npr.org

In Kansas the Democrats are conservative while the GOP is fundamentally crazy. This is why I will vote straight D for everything less than National office probably the rest of my life. As long as the national candidates are Brownback surrogates, I will vote D there as well — even though in Kansas voting for the Democrat is largely symbolic.

Moderate Republicans have come under attack in primaries across the country this year, but the split in the GOP is perhaps older and sharper in Kansas — and it comes to a head Tuesday.

“I think the lines have been drawn in the sand. Bridges have been burned. Everybody is all-in this election,” says Jim Denning, one of the conservative candidates for the state’s senate.

The Republican statehouse primary is a savage fight fueled by money from the Koch brothers and labor unions, with big consequences for the citizens of Kansas.

When it comes to the political map, Kansas isn’t just red, it’s a stoplight. It’s molten lava. Republicans hold every congressional seat, all the big statewide offices and both chambers of the legislature. But despite their lock on power, Kansas Republicans don’t generally get along.

“We are our own worst enemy,” says Tim Owens, who is a state senator - and struggling to stay that way.

Owens is waging one of the toughest campaigns in a 30-year political career. Today he’s dispensing yard signs at a strip mall in his prosperous suburban Kansas City district — and examining some of the mail bombarding his constituents. One reads, “Obama sought a robot, and found one.”

“And they’ve got Obama and me, which is absolutely ridiculous,” Owen scoffs.

Owens is a life-long Republican, so this is pretty scandalous stuff, and it’s coming from his own party.

“The conservative element today is a far cry from what the conservative was when I was growing up,” he says. “It’s angry. It’s hateful.”