Topeka ? Republican Derek Schmidt has received a former GOP rival’s endorsement in the Kansas attorney general’s race.

Junction City prosecutor Ralph DeZago says he and Schmidt, the Kansas Senate majority leader, share similar philosophies.

Schmidt, of Independence, beat DeZago in this month’s two-way primary with 76 percent of the vote. In the general election he’ll face incumbent Democrat Steve Six, a former district judge from Lawrence who was appointed attorney general in January 2008.

Six has been endorsed by the state lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents more than 3,100 officers in Kansas.