Will Kansas history repeat as Kris Kobach takes AG office once held by Phill Kline? | Opinion

He’s a right-wing culture warrior with questionable legal acumen, a political lightning rod who is only occasionally successful with voters. And he’s about to take the oath of office as Kansas’ new attorney general.

I’m talking about Kris Kobach, of course. Not so long ago, though, the same description fit Phill Kline.

Kline — if you’ve forgotten — served a single controversial term as Kansas attorney general from 2003 to 2007 before Kansas voters, fed up with his crusades, overwhelmingly drummed him out of office in favor of a relatively staid Democrat.

He should serve as a cautionary tale for Kobach. But there’s a real possibility that Kansas history is simply repeating itself.

The similarities between the two Republicans are uncanny, after all.

Both men are perennial candidates with so-so winning percentages at the polls. Kline ran for Congress twice and lost both times, although he did serve in the Kansas House before winning his term as attorney general. Kobach, of course, once served as the Kansas secretary of state — but lost races for Congress, governor and the U.S. Senate before his recent election victory.

Both men are ideological crusaders. Kline spent his time as attorney general — and later as Johnson County district attorney — trying to take down the state’s abortion providers, bringing charges against both Planned Parenthood and George Tiller, who was assassinated at his church in Wichita in 2009. Kobach, meanwhile, has been at the forefront of the conservative movement’s anti-immigrant and “election integrity” campaigns.

Both men stumbled badly in those crusades. Kline’s charges against Tiller and Planned Parenthood went nowhere, and the Kansas Supreme Court indefinitely suspended his law license for ethical missteps during those investigations. Kobach, meanwhile, was ordered by a judge to take remedial law classes after his failed legal defense of the state’s proof-of-citizenship voter law.

And both men, it must be noted, were in the circle of right-wing lawyers who sought to aid Donald Trump’s shameful efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential elections.

It’s not exactly a shared legacy of glory.

There are differences, though. Perhaps the most significant is a matter of timing: Kline has more or less been exiled from elected power. His time is past. Kobach, meanwhile, is just starting his term as attorney general — and has a chance to get it right this time. What lessons should he learn from his predecessor?

One of the biggest is that Kansas voters aren’t fierce conservative ideologues. Yes, this is a red state, but voters here have repeatedly demonstrated a taste for moderation over right-wing fervency. Longtime U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum is beloved here, but former Gov. Sam Brownback isn’t. Laura Kelly is governor and Derek Schmidt isn’t.

Kline proved the point in 2006 when he mustered a mere 41% of the vote in his failed reelection campaign. The suspended law license merely completed his defenestration.

Kobach, with his own history of lost elections, ought to be fairly intimate with the state’s moderate streak by now, too.

It might be argued that Kansas voters put him in office knowing exactly what they were getting. Kobach’s history isn’t exactly a secret in this state. Perhaps, though, Kobach learned to avoid triggering the electorate’s anti-zealot reflexes in 2022 — he didn’t campaign with a Jeep-mounted replica machine gun this time around.

And it’s important to note Kobach and Kline haven’t done everything in lockstep. Kline, we now know, led an effort to have Trump-supporting fake electors replace lawful Electoral College voters from Michigan in 2020. Kobach, meanwhile, reportedly discouraged efforts to have then-Vice President Mike Pence send the presidential election back to the states.

That’s not moderation, exactly. One can hope, though, it signals that Kobach recognizes that the law doesn’t always match his political preferences.

Even if that’s true, it’s still clear that Kobach will be Kansas’ most ostentatiously conservative attorney general since Kline was in office. Starting next week, we’ll find out if he has learned enough to avoid Kline’s disgraced fate.