Both candidates are confident they can regain the seat for Republicans. The district had been regarded as a GOP stronghold and Boyda’s upset was one of the more surprising across the nation in 2006. Most Republicans are quick to attribute Boyda’s close victory to a low turnout, although it also seemed to signal that voters previously loyal to the GOP may have become disenchanted with the party’s direction.

Jenkins and Ryun consequently have been busy trying to address grass-roots support through their campaigns. They report starkly different findings at the grass-roots level.

Ryun, who began running again early in 2007, said the response he gets most often is: “We don’t know why you lost, but we want to see you back in again.”

He believes he may have been hurt by a less-than-formidable ticket two years ago. That will be different this year, he said, with John McCain at the top and Republican Sen. Pat Roberts running for re-election.

Jenkins said Kansans are telling her that Ryun lost touch with them. She believes that people did not vote for Boyda so much as against Ryun.

“His time had come,” Jenkins said. “They felt that he forgot about them and took their votes for granted. Even worse than that, they couldn’t name one thing that he accomplished that affected their personal lives or their families.”

Ryun ticks off several accomplishments over his 10 years in office, including securing 10,000 new military jobs in Kansas and a $500 million annual boost to the state’s economy through the Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure program. More specifically, he helped to bring the 1st Division back to Fort Riley, to strengthen the role of Forbes Field in Topeka and to expand Fort Leavenworth’s role in the military, he said.

He also claims to have led the fight for the $1,000 child tax credit and voted to give average Kansas families $2,000 a year in tax relief. He said he has assisted low-income families by supporting a pay increase and housing projects for military families.

Jenkins points to her record of cutting taxes as a state representative from 1998 to 2000 and as a state senator from 2000 to 2002. As state treasurer, she boasts of her championing of Learning Quest, the state’s education-savings program, and efforts to increase tax deductions for contributions made to the program by both single filers and married couples.

Significant differences have yet to surface between the two candidates on the war in Iraq.

“Regardless of what led us into Iraq,” Jenkins said, “the situation we find ourselves in today is there are crazy people in this world, and they want to harm Americans.”

As long as there are, the U.S. must defend itself, she said. While getting our troops home would be an important goal for her, it cannot be done at any sacrifice to the security of the nation as a whole, she said.

“I support the troops and I look to the generals to decide on the ground what should be done,” Ryun said.

He said concerns with its costs have been and must continue to be balanced by concerns with national security.