By the Associated Press:

Republicans in the Kansas Senate have rejected Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s nomination of a public defender to the state’s second-highest court for the second time in eight months.

The vote Thursday against Carl Folsom III came even though he had support from the state’s top federal prosecutor and dozens of other attorneys. The vote was 18-17, but Folsom needed 21 votes in the 40-member Senate to join the Kansas Court of Appeals. The Senate rejected him in June for a different Court of Appeals vacancy.

Democrats said he is well-qualified for the court, but Republicans said his experience isn’t broad enough and suggested that he would be an activist judge.