During an interview today with KFDI News of Wichita, Republican Willis "Wink" Hartman Sr., a wealthy oilman, announced his intention to run for Kansas' open 4th District seat.

"I've been very fortunate, not only financially but providing jobs and building different infrastructures and different companies. So now I'd like to take that talent, that I've ... whittled down to a fine art, I'd like to take that to Washington and see what I can do for the 4th District," he said.

Hartman joins state Sen. Dick Kelsey, Republican National Committee member Mike Pompeo and businessman Jim Anderson in the race for the GOP nomination to succeed Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sam Brownback.

Pompeo leads in early fundraising with $253,000 raised through June 30, and Kelsey loaned his campaign $223,000 for a total of $230,000 raised through the same date. Anderson entered the race in July, after the close of the fundraising quarter.

Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh has ended his bid in the state's 2010 contest for governor, giving retiring Sen. Sam Brownback a clear path to the GOP nomination.

The development also solidifies Brownback's status as the front-runner in the race for the seat -- currently held by interim Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson -- as he will be spared a primary contest with a well-known and longtime statewide officeholder. Thornburgh has been secretary of state since he was first elected in 1994.

Nonetheless, Thornburgh would have needed a major come-from-behind push to overcome Brownback, who first won his Senate seat in a 1996 special election, won landslide re-election victories in 1998 and 2004, and ran a short-lived campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. A recent poll conducted by SurveyUSA showed Brownback trouncing Thornburgh by a margin of 47 percentage points.

State Sen. Jim Barnett is the latest of six Republican candidates who already have entered the 2010 race for Kansas' 1st Congressional District seat, which seven-term incumbent Jerry Moran has left open to run for the U.S. Senate.

But Barnett is unlikely to be the least in the Republican field. In fact, the high profile he achieved as the 2006 GOP nominee for governor could certainly boost him into the top tier of candidates competing in the 1st, one of the nation's leading Republican Party strongholds.

Barnett lost that governor's race pretty badly, by 58 percent to 41 percent, to incumbent Kathleen Sebelius, a rare popular Democrat in statewide politics who recently resigned to become secretary of Health and Human Services under President Obama. But Barnett did better on the strongly Republican turf of the 1st, finishing first in roughly half of the 69 counties that are all or part in the district.

For some congressional candidates preparing early for the 2010 elections, the best seed money is their own personal funds.

Suzan DelBene, a Democrat from Washington state, and Kansas Republicans Dick Kelsey and Tim Barker all reported six-figure personal loans to their campaigns in this year's first quarter, according to just-filed campaign finance documents. There is no limit on how much personal money a candidate can put into his or her own campaign.

DelBene, a technology executive who is running against Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in the state's 8th District near Seattle, contributed or loaned her campaign $209,000 -- about two-thirds of her total first-quarter receipts of $315,000. Her personal funding enabled DelBene to post more overall receipts than Reichert, who raised $195,000 during the reporting period.

Republican Tracey Mann, a real estate agent, will announce his candidacy on April 4 for Kansas' open 1st District.

Mann will join an already crowded GOP field to succeed Republican Rep. Jerry Moran, who is running for governor.

Republicans Tim Huelskamp, a state senator, businessman Tim Barker, former senate aide Rob Wasinger, and educator Sue Boldra are each campaigning for the Republican nomination.

Voters in the largely rural district supported John McCain for president with 69 percent of the vote, according to a CQ Politics analysis.

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn on Wednesday endorsed Republican Rep. Jerry Moran's bid for Kansas Senate even though Coburn's endorsement means he will be taking sides in an intra-party battle.

"His election to the United State Senate would be a tremendous benefit to those of us fighting against the bailouts and irresponsible spending in Washington, D.C.," Coburn said of Moran, according to a fundraising letter Thursday. "I give him my strongest endorsement for the U.S. Senate." Coburn's home state borders Kansas to the south.

Moran, of Kansas' 1st District, faces a hotly contested primary battle against House colleague Todd Tiahrt of the 4th District for their party's nomination.