Topeka ? Officials who are battling other states to try to lure a national laboratory to Kansas said Friday they are concerned that Washington politics could become a factor in the fight.

“We need to make sure this does not get political,” said Tom Thornton, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Bioscience Authority.

But state lawmakers said that probably wasn’t realistic.

“How the hell are you going to keep it from becoming political?” asked state Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac.

Thornton and R.W. Trewyn, vice president for research at Kansas State University, gave the House-Senate Committee on Kansas Security an update on Kansas’ efforts to land the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility.

Called NBAF for short, the proposed $450 million lab will be used by the Department of Homeland Security to develop countermeasures to animal and human diseases.

The Kansas State campus is one of six sites under consideration.

The other finalists are in Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas and a current government lab at Plum Island, N.Y. Homeland Security is scheduled to select the site in October 2008.

Thornton and Trewyn said based on Homeland Security criteria for the project, they felt Kansas would win on its merits.

Kansas State is one of the leading animal research universities in the nation, and has a new bioscience lab that the federal government could use while it builds NBAF. In addition, the region is home to a thriving animal health industry, and the project has widespread public support.

“On the merits, I do believe we have the best bid,” Thornton said.

But he and Trewyn said some other states in the running have more political clout in Congress, which holds the purse strings to the project.

State Rep. Lee Tafanelli, R-Ozawkie, said the Kansas team should exploit the weaknesses of bids from other finalists.

“We don’t want to take our foot off the pedal,” he said.

Like several other finalists, Kansas has hired a lobbyist to represent its interests in the contest, Thornton said.

And, he said, Kansas is trying to expand its political influence by reaching out to other states and telling them they could collaborate with Kansas State on research.

Thornton also said he believes there will be less political maneuvering on this issue because it is crucial to national defense. “People will be kept in line,” he said.