Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., endorsed a second candidate in another GOP Senate primary, picking Rep. Todd Tiahrt over Rep. Jerry Moran in Kansas' open-seat Senate race.

Moran and Tiahrt are in a competitive race for the GOP nomination -- the winner of that contest in August 2010 is expected to be the next senator from Kansas.

Inhofe announced last week that he was backing former House Speaker Marco Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida's GOP Senate primary.

"There is a real battle going on in Washington, a philosophical battle between [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and her Washington liberals, who want to tax and spend this country into deeper recession and mind-numbing debt and a group of conservatives who believe we must stop bailing out Wall Street and start investing again in Main Street," Inhofe said. "Todd Tiahrt is one of those conservatives."

One of the top Democratic picks for Kansas governor has decided to take a pass.

Democratic Party Chairman Larry Gates, who reportedly was the choice of current Gov. Mark Parkinson, turned down a bid this week. GOP Sen. Sam Brownback is stepping down from the Senate to run for governor in 2010, and Gates’ decision further clears the path for him to win the seat next November.

“The demands of our businesses in this economic crisis will not permit me to become a candidate,” Gates said in a published letter about his decision.

“We owe it to our investors, our loyal employees, our customers and our family to give our fullest attention to weathering this severe business downturn. I would owe it to you and all Kansans to run an aggressive, full-time campaign on the issues. The reality is, I cannot do both.”

The conservative Family Research Council's political action committee plans to target 16 congressional races in 2010. The group's president, Tony Perkins, said the PAC has a goal of raising $1 million to boost grassroots activity in targeted races.

The group wants to spend money to help favored candidates take over the seats now represented by:

Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for a full term in Colorado after his appointment this year;

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a Democrat who is running for re-election in Connecticut;

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican who is retiring;

Missouri Sen. Christopher S. Bond, a Republican who is retiring;

Rep. John Boccieri, a Democrat who represents Ohio's 16th District;

The political action committee for the conservative Club for Growth on Monday endorsed two 2010 House candidates who are each competing against multiple Republicans in open seat races: State Sen. Tim Huelskamp in Kansas' 1st District; and state Rep. Tom Graves in Georgia's 9th District.

The endorsements offer each candidate a boost from the right as they battle many GOP challengers in pursuit of their party's nomination in Safe Republican seats.

"Both candidates are proven conservative leaders with strong records in support of pro-growth fiscal policies," the Club for Growth said in a statement.

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.

Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning's retirement announcement on Monday was the eighth by a senator whose seat is on a 2010 ballot. Barring a major surprise, that's probably the last Senate retirement that will be announced this election cycle.

The eight "open" Senate seats is above the average for the past few election cycles, more than the five in 2008 or the four in 2006 and matching the eight in 1994 and 2004. In the past three decades, only in the 1996 cycle were there more open Senate seats (13) than in 1994, 2004 or 2010.

Though the retirement announcement by Bunning, who was hampered by poor fundraising and approval ratings, probably increases the Republican Party's chances of holding his seat, open seats often are more difficult for the defending party to retain than those that incumbents are defending.

Republican businessman Tim Barker this week exited the open seat race for Kansas' 1st District, but there's no shortage of Republicans eager to succeed Republican Rep. Jerry Moran in 2010.

Just last week, former Salina mayor Monte Shadwick, who served as Moran's district director, entered the fray.

Shadwick's entry and Barker's departure leaves the GOP field vying for the heavily Republican seat at six candidates.

Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt announced Monday he is running a statewide campaign commercial in Kansas' U.S. Senate race. The ad puts him up on the air more than a year out from the potentially contentious August 2010 primary race.

The commercial focuses criticism on President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for supporting a stimulus plan that hasn't improved the economy, job losses or home foreclosure rates, the ad argues.

"Todd Tiahrt said the bailouts and stimulus were wrong from the start. Now Tiahrt's fighting to stop it," a voiceover states in the ad.

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.