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Paul Davis Public Recordan independent Kansas archive

Campaign archive · 2014 campaign

2014: Advertising aimed at Davis, and how it was answered

This address held a video from the 2014 campaign; we could not view it and do not describe it. This note covers the other half of that fall's advertising: the ads run against Davis and how his campaign answered them.

Original address
/sections/media/better-video
Date of the original item
2014 (exact date not known)
Status
Archive note written by the Public Record editors. The campaign's original text is not reproduced.

About this address

Like its neighbor /sections/media/kansas-certified-video, this was a video address on the 2014 campaign site. Its contents are not known to us.

The Republican Governors Association's ads

The RGA, then chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, backed Brownback with heavy TV spending. An ad that began in late August 2014 called Davis too liberal for Kansas and said, "Name the tax or fee, and Paul Davis probably voted to hike it, keep it or stop it from being cut." It closed with "Kansas just can't afford him." At the time the Real Clear Politics polling average had Davis ahead, 45.8 percent to 43.

The raid story

In September 2014 the Coffeyville Journal reported that Davis had been present at a strip club near Coffeyville during a late-1990s police drug raid. Davis, then a young lawyer, was there because his firm represented the owner; he was not arrested or charged, and a police chief later said he was not involved in wrongdoing. Davis called the report part of a "desperate smear campaign." Beginning September 30 the RGA ran a TV ad built around the episode, and Davis's allies held a call to denounce it as a "disgusting" smear. Accounts differ on the year of the raid: the 2014 radio report says 1996, the ads said 1998.

The story came back in 2018. PolitiFact reviewed a super PAC ad using it and rated the ad Half True: accurate that Davis was present, misleading in implying he was connected to the drug investigation, and misleading about his votes.

How it turned out

Brownback won by 3.7 points. A year later Davis said he had underestimated the national money in the race and estimated the RGA's spending was worth about $5 million.

Sources

  1. Washington Times (AP): RGA ad rips Paul Davis in Kansas gubernatorial race (Aug. 25, 2014)
  2. Kansas Public Radio: Paul Davis dismisses strip club report (Sept. 2014)
  3. Kansas Public Radio: Davis camp upset by ad in Kansas governor's race (Oct. 2014)
  4. PolitiFact: Did Paul Davis vote to allow strip clubs to open near homes and schools? (Oct. 1, 2018)
  5. Lawrence Journal-World: Paul Davis reflects on 2014 campaign (Oct. 18, 2015)

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