State Primary Results

AP-KS–Right Now,1241

Latest Kansas news, sports, business and entertainment

KANSAS PRIMARY-INSURANCE COMMISSIONER

Selzer is GOP candidate for Kansas insurance post

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – An accountant and industry executive has won the Republican nomination for Kansas insurance commissioner.

Ken Selzer, of Leawood, emerged from a field of five candidates in Tuesday’s primary. His nearest rival was Eudora health insurance consultant Beverly Gossage, followed by state Sen. Clark Shultz of Lindsborg.

Selzer will face Democrat and Overland Park businessman Dennis Anderson in the November election.

Three-term Republican Commissioner Sandy Praeger didn’t seek re-election after breaking with most of the GOP and praising the federal health care overhaul.

Selzer is a critic of the law. He is a certified public accountant and an executive managing director of Aon Benfield, a global company providing coverage for insurance companies against catastrophic claims.

KANSAS PRIMARY-US SENATE-DEM

Kansas Democrats nominate prosecutor for US Senate

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A northeast Kansas prosecutor has won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, but faces a difficult fall campaign in the Republican-leaning state.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor prevailed over Lawrence attorney Patrick Wiesner in Tuesday’s primary. Taylor had the backing of party leaders.

Taylor was elected district attorney in the county that includes the state capital of Topeka in 2008 and re-elected without opposition in 2012.

Wiesner ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the Senate in 2010.

Taylor will be seeking the seat held by three-term Republican incumbent Pat Roberts.

Republicans enjoy a nearly 20 percentage-point advantage among registered voters and have won every U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932.

KANSAS PRIMARY-US SENATE-GOP

Veteran US Sen. Roberts wins Kansas GOP primary

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts has defeated tea party-backed challenger Milton Wolf in Kansas’ Republican primary.

The results Tuesday dealt a blow to a national tea party movement that’s targeted longtime Washington incumbents.

Two lesser-known candidates trailed Roberts and Wolf in the race for the GOP nomination in the conservative state.

Roberts is expected to win his fourth, six-year term and extend a career in politics that dates back to the late 1960s, when he was a congressional aide.

Wolf is a 43-year-old Leawood radiologist who was making his first run for public office. He called the 78-year-old Roberts an out-of-touch career politician.

But Roberts had a far better-funded campaign and attacked Wolf over questionable postings of graphic X-ray images on a personal Facebook page in 2010.

KANSAS PRIMARY-SECRETARY OF STATE

Kobach wins GOP primary for Kansas elections post

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has won the Republican primary, despite criticism of a proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters enacted at his urging.

Kobach defeated challenger Scott Morgan in Tuesday’s primary. Morgan is a Lawrence attorney and businessman who entered the race in May and couldn’t match Kobach’s fundraising. Kobach is seeking his second, four-year term.

He will face former state Sen. Jean Schodorf of Wichita in November. She was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Kobach championed the law requiring new voters to provide a birth certificate, passport or other citizenship documents to register. He said it is preventing election fraud.

About 18,000 are on hold because the prospective voters haven’t complied. Morgan said the law suppresses turnout.

KANSAS PRIMARY-GOVERNOR

Kansas governor scores easy victory in GOP primary

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has won the state’s Republican primary as expected, but the results suggest significant dissention within the GOP over his policies.

Officials in both parties were watching for signs of a protest. Jennifer Winn is the owner of a Wichita-area property management firm, and her platform included legalizing marijuana.

They had agreed that a single challenge was likely to receive about 20 percent of the vote under any circumstances.

But Brownback is facing a tougher-than-expected race from Democratic challenger Paul Davis because of questions about whether massive personal income tax enacted at the governor’s urging are boosting the economy as promised or wrecking the state’s finances.

KANSAS SUPREME COURT-FINALISTS

Finalists picked for Kansas Supreme Court seat

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A former top aide to Gov. Sam Brownback is among three finalists for a vacant seat on the Kansas Supreme Court.

A special nominating commission on Tuesday chose Court of Appeals Judges Caleb Stegall and Karen Arnold-Burger and state District Judge Merlin Wheeler from 13 applicants for the high court. Brownback has 60 days to appoint one of them to replace Justice Nancy Moritz, who left to join the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Stegall was Brownback’s chief counsel until the governor appointed him to the state Court of Appeals in January 2014. Arnold-Burger has served on that court since 2011.

Wheeler is chief judge of the 5th Judicial Circuit, made up of Lyon and Chase counties.

Brownback’s appointee to the Supreme Court will require confirmation by the state Senate.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp has withstood opposition from agricultural interests in his rural district to defeat Clyde farmer Alan LaPolice in the Kansas Republican primary.

The tea party favorite won Tuesday’s primary despite attacks from within his party for his criticism of GOP leadership in Washington. He also faced anger from farmers upset by his repeated votes against a Farm Bill and his co-sponsorship of legislation to phase out a renewable fuels program.

A political action committee funded by Kansas farmers poured more than $260,000 into the race for flyers and advertisements critical of Huelskamp.

The district includes 11 biofuel plants and vast fields of corn and sorghum.