By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff

Late returns from Tuesday’s primary in Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District showed Republican state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins dashing former five-term Rep. Jim Ryun’s hopes for a rematch with Nancy Boyda , the Democrat who unseated him in the 2006 election. With just 1 precinct yet to report of the district’s 819, Jenkins held a 51 percent to 49 percent lead over Ryun, a margin of 967 votes.

Jenkins held a consistent though narrow lead throughout the primary night vote count.

Jenkins, who won re-election as state treasurer by a comfortable margin in 2006, was viewed as a highly competitive candidate from the time she made known her intentions to run for the House seat this year. Yet she was seen as somewhat of an underdog to Ryun, who was famous for his athletic prowess decades before he entered politics. Ryun broke the four-minute mile barrier as a high school track star and in 1967, while attending the University of Kansas, set a world record for the mile run that held up for almost eight years. He competed in three Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in 1968.

He also enjoyed the familiarity, campaign organization and network of support he built during his 10-year stint representing the sprawling eastern Kansas district in Congress. He raised about $1 million more than Jenkins through July 16, with his total padded by contributions from the campaign committees of former House colleagues.

But Jenkins, whose receipts of nearly $800,000 were hardly insubstantial, sought to appeal to voters’ widespread dissatisfication with Congress by positioning herself as an outsider running against a longtime Washington lawmaker in Ryun. She also touted her background as a certified public accountant as a qualification for dealing with fiscal matters she would face if elected to Congress.

Jenkins argued Ryun had worn out his welcome, with campaign commercials that reminded voters that they only two years ago chose to vote Ryun out of office. Ryun lost to Democrat Boyda, whom he defeated by 15 percentage points in an initial 2004 matchup, in a district that favored President Bush with 59 percent in his 2004 race.

Ryun — long a favorite of his party’s conservative wing, including voters who focus on social issues — took aim at Jenkins’ record, especially on fiscal matters, and argued she was not a true conservative. But Jenkins, seeking to avoid being labeled as a moderate in a primary dominated by conservative voters, also positioned herself to the right on fiscal matters and issues such as opposition to illegal immigration.

Nonetheless, Jenkins brings a somewhat less ideological image into a general election with Boyda, who edged Ryun by 51 percent to 47 percent in 2006 and is virtually certain to face another highly competitive race this fall. CQ Politics rates the race No Clear Favorite, making hers one of just five Democratic-held seats in that tossup category. By comparison, the Democrats are rated as having an edge in five contests for Republican-held House seats with races for nine other GOP seats rated No Clear Favorite.

Boyda has sought to secure her political position in the district by maintaining the centrist posture on which she ran in her previous races with Ryun. She has already warned third-party groups, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to stay out of her race.

Other primaries held Tuesday set up the expected matchups for the state’s only other congressional races that will feature vigorous, though longshot, challenges.

The Democratic Senate nomination to challenge two-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts went, as expected, to former Rep. Jim Slattery. Slattery — who returned to Kansas to run after a long stint as a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington — received 69 percent of the vote to 31 percent for labor union lobbyist Lee Jones with nearly all precincts reporting.

Slattery, who served in the U.S. House from 1983-95, gives the Democrats a candidate with some serious political experience after failing to even field anyone against Roberts in 2002. But Roberts benefits from his state’s usually strong Republican leanings, and Slattery still has to re-establish himself to voters in his first race since a one-sided loss as the Democratic nominee for governor in 1994. CQ Politics rates the Senate race as Republican Favored.

In Kansas’ 3rd District, Republican state Sen. Nick Jordan won his party’s nomination to take on five-term Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore this fall. Jordan received 76 percent and lesser-known candidate Paul Showen, an Air Force veteran, had 24 percent.