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.

Duncan Hunter, a retired Republican who once chaired the Armed Services Committee, has decided that Iraq War veterans are the perfect candidates to revive the Republican Party in 2010.

Hunter -- a Vietnam War vet who briefly sought the 2008 Republican presidential nomination -- is already backing two such candidates as they launch challenges to two of the more junior members of the House Democratic majority: Jesse Kelly, who wants to take on two-term incumbent Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona's 8th District, and Vaughn Ward, whose target in Idaho's 1st District is freshman Democrat Walt Minnick.

Hunter will be attending a series of brunches, receptions and a golf outing in Tucson this weekend with Kelly, who said Hunter is a big attraction in conservative circles in his district in Arizona's southeastern corner. "He did very well in early presidential polls down here," Kelly noted, referring to Hunter's 2008 bid.

During much of his House career, Hunter represented a California district that stretched from San Diego east to the border of Kelly's home state of Arizona, though for the past decade the 52nd District has been confined to San Diego County in California's southwest corner.