Topeka ? Gov. Bill Graves on Thursday ended a six-week holdout and endorsed fellow Republican Tim Shallenburger for governor, saying that party loyalty had moved him to overcome his differences with Shallenburger.

“This is a time when as the head of the Republican Party, I believe I have a responsibility to work through whatever issues we have, focus on the positive things,” Graves said at a news conference with Shallenburger in the governor’s ceremonial office.

Shallenburger, the state treasurer, praised Graves’ tenure as governor and said the support would help his candidacy.

“The governor is the leader of the Republican Party of the state and has a lot of goodwill out there,” Shallenburger said.

Shallenburger faces Democrat Kathleen Sebelius, the state insurance commissioner, in the Nov. 5 election.

Graves, a moderate Republican, and Shallenburger, a conservative Republican, have long been at odds.

After Shallenburger’s GOP primary victory Aug. 6, nearly all heavyweight Republicans, including moderates, lined up behind him. Conspicuously absent was Graves, who was prohibited by term limits from running for re-election.

GOP split

The two met privately for an hour Sept. 3, but Graves still would not give his blessing, though he indicated it was just a matter of time.

Graves’ reluctance to quickly back his fellow Republican was seen as further evidence of the split between the state’s moderates and conservatives. Some moderate Republicans have openly stated they will support Sebelius, who has said she has always had a good working relationship with Graves.

The Sebelius campaign is working to exploit the GOP tension to attract moderate voters. Political activists in both major parties think she needs to do so because registered Republican voters outnumber registered Democrats by about 272,000.

On Thursday, Graves said he would vote for Shallenburger, raise funds for him, appear on his behalf and even give him a donation.

But as the news conference proceeded, Graves made it clear that his endorsement for Shallenburger had more to do with party loyalty than anything else.

“If I went through the list, the treasurer and I could find several things we probably are not going to agree on, but this endorsement is about those things that we know we agree on  and principal amongst those is our commitment to the Republican Party,” Graves said.

Their differences

Graves supports a woman’s right to an abortion; Shallenburger is anti-abortion. And Graves vetoed a bill that Shallenburger supported as a legislator that would have allowed Kansans to carry concealed weapons.

But Graves said those issues would not be so important for the next governor.

“This election is about fiscal management,” Graves said.

The next governor will face a gap between revenue and expenses of several hundred million dollars.

Shallenburger has pledged not to raise taxes while Sebelius has promised a top-to-bottom audit of state government and declined a no-tax-increase pledge.

Asked why he thought Shallenburger would make a better governor than Sebelius, Graves mentioned Shallenburger’s performance as state treasurer and his experience as speaker of the House from 1994 to 1998.

Graves said he was comfortable with Shallenburger’s statements that he does not intend to cut education funding, despite his promise on taxes.

Mum about AG’s race

While Graves threw his support behind Shallenburger, he refused to say whether he would endorse another conservative Republican running for a statewide office  Phill Kline, the GOP nominee for attorney general. Kline faces Democrat Chris Biggs.

Whitney Watson, a spokesman for Kline, said he hoped Graves would endorse Kline but that the two politicians had not spoken to each other since the primary. Graves actively campaigned for one of Kline’s primary opponents, David Adkins, a moderate Republican state senator.

In the other statewide races, Graves has endorsed Lawrence State Sen. Sandy Praeger for insurance commissioner.