Topeka ? Tim Shallenburger doesn’t think he’s properly introduced himself to most voters, even after winning a contentious Republican gubernatorial primary.

He believes many of them still aren’t sure whether he’ll actually keep his promise not to raise taxes and that many don’t know much about his background. Furthermore, he argues that Democrat Kathleen Sebelius’ campaign is busily trying to give voters a misleading impression of him.

Shallenburger also argued during a recent interview that news organizations are actively ignoring the flaws in Sebelius’ record. The result, he said, is that she is sounding like a conservative and getting a free pass.

Yet, despite those concerns, Shallenburger said he’s not worried about the race, or a recent poll that suggested Sebelius had a double-digit lead.

“I think that they don’t know a lot about me,” he said. “They remember, kind of, what newspapers tell them and TV tells them, and they say, ‘Oh, that’s the conservative guy. He doesn’t want to raise taxes. I’m not sure he can do that.’ And that’s it.

“I think people don’t have a lot of impressions about me, because we never sold, ‘Tim Shallenburger’s from southeast Kansas, a working family, blue-collar, tax-cutter, recognized leader,”‘ Shallenburger said. “We haven’t done that.”

But Shallenburger found himself on the defensive after the primary as Sebelius began wooing moderate Republicans on education. She repeatedly noted his Aug. 7 statement that public schools could stand a cut of up to 3 percent if the alternative was raising taxes.

Shallenburger has said he was speaking in the context of Gov. Bill Graves’ soon-to-be-imposed cuts in the current budget.

He has said repeatedly he didn’t want to cut school funding and doesn’t intend to do so as governor.

Yet Shallenburger believes the biggest issue for Kansas voters is taxes. He worried repeatedly about potential attempts by the Sebelius campaign to undercut voter confidence in his no-tax-increase pledge.

Particularly unfair, he said, is an opposition research memo listing his legislative votes in favor of a bill allowing local governments to raise taxes.

“She’s acting like she’s been going up to the Republican women’s clubs 10 years,” he said. “I’m a conservative; she’s a liberal. They get mad when you call her a liberal. I get mad when they lie about my record.”