Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., plans to run for a third term in 2008. The 71-year-old Kansas senator is a Republican in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 75 years. He's already raised more than .3 million, more than enough to finance a statewide race in Kansas.

Topeka ? Pat Roberts has more reasons to feel safe heading into a re-election year than most American politicians.

The Kansas senator is a Republican in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 75 years. He’s kept both the conservative and moderate wings of his party happy. He has a record of easy election victories, and no Democrat is making noise about trying to unseat him next year.

But Roberts isn’t acting like someone who feels safe. He anticipates criticism of his tenure as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He frets publicly about advocacy groups coming after him with millions of dollars in television advertising. He’s already raised more than $2.3 million – more than enough to win a statewide race in Kansas – and he’s stockpiled most of it.

Even as Roberts prepares for a tough race that seems unlikely to develop, some fellow Republicans worry about 2008 being another bad year for the GOP. An unpopular war in Iraq, generating headlines about violence and soldiers’ deaths, is behind the pessimism.

“There are very few things Pat Roberts can control. He can’t control the national political environment, can’t control Iraq,” said Tony Fabrizio, a GOP consultant and pollster. “One of the things he can control is how much he has in the bank, what his voting record looks like and how prepared he is for the worst.”

While Roberts never stopped raising money after his easy 2002 re-election, he intensified it this year, according to records filed by his campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission. In the first half of 2007, he raised nearly $1.6 million, two-thirds of his total. He still had nearly $2 million in the bank June 30.

The intensity of the effort seems out of place because Democrats don’t have a candidate – and no one is generating the buzz that a serious challenger would.

Mike Gaughan, the Kansas Democrats’ executive director, promises a candidate “who’s going to show Kansans what it’s like to have independent leadership.” But the Democrat feared most by Republicans – two-term Gov. Kathleen Sebelius – has shown no interest.

Stellar election record

In 27 years as a candidate, Roberts has never had any trouble winning elections. He enjoys strong support within the traditionally dominant GOP, and he’s been able to attract independent voters and some Democrats as well. He’s averaged nearly 74 percent of the vote in eight House races and two Senate contests. Five years ago, Democrats focused on electing Sebelius governor and didn’t even field a candidate.

But Roberts insists the political landscape he faces is anything but predictable. He cites the rise of political blogs, the video-sharing Web site YouTube and, most worrisome to him, advocacy groups and their independent advertisements. He’s particularly worried about left-leaning anti-war groups.

“National politics has changed,” Roberts said during an interview. “What the Senate campaign committee has told us is, ‘Wake up.'”

Roberts also believes he could be a target because he served as Intelligence Committee chairman. Some Democrats have suggested he was too protective of President Bush, but Roberts says flatly, “I’m pretty proud of my chairmanship.”

He also said he supported the war in Iraq because he believed Saddam Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction, something he attributes to a “worldwide, egregious intelligence failure.”

“I was skeptical about it going in,” he said. He called himself a student of Lawrence of Arabia and wondered, when the U.S. and its allies won the war, “What will we win?”

Gaughan isn’t surprised by such comments from Roberts because “he’s got some rehabilitation to do of his image. He’s spent the last six years kind of covering for George Bush.”

‘Iraq, Iraq and Iraq’

Iraq is on many Republicans’ minds, of course. Congress continues to debate how well the war is going and setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces. Dissatisfaction with the war cost the GOP its House and Senate majorities in 2006. That sentiment included Kansas, where Democrat Nancy Boyda defeated five-term Republican Jim Ryun in the 2nd District.

“Iraq, Iraq and Iraq – it’s that combination,” said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster. “The fundamental challenge for Republicans is that almost three-quarters of the voters think the country is off on the wrong track, primarily because of the war in Iraq. That’s not a healthy environment for incumbents in general and Republicans in particular.”

Still, Ayres, Fabrizio and other Republicans don’t think Roberts is vulnerable, and they don’t expect advocacy groups to show much interest in his race. They said other Senate races in the Northeast and the West Coast will be far more competitive – and cause more worries for Republicans.