Kansas Republican watch: One more moderate leaves the party of the religious right

Illness slowed me down a bit, and I’m a tad late on this, but it’s still worth noting as this AP story from The Lawrence Journal-World does:

Edwards County Commissioner Duane Mathes has switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat to run for a seat in the Kansas House.
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“I don’t think I left the Republican Party,” he said. “I think it left me.”

Mathes is the fourth member of the Kansas GOP to switch sides for the upcoming election. His defection is notable because he is not from affluent Johnson County or liberal Douglas County. Mathews represents the backbone of the Kansas Republicans. He is a semiretired farmer and stockman from a rural southwestern Kansas county with a population of 3,449.