Considered at one point a leading candidate for Kansas Senate president, Republican Sen. Jeff Longbine said he is bowing out of running for any leadership position.
Longbine, now the Senate vice president, said in an interview this week he had decided against seeking a leadership post following an election that saw conservatives assert more control in the chamber.
“I kind of looked at a couple different positions,” the Emporia lawmaker said.
“With the changes in the election (and) the number of new people that probably lean much more conservative than I do, it just didn’t seem like a proper fit,” he said.
“I think we’ll be fine with the crowded field that we’ve got.”
Longbine’s decision not to run for leadership appears to hand the Senate presidency to Republican Sen. Ty Masterson of Andover.
Masterson has no other apparent opposition going into next week’s leadership elections.
Longbine and Masterson and had long been considered as the two leading candidates to replace outgoing Senate President Susan Wagle.
But conservatives scored big wins over moderate Republicans in the primary and held on to win those seats in the general election.
It was believed that Masterson gained a leg up in the race for Senate president when six of seven moderate incumbent Republicans lost their primary election last summer.
The GOP held onto its 29-member supermajority in the Senate, of which 24 senators could now fall into the conservative camp going into the next legislative session.
Before the election, moderates held about 10 seats in the Senate.
The leadership races in the Senate now feature mostly conservatives.
Republican Sen. Gene Suellentrop of Wichita is running for majority leader against Sen. Carolyn McGinn of Sedgwick.
And there’s a three-way race for Senate vice president, including conservative Sens. Molly Baumgardner of Louisburg, Dennis Pyle of Hiawatha and Rick Wilborn of McPherson.
