By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

The Republican primary contest between Lynn Jenkins and Jim Ryun in the 2nd Congressional District in Kansas suggests how apprehensive this year’s GOP candidates for national office are about an anti-Bush backlash detected among voters in 2006.

Jenkins is running for Congress in the middle of her second term as state treasurer in a district former U.S. Rep. Ryun lost to challenger Nancy Boyda two years ago in an election sweep that regained control of both the House and the Senate for Democrats for the first time since 1994.

The winner of the GOP primary contest Aug. 5 will face Rep. Boyda, who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination, in the November election.

“I’m like a lot of Kansans,” Jenkins told the Globe in a telephone interview this week. “I’m frustrated by what I see happening in Washington, D.C. Clearly, the Democratic leadership is failing us as we speak, and the Republican leadership before that made some mistakes. I’m running to restore some sanity to Washington.”

Made some mistakes?

“They squandered the opportunity and ran the national debt up to an all-time high during Jim Ryun’s tenure,” she said.

Jenkins acknowledges disappointment with the Bush administration’s fiscal management and failure to stick to the party’s conservative roots on government spending. She’s been taking Ryun to task for his voting record’s synchronicity with Bush and alleged “wasteful pork-barrel spending,” such as a much-publicized “bridge to nowhere,” “teapot museum,” swimming pool in California, and tomato farm in Ohio.

On this, Jenkins may seem as borrowing a page from Boyda, who hammered Ryun in 2006 for his links to a House majority that she painted as corrupt and ineffective.

Ryun, who spent five terms in Congress, remains proud of his voting record, generally regarded as one of the most conservative in the House, and says Jenkins is distorting that record with her “pork-barrel” accusations.

“I voted for the transportation bill because it affected Kansas highways,” Ryun told the Globe.

The “bridge to nowhere” was one of various provisions others inserted after his vote in favor of the core bill, he said. He said he voted against the amendment that contained the bridge and, the truth is, the bridge has never been built.

“I have a proven record for voting for lower taxes and fighting for lower taxes,” Ryun said.

But he has not always been in lockstep with President Bush or his own party, he said. Ryun said he voted against the president on the House immigration bill, Medicare Part D and the “No Child Left Behind” program because that’s what Kansans wanted. He said state educators in particular have praised him for standing up against his party on the latter issue.