Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the Republican candidate for governor, appears to be getting some help from an unknown source in his race against Democratic candidate Laura Kelly and independent candidate Greg Orman.

The “shady” nugget can be found near the very bottom of an Election Day story from the Los Angeles Times.

After labeling Orman as “the X-factor in the race” and saying that Orman is “thought to be hurting Kelly more than Kobach,” the LA Times reported that “someone” appears to be trying to throw a wrench into things.

Two supporters of Kelly apparently showed the newspaper “duplicate campaign-style text messages” they received on Monday. That message was about gun rights, and was slamming Kelly on the issue: “Laura Kelly used to have an A rating from the NRA. Greg Orman has consistently supported common sense gun laws. Vote Greg Orman. It matters.”

It seems others have also received this identical message.

Received this text today in Kobach/Kelly/Orman race. But Orman campaign tells me "we are not sending any NRA/Laura Kelly text messages." pic.twitter.com/XlkcROlyyJ — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 6, 2018

The Second Amendment, for what it’s worth, is a platform issue for Kobach.

Members of #TeamKobach with some reminders of my stances on the Second Amendment and pro-life issues. #ksleg #ksgov pic.twitter.com/6KTfd3YxXP — Kris W. Kobach (@KrisKobach1787) November 6, 2018

The Orman campaign was asked why texts from different phone numbers — phone numbers that were “disconnected” by the time reporters started to dig — contacted people in an apparent effort to boost Orman. Orman campaign spokesman Nick Connors said that the messages did not come from the campaign, raising questions about where they did come from and why.

Connors, the LA Times said, “speculated, without providing evidence, that it was some kind of ploy by Democrats or Republicans to discredit Orman.” Maybe, but the latest polling data more than suggests that Orman doesn’t have a chance. An Emerson poll from last week had Kobach at 44 percent, Laura Kelly at 43 percent and Greg Orman at 8 percent, with a remaining 4 percent undecided. Therefore, a vote for Orman would essentially be a vote in Kobach’s favor.

[Image via Steve Pope/Getty Images]

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