He’s “doing his best” to balance work as a Kansas representative and campaigning to become the next U.S. president.

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., stressed that message this morning during a short conference call with Kansas media when asked about missing several Senate votes since the session began in January.

“What I am trying to do is balance the work back and forth. Being in the U.S. Senate, being on the campaign trail, I’m trying to do the best I can,” Brownback said.

According to an analysis by The Washington Post, Brownback has missed 33 percent, or 62, of 186 votes this session. Others running for president have missed a significant number of votes too. They are Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., 93; Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., 52; and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., 37.

Other than campaigning, Brownback said he missed votes in January because of his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. He also missed votes while inspecting damage in tornado-ravaged Greensburg.

The Kansas senator – who is polling with support of about 2 percent of voters nationally in the GOP race – insisted his presidential bid was going well and again called himself the “tortoise in the race.”

“It’s not a national race. It’s a race through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, so the effort is targeted and focused most in those areas,” Brownback said of the early caucus and primaries.

After Tuesday night’s debate performance in New Hampshire with nine other candidates, Brownback said he would introduce legislation today on dividing Iraq into three loosely federated states to help divide Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis and hopefully reduce violence there.

“We’ve got to get on the political track (in Iraq), and we don’t have a sufficient political solution from this administration,” Brownback said.