What kind of a senator will we get?
Next week, Kansas Republicans will choose the state's next senator. As for the November election, it's a formality. We haven't sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since the Depression days of 1932.
The race between Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran has been contentious, as both have strived to assume the mantle of true conservatism. I have no desire to revisit that slugfest. Rather, I want to ponder the question of what kind of senator Moran or Tiahrt would make.
Since 1978, Kansas has elected just four senators -- Bob Dole, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback. In short, we're likely making a long-term choice here, and either candidate will vote in a reliably conservative, Republican way. But voting scarcely defines one's impact as a senator.
Just looking at the last four senators demonstrates the differences among individual legislators. Dole moved from representing parochial western Kansas concerns to becoming a national figure, party leader, and political heavyweight. Kassebaum was highly influential with her thoughtful independence; she could often sway several senators with her vote on a given issue.
Pat Roberts took his wicked sense of humor and long-term House experience into the Senate, and began to carve out an important role, before taking the Intelligence Committee chair and becoming less funny and more partisan.
Brownback created a Senate career that combined social conservatism, ambition, and the capacity to cross the aisle on issues of personal concern, such as African humanitarian policies. He has been partisan, but not always predictable.
Far more in the Senate than the team-oriented House, an individual legislator can make a big difference in how he or she chooses to approach the job.
What might we expect of a Senator Moran or Senator Tiahrt?
At first blush, this might seem an easy pair of calls. Jerry, with his good-old-boy demeanor, would seem an ideal schmoozer, who could work with all kinds of senators and make deals across the aisle. Todd, on the other hand, comes across as a hard-core conservative and a fierce party loyalist, who might have trouble working as an individual entrepreneur.
But looking at their behavior as House members, these stereotypes quickly break down. To be sure, Tiahrt has long stood at the center of GOP politics in the House, in that he won an Appropriations seat as a freshman in 1995. But appropriators are by definition positioned to be deal makers, and Tiahrt has played that role effectively for his Wichita constituents, as well as for other interests that he represents.
In 2007, he made a point doing a bit of research and approaching the incoming, veteran, liberal Appropriations chair, Democrat David Obey, with a symbolic gift of a bottle of whiskey. Tiahrt reports that he's done well ever since in his committee-based bargaining.
When one looks at Tiahrt's GOP endorsements, most come from the party establishment -- former Speaker Dennis Hastert, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove and former Attorney General John Ashcroft, among others.
In contrast, several of Moran's most prominent backers are well-known senatorial gadflies, such as South Carolina's Jim DeMint and Oklahoma's Tom Coburn.
And while Jerry has proved capable of protecting the Big First's agricultural interests, he's probably best known for making the occasional tough vote in which he took on the party establishment -- such as voting against Medicare drug benefits in 2003, despite immense pressure from Hastert.
One final indicator is how they've represented their districts over the past 15 or so years.
Jerry Moran lives in Hays, and comes home every weekend, to say nothing of famously visiting all 69 counties in his district each year. That says a lot about a guy in a safe congressional district.
Todd Tiahrt and his family live in D.C., something of a throwback to an older style of politics, where legislators didn't go home every weekend, but stayed in D.C. and socialized with their peers.
In the end, both congressmen have been effective at home and in D.C., in their own ways, and have clearly satisfied their constituents. But I'd argue that Tiahrt likely will be the insider senator and Moran the more the outsider. Both styles can work, but they are distinct and reflect real -- not constructed -- differences.
Burdett Loomis is a professor of political science at the University of Kansas.