Topeka ? Republican Jim Ryun is wooing an important voting bloc in the 2nd Congressional District with a new television ad touting his work to protect military bases while he held the seat he now hopes to recapture.

But a spokesman for rival GOP candidate, State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, questioned whether Ryun’s role was as big as the ad implies and whether the TV spot undercuts Ryun’s promise not to seek new funding “earmarks” in future budgets.

Ryun’s campaign began running the ad Tuesday on broadcast stations in Topeka and on cable systems in Leavenworth and Riley counties. The 2nd District, which covers most of eastern Kansas, includes Fort Leavenworth, Fort Riley and Forbes Field outside Topeka, home to a Kansas Air National Guard refueling wing.

In the ad, Pete Bunce, a retired Air Force colonel, describes Ryun’s work as a congressman as instrumental in keeping those installations open during the last round of military base closings in 2005. Ryun held the 2nd District seat for 10 years before losing it in 2006 to Democrat Nancy Boyda.

The colonel says: “He’s someone that truly can get a job done.”

The Aug. 5 primary will determine whether Ryun or Jenkins faces Boyda in the Nov. 4 general election.

In 2005, Kansas did well compared with other states as the federal government picked military installations to be shut down, even gaining an estimated 3,600 military and civilian jobs as changes were made. Only the Parsons Army Ammunition Plant was targeted for closing.

Jenkins spokesman Josh Hersh said the work of others, including Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts and 1st District Rep. Jerry Moran, was crucial.

“The whole Kansas delegation had a big part in that process,” he said. “No one of them single-handedly saved those bases.”

Hersh also said the ad raises questions about Ryun’s true position on earmarks because in it, the colonel praises Ryun for “setting up the infrastructure” at Forbes Field and Fort Riley and an unidentified supporter adds, “Jim came through for us.”

Ryun has said previously that he would not support new funding earmarks in the budget. Jenkins has pledged to support reforms of the budgeting process so that earmarks are limited to projects of national interest.

Hersh said Ryun is being inconsistent: “That would kind of raise the question of what that is going to mean for the district.”