>>> yesterday, secretary of state chris kobach lost a ruling in kansas. he had been trying to force a democrat to remain on the ballot for the u.s. senate race in kansas in year. mr. kobach was refusing to let him quit the race. the race we're talking about is the race for the senate seet held by pat rob erts. this has become the most important senate race in the country as the republican party tries to take over the senate and they doent want to have to defend would ought to be safe seats. but rob erts is in real trouble especially if the democrat in the race drops out, as he wants to. that leaves the roberts trailing a well-funded independent campaign. and in a two-way race between these two guys, everybody in kgs kst understands the dynamic here. pat rob erts has a much harder time keeping his seat in the senate. head-to-head, the independent guy looks like he beats him handily. and national republicans would have a much harder time winning the six seats that i had're desperate to win. i mean, all states are important. but this kansas race is important

so chris kobach, this is his moment. and as the chief elections official in kansas, he has tried to force the democrat to stay in the race. yesterday, the kansas supreme court ordered him that he needed to take the democrat's name off the ballot. the court ruled unanimously, all the democratica hrfrpblgtly appointed judges, and it was in a minute, please. so chris kobach lost that court fight yesterday. and after he lost the fight, he went back to try to make this a three-way race anyway. he announced that he'd given the democrats agt days to pick a new candidate on the ballot. he also said he was pushing back the deadline in order to allow time for that to happen. he was pushing back the deadline because there's a certain date by which he'd have to sends out overseas military ballots. it's important to know here that they don't want to put anybody on the ballot. that's why their candidate drops out. the democrats are not going to rush to fill that ballot line on chris kobach's say so. it's important to know what chris k

so chris kobach describes himself as the referee.n terms of the pat roberts es campaign, he's also sort of a player in the game. this week, casey hunt went to kansas and asked him about his dual roles in this race. watch. >> i think eloquent positioning. i'm one of the cast of a thousand. i'm an honorary committee where robert's people call the office and all the elected repushily cans in the state say hey, would you be our honorary committee? it's a leaderless position. if we had any controversy surrounding the senate race where people were potentially violating our election, then, no, i can't. so just to be courteous. >> and you don't want to limit yourself now from that activity? >> it would be a purely symbolic gesture at this point. the bottom line is i have to enforce the law as written. >> that's the chris kobach part of the senate race. the other new big factor here is that national republicans have been propping up the campaign of pat rob ert which is looks like it's in real trouble. he blamed senator ted cruz for shutting d

and he has apparently made a fan out of secretary of state chris kobach.aggressive, most partisan, most radically conservative secretary of state that has never done anything that i've identified with ever. turns out he has a soft ospot for the topeka lap dancer. and now i do, too. best new thing by a mile. and i have to tell you, i now follow the topeka lap dancer and i hope to meet him someday. bridging the partisan divide. >>> good thursday morning. right now on "first look," the isis crisis heats up on capitol hill as they vote on the path forward on the war on terror. >>> another day, another nfl perp walk for domestic violence. and the fallout from nfl's big money backers explodes. >>> and if you didn't already know, beef prices nationwide are at an all-time high. >>> plus, the scene of a horrific church collapse, a dramatic california police chase ends with guns drawn, and serious flooding in parts of the southwest. a very good morning to you. i'm richard lui. >>> just today, more than a dozen raids were carried out and 15 people arrested in austral

and he has apparently made a fan out of secretary of state chris kobach.most partisan, most radically conservative secretary of state that has never done anything that i've identified with ever. turns out he has a soft ospot for the topeka lap dancer. and now i do, too. best new thing by a mile. and i have to tell you, i now follow the topeka lap dancer and i hope to meet him someday. bridging the partisan divide. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> well, we begin with breaking news tonight. another nfl player has been deactivated after being arrested on domestic violence charges. phoenix police arrested arizona charles running back jonathan dwyer today for two separate incidents that allegedly took place at

and he has apparently made a fan out of secretary of state chris kobach.ggressive, most partisan, most radically conservative secretary of state that has never done anything that i've identified with ever. turns out he has a soft spot for >> well, we begin with breaking news tonight. another nfl player has been deactivated after being arrested on domestic violence charges. phoenix police arrested arizona charles running back jonathan dwyer today for two separate incidents that allegedly took place at husband home july 21

