Three Johnson County Republican Kansas state senators, John Vratil of Leawood, Tim Owens of Overland Park and Terrie Huntington of Fairway are on the list for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce list of incumbents to be defeated.
That list also includes Senate President Steve Morris. Vratil is the Vice Chairman of the Senate.

According to the AP, The Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee is targeting eight incumbent state senators in Republican primaries this year, and one of the group’s officials said Tuesday the PAC raised more than $163,000 last year to help finance its efforts.

The Chamber PAC’s targets include Senate President Morris, of Hugoton. Republican conservatives have been upset with Morris and other senators over a host of issues, including taxes.

Jeff Glendening, the chamber’s vice president for political affairs, said the group hopes to replace the incumbents with “free market” challengers.

The chamber’s efforts are significant because the Senate represents the last major stronghold in state government for moderate Republicans. Gov. Sam Brownback has said he will stay out of primaries. His fellow conservatives believe ousting several incumbent senators will clear the last significant obstacles to anti-tax, small-government policies.

The Chamber PAC expected to file a report Tuesday with the secretary of state’s office detailing its activities for 2011. But Glendening confirmed details ahead of the filing, saying the report will show that the PAC raised more than $163,000 and spent about $112,000 last year, including maximum $1,000 contributions for challengers to eight incumbent GOP senators.

Glendening said the chamber is concerned about a lack of growth in the number of private sector jobs in Kansas and believes policies backed by Senate leaders are a major factor. All eight incumbents being targeted voted in 2010 to increase the state’s sales tax to help balance the budget.

“The strategy of Senate leadership clearly hasn’t worked, and it’s time for private sector growth in Kansas,” Glendening said in an interview.

Morris said he and other GOP senators have tried to take a balanced approach to dealing with the state’s past budget problems. He said the targeted senators have supported pro-business policies, such as phasing out the state’s corporate franchise tax, essentially a fee for the privilege of doing business in Kansas.

“You hear a lot of discussion about the rancor within the Republican Party, and to me, the most prominent reason for that rancor is these divisive primaries,” Morris said.

Glendening said the other incumbent GOP senators whose challengers received maximum contributions from the Chamber PAC are Pete Brungardt, of Salina; Carolyn McGinn, of Sedgwick; Vicki Schmidt, of Topeka; Jean Schodorf, of Wichita.

Vratil is Senate vice president, and McGinn is chairwoman of the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee. The other five also hold Senate chairmanships.

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