The Republican candidate for governor generally perceived as too conservative for the GOP’s moderate wing is also too tight with organized labor to deserve the party’s nomination.

So said Kansas Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall on Wednesday. Stovall said she’s the best pick for Republican primary voters because she is the “pro-business” candidate and State Treasurer Tim Shallenburger is the “pro-union” son of a labor organizer.

Stovall said Shallenburger’s record as a legislator shows that he voted “with the unions all the time.”

It’s no coincidence, Stovall said, that the state’s business lobby consistently panned Shallenburger’s legislative performance.

“His KCCI (the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry) rating was the lowest of any Republican legislator,” she said during a meeting with the Journal-World editorial board.

Stovall noted that Shallenburger’s father once tried to organize coal miners in southeast Kansas, explaining that Shallenburger came by his pro-union leanings naturally.

“I’m not being critical,” Stovall said. “But it will be an issue.”

Shallenburger said Stovall was half-right about his father.

“My dad was an electrician for the company that ran the lead- and zinc-mining smelter (near Baxter Springs),” he said. “Working conditions there were terrible. The workers were treated like crap. It was an environmental nightmare  this is a company the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) ended up suing because of all the toxic conditions it left behind. And after that, the company filed bankruptcy.

“So, yes, he tried to organize a union. He lost by only a few votes, and the next day he was fired. I’m not ashamed of that.”

Shallenburger disputed the significance of the KCCI ratings, noting that many of the monitored votes don’t have much to do with business.

“I voted against the lottery,” he said. “The chamber didn’t want me to, so I got docked for that. I voted against liquor by the drink  same thing. Now, the chamber was for those things, but I don’t know that that makes them pro-business issues.

“Tim Shallenburger,” he said, “is as responsible as anyone when it comes to helping business.”

Shallenburger, who was in Washington, D.C., attending a meeting of the National Association of State Treasurers, said that when he’s looked back on his voting record, he sees support of both business and worker.

“The business people we’ve been talking to don’t have a problem with that,” he said. “Nobody’s running away from us because KCCI gave me a (rating of) 46 instead of 100.”

Shallenburger was first elected to the Kansas House in 1986. He served as speaker from 1996 through 1998, when he was elected state treasurer.

Stovall has been attorney general since 1995.

Other Stovall comments:

 She favors the proposed 65-cent-a-pack tax on cigarettes because it’s likely to both raise revenue and reduce smoking. She also supports allowing slot machines at the state’s dog- and horse-racing tracks, assuming local voters approve.

She opposes raising state taxes on alcohol, gasoline and sales.

 She’s against cutting state aid to schools and “programs that affect peoples’ lives,” namely health care and prescription drugs.

Transportation and higher education, she said, could be cut.

“Transportation is not life-threatening,” she said. “And higher education is important, but it’s not life-giving.”

Stovall said she would postpone following through with promised increases in state support for higher education Âbetween $31 million and $45 million Âuntil the economy improves.

 Stovall heartily endorsed calls for the state to finance construction of research facilities at Kansas University, Kansas State University and Wichita State University by selling bonds that the universities would later pay back.

 Stovall called Kansas Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius’ decision to block the proposed merger of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield “politically popular” because “nobody wants to pay higher health insurance premiums. I understand that, I don’t either.”

 The chance that Kansas will come out of the Aug. 6 primary with two women  Stovall and Sebelius  running for governor “would speak well for the state,” she said.