(Updated to reflect a second challenger who filed Tuesday)
Republican state Sen. John Doll has drawn two Republican primary challengers, including a Finney County commissioner and a former state lawmaker.
Lon Pishny, a county commissioner since 2014, has filed to run for the Senate District 39 seat now held by Doll.
Meanwhile, Reynaldo Mesa, a member of the Kansas House from 2011 to 2013, filed to run for the Senate Tuesday morning.
Pishny was just elected to a second term on the Finney County Commission last year. He was unopposed.
He currently is a member of the board of directors for the St. Catherine Hospital Development Foundation and is a member of the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce.
This is how he described himself on the Finny County website.
“Even if we might have differing ideas on how to proceed on specific issues, we have amiably resolved those differences in the spirit of doing what is in the best interest of the county’s citizens, rather than remaining focused on our personal biases.”
This wouldn’t be Mesa’s first race against Doll.
In 2012, Mesa ran against Doll in the primary for House District 123, but eventually withdrew to concentrate on his work as the executive director of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.
Mesa has previously served on the Garden City Commission for 12 years and worked in government relations for Cox Communications.
He also worked as a business lobbyist for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. Mesa said he regretted not spending more time in the Legislature.
“I have an interest in serving in again,” Mesa said. “I was only there for two short years. I wished I would have stayed longer.”
Doll has said he has not decided whether to run for re-election after recently moving back to the Republican Party. However, the prospect of vigorous competition is exciting, he said.
“Competition is a very good thing, competition brings out the best in everybody,” Doll said. “I’m excited about it. It’s going to be a win-win for the people in the 39th District.”
Elected as a Republican to the state Senate in 2016, Doll became an independent to run for lieutenant governor on Greg Orman’s gubernatorial ticket.
Just recently, he changed back to the Republican Party. He said he wanted to shoulder more of the committee work load in the Senate.
Under Senate rules, Doll could not serve on Senate committees because only major political parties make up the committee structure.
Doll said the party change was not motivated by politics
“This, to me, is not a deal,” he said in a recent interview. “I am trying to take some of the work load off of my fellow senators.
“Some people aren’t going to buy it,” he said, “but that’s not my problem.”
The western Kansas Senate district covers parts of Finney, Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearney, Morton, Stanton, Stevens and Wichita counties.
It is heavily Republican, going for Kris Kobach by about 25 percentage points more than Democrat Laura Kelly in last year’s governor’s race.
It went for President Donald Trump by almost 50 percentage points more than Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
