Four years ago, Nick Jordan, a veteran Senator from Shawnee, vied with Sen. Steve Morris of Hugoton for the position of Senate President, ultimately losing on a 16-14 vote.

Fast forward to now, and Jordan, fresh off an unsuccessful challenge to U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, recalls that leadership contest as “one of the most difficult things I’ve been through in politics.”

Jordan offered insights into the Senate's complex and secretive leadership election process during a conversation with Kansas Liberty Thursday.

This year in the Senate, the current president, Morris, a left-of-center "moderate" often allied with Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, is pitted against conservative Sen. Susan Wagle of Topeka.

Both are keeping pretty low profiles media-wise, but behind-the-scenes, a feisty battle for votes from their Senate colleagues is being relentlessly waged.

“It’s intense and it’s intimate, because you’re only working with 31 senators and 16 votes gets you the leadership role,” Jordan said.

He figures both contestants engaged in some serious “nose-counting” even before they publicly launched their campaigns, and both probably are relatively confident they’ll prevail.

“Both of them knew they had a shot or they wouldn’t have announced their candidacies,” he said. “It’s just silly to get into the situation if you don’t feel fairly confident you can win.”

While some Senators will make up their minds based on the political philosophies espoused by candidates, and others simply want to support the candidates best able to get the job done, other factors are in play as well, Jordan said.

“Some people want something in return for their support,” Jordan said. That could come in the form of committee assignments, pledges of support for pet projects, or promises that a bill will at least get a fair hearing on the Senate floor. Rewarding political allies is far from straightforward.

"In the Senate, the President doesn’t make committee assignments directly," Jordan explained. "He or she has to run them through a committee. But realistically, the President usually gets his way."

That means Senators who support the “wrong” candidate for Senate President might find themselves exiled to low-profile, low-impact committees, while members who supported the victorious candidates have a good chance of landing seats on plum committees, such as Ways and Means, which has tremendous influence on how and where state money is spent.

“Ways and Means is usually a plum assignment, but I don’t know whether it will be after the next few sessions,” Jordan said, in a back-handed reference to the state’s budget woes.

For leadership candidates, freshmen Senators are juicy targets of opportunity.

“The freshmen who come in, most of the time they don’t really know the landscape or the personalities, and they can kind of get caught in the middle. There can be a lot of pressure on them,” Jordan said.

While candidates usually have a pretty good idea of who’s going to support them, Jordan said there usually are hold-outs who refuse to commit one way or another before the votes are cast.

“Some people never declare because they want to be in favor with whoever wins,” Jordan said. Others sometimes hold out as a tactic, in a bid to win greater incentives, such as committee assignments, from the candidate they eventually support.

And, frustratingly, at least from the candidates’ perspectives, no one really knows for certain who voted how, because, at least in the Republican caucus, leadership races are determined via secret ballot.

“That’s why as a candidate, you want to go in with one or two more votes than you need – you never know who might change their minds at the last minute,” Jordan said.

Jordan, technically still a Senator until his replacement is seated in January, will not have an opportunity to cast a ballot in the leadership race. That obligation will lie with his successor.

And, having been somewhat preoccupied with a multi-million dollar Congressional campaign that consumed more than a year, Jordan said he really didn’t have a feel for who might emerge victorious on Dec. 1, when leadership votes will be cast by the Republican caucus.

“These races are hard to handicap, even when you’re a candidate,” he said.

Jordan conceded that he’s offered some advice to Senators who might have had an interest in seeking leadership posts, but he’s not saying who they are, and he's not publicly endorsing anyone.

First elected to the Senate in 2005, Jordan said he would miss the people and the process when the Legislature convenes in January.

“I’ll miss a lot of things,” he said. “Over the years you really develop strong friendships with people on both sides of the aisle, and I enjoy trying to resolve issues.”

However, he said his former colleagues are likely to endure a session that could be one of the most unpleasant in recent memory, with potential budget shortfalls pretty much dictating the legislative agenda.

For now, Jordan is content taking a breather after the consuming Congressional campaign and assisting his wife Linda with the family’s retail pottery business. He’s also interested in resuming a consulting practice targeted at the tourism industry, an area of expertise for the former director of the Overland Park Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“As far as the future goes, right now I really don’t know, but I do hope to be politically involved in one way or another,” he said.

Jordan also took the opportunity to once again express his appreciation to his supporters.

“It was a great ride,” he said of the Congressional race. “We had great supporters who really worked their tails off, and most of the people we’ve talked to say we had a good message. We were just caught in an Obama tsunami, and, when discussions about the bailout started, the polls really started to turn.”

 - Phil LaCerte

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Phil LaCerte is Kansas Liberty's managing editor.

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