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Posted on Thu, Nov. 06, 2008

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Boyda's loss blamed on strategy

BY JOHN MILBURN

Associated Press Writer

TOPEKA - Republicans put a target on Nancy Boyda moments after she beat incumbent Rep. Jim Ryun in 2006. Their 21-month campaign to reclaim the 2nd District ended successfully with Lynn Jenkins' victory Tuesday night.

Officials with both parties said Wednesday that the freshman Democrat set her own defeat in motion by shunning outside assistance and cash to mount a vigorous defense of her seat in Congress.

"She needed, in that district, to run a very, very solid campaign and needed to get out of her shell and didn't do it," said Peter Fenn, a Democratic media consultant in Washington.

Fenn said Boyda didn't seem to take advice from "people who knew what they were doing." His firm produced ads that the party used to help Boyda in 2004 and 2006 against Ryun.

Jenkins, a two-term state treasurer, beat Boyda by more than 14,500 votes in the 26-county district.

Boyda was the only Kansas incumbent to lose Tuesday and only one of four Democrat freshmen nationally to be defeated.

Boyda declined requests for interviews, but campaign spokesman Thomas Seay defended the decision to balk at offers of assistance from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"Our aim was to run a race that, win or lose, we'd be proud of," Seay said. "It was an independent and positive campaign that represented the values of the 2nd District."

Jenkins campaign: http://www.lynnjenkins.com