Topeka ? Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer shut the door on a possible bid for governor Wednesday, saying he had concluded he could win and was close to running but decided that “I owe my family some things.”

Aides to House Speaker Kent Glasscock, meanwhile, began backing away from statements that Glasscock was strongly inclined to seek the Republican nomination. He had been Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall’s lieutenant-governor running mate until she quit the governor’s race Monday.

Kansas Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer will not seek the Republican nomination for governor because of family concerns. Sherrer said Wednesday that he considered running after the withdrawal of Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall from the race but said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Sherrer, 61, last year said he would not run for governor, but he had reconsidered as speculation about Stovall’s plans grew last week. Her departure left GOP moderates like Sherrer without a favored candidate to succeed Gov. Bill Graves, who is barred from seeking a third term.

Glasscock’s aides had suggested he would declare his intentions this week. On Wednesday, however, they said he had changed his mind and did not have a firm timetable.

Stovall, in declaring Monday that she lacked the “passion” for a statewide campaign, urged Glasscock to run and encouraged Republicans to support him.

Sherrer declined to endorse any candidate Wednesday but said he, too, was unable to commit to campaigning and to serving “1,460 days” a four-year term as governor.

“I have found, to be very honest with you, too many days with my family that I’ve missed,” he said during a Statehouse news conference.

Already the state’s longest-serving lieutenant governor, he also ruled out running on another candidate’s ticket, serving in the next administration or working as a lobbyist.

“You’ll be hearing me say, ‘Do you want fries with that?’ before you hear me say, ‘Will you vote for this bill?”‘ Sherrer said.

He had come “awfully, awfully close to running” after people began encouraging him last week to reconsider his earlier decision and he thought he could win, he said.

But he added: “If I ran, it would be solely on the basis that others are wanting me to, and while that’s very flattering, it’s a poor reason to run for governor. You shouldn’t run for governor unless you want to and you’re fully committed to it.”

Last year, Sherrer was among top Republicans who urged the party’s moderates to unite behind one candidate who could defeat State Treasurer Tim Shallenburger, a conservative, in a GOP primary.

Glasscock last year scrapped his own plan to run for governor and joined Stovall’s ticket instead. Now, Glasscock “feels he needs to make a decision that is right for himself and his family, as well as his party and his state,” his spokesman Scott Holeman said Wednesday.

“I don’t expect an announcement any time soon,” Holeman said.

Besides Shallenburger, the declared GOP candidates for governor are Wichita Mayor Bob Knight, who has avoided ideological labels, and former Eudora schools superintendent Dan Bloom. The only declared Democratic candidate is Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius.

Knight’s campaign manager David Morris said Wednesday that Sherrer’s announcement did not change the mayor’s strategy.

“We wish him well on whatever venture his private life takes him into,” David Morris said of Sherrer.

Shallenburger was less charitable.

“I think it’s amazing that someone has press conference after press conference to say they’re not running,” he said. “Maybe we’ll have one to say we’re running again.”