Topeka ? Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh hopes Kansas and other Midwestern states will have presidential primaries at the same time in 2008, but he doesn’t have a target date.

Thornburgh said Wednesday he will ask legislators next year to set aside $2.5 million for the primary. In the past, the cost of a special statewide election has led lawmakers to cancel primaries.

A 2003 state law gives the secretary of state the power to set the primary’s date and encourages him to work with other states. However, Thornburgh said he can’t pick a date until he knows when Iowa will hold its caucuses and New Hampshire, its primary.

Those two events – in Iowa first, then in New Hampshire, typically in January – kick off the Democratic and Republican parties’ nominating contests. The two states work to keep their contests first, and neither has been scheduled.

As for Kansas’ election, Thornburgh said, “I would assume it should be within the first month to six weeks after those.”

In Kansas, the parties most often have picked delegates to national presidential nominating conventions through local, regional and state caucuses, though they have sometimes had a single statewide convention.

The state had primaries in 1980 and 1992, with more than 373,000 voters participating in the 1992 election.

Kansas also was scheduled to have primaries in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

However, budget concerns doomed the 2000 election. In 1996, Kansas Sen. Bob Dole was the GOP nominee and had the state’s delegation committed to him from the start. In 2004, legislators thought the primary not worth the cost because President Bush, a Republican, was seeking re-election.

Before the change in 2003, the date of the primary was fixed as the first Tuesday in April – too late, many officials think, to influence the nominating process.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said she hasn’t decided whether to include the $2.5 million in the budget she’ll propose to the 2007 Legislature, which convenes Jan. 8.

In 2003, Sebelius suggested that the state forgo presidential primaries in favor of caucuses. But on Wednesday, she said letting Kansans vote is “always a great idea,” as long as the primary doesn’t come too late.

“If you’ve already got a nominee, then spending two-and-a-half million bucks doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” she told reporters.

Thornburgh agreed. The law gives him until Nov. 1, 2007, to pick a date.

“We’re going to continue to work with our neighboring states to try to develop a regional primary, and then we have the ability to place Kansas where it’s best able to be a part of that process,” he said.

Thornburgh said 2008 is an ideal year for legislators to fund a primary. He noted that President Bush can’t seek re-election and that Vice President Dick Cheney doesn’t plan to seek the GOP nomination.

“This is our best shot to get it done,” he said. “Either they’re going to step up to the plate, or we need to change the law and eliminate the primary if they don’t do it under these circumstances.”

Thornburgh wouldn’t say which states he’s working with. The 2003 law says the secretary of state must first look to a date on which at least five other states are having primaries or caucuses.

“That’s really the key,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence. “Kansas alone doesn’t gain very much. If Kansas becomes part of a Super Tuesday for the Midwest, then it’s easily worth the money.”