Candidate for Congress Jim Barnett Unsure Where District Lines Are / What State He's In...

Dwayne Horner | July 29, 2009 8:15 AM

In the past, I've written about my support for Tim Huelskamp, who is running for U.S. Congress in Kansas. I've got lots of family in the state, so I have taken a keen interest in this race. A late entry into the race has been Senator Jim Barnett, a liberal who ran one of the worst gubernatorial campaigns in state history a few years ago.

As recently as 2008, Barnett teamed with then-governor Kathleen Sebelius (now HHS Secretary) to push for health care proposals. Barnett is now running for Congress in The Big First district of Kansas, and his first announcement was in Wichita, KS, where he held his first campaign "announcement," which included unveiling his health care coalition (no word if Sebelius was there).

The only problem is ... Jim Barnett is running for Congress in the Big First District -- which does not include Wichita. OOPS!

Honestly, I've heard of candidates for office raising money outside the district -- but I've never heard of them campaigning outside the district. Could Barnett be planning to run for governor or Senate??? Doubtful. More likely, he's confused about exactly where the district lines are drawn. (For future reference, Sen. Barnett -- you can find the map here).

It turns out that liberal Jim Barnett isn't just confused about where the district lines are -- he's not even sure what state he's running in. (He's in the state of denial, actually).

You see, Jim Barnett recently sent out a fundraising appeal (

Click Here) which says, "Please call our campaign headquarters at 816..." The trouble is that the 816 area code does not exist in Kansas. Apparently, Jim Barnett's "campaign headquarters" is actually located in Kansas City, Missouri -- far from The Big First in Western Kansas. I've heard of companies outsourcing jobs, but this is ridiculous!

So just to recap: Jim Barnett was partnering with Kathleen Sebelius on healthcare as recently as 2008. His first big announcement was outside the district. And his campaign headquarters is in another state. This is quite possibly the most inept campaign announcement I've seen in my many years of observing politics...