Print edition: 
Todd Tiahrt was first elected to Congress in 1994.
Jerry Moran was first elected in 1996.
Since then, between them, they have raised more than $18 million in campaign contributions.
Those contributions give some insight into their bases of support.
Both front-runners for the U.S. Senate seat have been nurtured by big businesses, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a finance watchdog organization that compiles figures from Federal Election Commission filings.
But their top contributors also reflect the differences between the rural and urban districts they represent. Agricultural interests more heavily support Moran; aerospace companies and Koch Industries have heavily backed Tiahrt.
The contributors also reflect a split in the Republican party between ideological conservatives represented by Tiahrt and Koch, and the old-time rural GOP of Moran's home turf, said Joe Aistrup, a political science professor at Kansas State University.
"You see a breakdown in background and interests," he said. "Technically speaking, Moran talks more moderate, but carries a conservative stick, where Todd Tiahrt walks, talks and beats a conservative stick."
The winner of the GOP primary race on Aug. 3 is widely expected to win Sam Brownback's Senate seat in the November general election.
And he will have a challenge if he chooses to try to reduce deficit spending in Washington, D.C., a cause both champion, because he'll be expanding his base of support — including contributors — to the entire state, said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University.
"Both will be going from a district to a statewide representative,'' he said. "Part of the job is looking out for the best interests of your state.
"Whoever gets elected is going to go to Washington and hit that age-old conundrum: 'Spending for my state is great, but it's wasteful in other places.'
"It's one of the reasons we have a deficit."
Moran's backers
Moran's top career corporate contributor is an out-of-state company, Ciciora Custom Homes of Oak Brook, Ill., which has given him $69,400.
Company executive John Ciciora is married to a daughter of a long-time Moran supporter from Salina, Stewart Horejsi.
Horejsi (pronounced Horish) is former president of Brown Industries in Salina and among the top shareholders in Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Members of the Ciciora and Horejsi families are among the top individual contributors to Moran's career.
"We think Jerry's a really great guy so we're happy to support him and his effort," said Susan Ciciora, Horejsi's daughter.
Koch is the second-highest corporate contributor to Moran's career at $61,800, followed by the American Farm Bureau ($55,999), the Farm Credit Council ($55,300) and the American Bankers Association, ($54,000).
The organizations themselves didn't donate. The money came from their political action committees, individual members, employees, or owners, and the immediate families of those individuals.
Tiahrt's backers
Koch Industries has given five times more money to Tiahrt than Moran. It ranks at the top of the corporate contributors to Tiahrt since 1994 with $318,653.
Boeing ($115,915), Raytheon ($81,095), Cessna parent Textron Inc. ($80,750), and the National Rifle Association ($77,350) round out Tiahrt's top five.
Tiahrt also has drawn support from the defense industry. As a member of a subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, he became one of the subjects of an ethics probe over earmarks to campaign contributors. The House Ethics Committee cleared him; some evidence collected during the investigation was forwarded to the Justice Department by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Koch's political action committee has supported both candidates because "they have demonstrated an understanding of business and economic issues that are important to our state and nation," said Koch spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia.
Tiahrt, she said, "has been a consistent champion for principles Koch companies stand for such as fiscal responsibility, limited government and the free market."
Six companies and associations are among the top 20 contributors to both candidates: Koch, AT&T, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the National Auto Dealers Association, the American Bankers Association and the American Medical Association.
