban voters are willing to turn against the same men responsible for cutting their taxes. The fact that some schools were forced to close early last year because they did not have enough money to stay open should have been a wake-up call and, evidently, it was.
Moderate Republicans challenging Brownback's lackeys made education a centerpiece of their campaigns and it actually worked. It remains to be seen if this is the beginning of a new pattern or simply a one-off.