and chris kobach himself, the secretary of state, is in a very hard race. so i think a lot of us on election night are going to be watching kansas. >> yeah, and you talk about why brownback is in trouble and how that's hurting republicans in general. 3 million short of expectations. they can't pay for it, leaving a $1.3 billion hole in their budget, which has led both moodies and s&p to downgrade kansas. tim, how much is that on everyone's mind as they decide whether they want to stay gop. [ applause ] 45%, 1.6 million of our fellow citizens voting for independence. i don't think that any of us, whenever we entered politics, would have thought such a thing to either be credible for possible. i think over the last few weeks, we have seen a scare and a fear of enormous proportions. not the scare mongering at the scottish people, but the scare and the fear at the heart of the westminster as they realized the mass movement of people going forward in scotland. [ applause ] therefore, the day of all days, as we bring scotland together, let us not dwell on the dis

and chris kobach himself, the secretary of state, is in a very hard race. so i think a lot of us on election night are going to be watching kansas. >> yeah, and you talk about why brownback is in trouble and how that's hurting republicans in general. 3 million short of expectations. they can't pay for it, leaving a $1.3 billion hole in their budget, which has led both moodies and s&p to downgrade kansas. tim, how much is that on everyone's mind as they decide whether they want to stay gop. >> i think you're talking about the pivot point. >> brownback cut taxes and now there's a fear among the democrat nominee davis that the revenue is not going to be there for basic government services. so the big fear is the public school system is going to suffer more cuts as they did during the recession. if there's not enough money to pay the bills. >> yeah, e.j., doesn't that go to the peculiar politics of this time. those of us in the news following everyone around the world, we've been covering terrible activities of isis and what a tough question it is there, one th

senate comes from the state of kansas, where the republican secretary of state chris kobach to agreedprint ballots without the name of any democrat on them. democratic candidate chad taylor dropped out of the race more than two weeks ago and on thursday, the kansas supreme court ruled that he had to remove chad taylor from the ballot. kobach responded by they demanded the name of a replacement candidate. any democratic candidate would give a boost to pat roberts. with taylor's name still on the ballot, roberts was running ahead of greg orman, according to a fox news poll released earlier this week. without taylor on the ballot, orman zoomed ahead, by six points. it's not yet clear if he still intends to try to force democrats to name a candidate. he warns the overseas voters will be told they may may have to revote after balance ballots are mailed on saturday. it was called a safety measure to comply with the law. this is kansas, since the year 1932, 82 years ago, this was not a seat that anyone thought republicans wore in danger of losing until a few weeks ago. is it now officially f

chris kobach tried to force taylor to stay on the ballot, but the kansas supreme court disagreed. >>ee at the football game. it's a hotly contested election. if voters think i'm not making the calls fairly, they can vote against me. >> reporter: orman is a danger to roberts because he's striking a cord with independence and with voters who are simply fed up. >> washington's broken. we eare sending the worst to both parties there. bitter partisans who care about than they do about their own problems. >> reporter: how do you feel about seeing senator roberts? are you a supporter? >> i was a supporter all along and at the present time i'm looking at his opposition. >> reporter: roberts is trying to turn the race into a traditional partisan fight painting orman as a democrat in disguise. >> you go down the issues. he's for obama care, all right. he's for amnesty, okay. and then you go down the second amendment. all of those issues indicate that he's democrat and not republican. >> reporter: national democrats are chairing orman on, but there are no guarantees. he refuses to say which par

kobach, is saying that the democrat has not proven that. now, i can tell you that there's a development that's happening even in the last three hours tonight, chrisd that is that in a response to kobach's ruling, the democrat is now going to file a legal suit trying to force his name off the ballot. >> right. >> so, to your point, we've heard lots of examples of candidates suing to get on the ballot, now he's suing to get off the ballot. >> chad taylor wants to get off the ballot. there's some reporting that suggested he conferred with missouri senator claire mccaskill, that democrats recognize. >> right. >> tell me about the independent in this race and why democrats feel he has a shot against pat roberts where chad taylor did not? >> sure. first of all, he has money. he's been on the air, chris, since july broadcasting in kansas and actually this is notable, in the month since senator roberts won his primary, senator roberts has been off the air in kansas and mr. orman has been on the air. in fact, mr. orman has been on the air i think for two months straight now. so you've got a candidate with the money to spend to be on television, airing com