BULLETIN Phill Kline, GOP, nominated Attorney General, Kansas.

Phill Kline held his lead Tuesday night over David Adkins in a bid to become the Republican nominee for attorney general, ending what may have been Kansas’ nastiest campaign of the year.

With 74 percent of the state’s 3,378 precincts reporting, Kline had 48 percent while Adkins had 39 percent. A third candidate, Topeka attorney Charles McAtee had 13 percent.

Adkins, a state senator from Leawood, is a moderate; Kline, a former House member from Shawnee, is a conservative that difference generating bad feelings almost from the beginning.

The primary winner will face Democrat Chris Biggs, the Geary County prosecutor, in the Nov. 5 general election. Biggs had no primary opposition.