Topeka ? Republicans in the Kansas House who voted for a tax increase during the recent legislative session are facing primary election challenges at a much greater rate than Republican House members who voted against the tax increase.

“Some individuals have concluded we aren’t Republican enough,” said Rep. Charles Roth, R-Salina, who voted for the tax increase and has drawn two opponents in the Aug. 3 GOP primary.

Roth’s opponents are Ronald Young and Neil Jednoralski. In an interview, Young said if he had been in the Legislature, he would have voted against the temporary 1-cent increase in the sales tax rate, which takes effect July 1.

“I’m tired of our taxes being raised without having any choice about it,” said Young, who is a chiropractor.

He said he has been active in the tea party movement and received “good support” to run from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the tax increase and vowed to try to defeat lawmakers who voted for it. He said Jeff Glendening, who is vice president of public affairs for the chamber, helped him get his paperwork in order to run, but Young emphasized that the chamber hadn’t flat-out endorsed him.

Glendening confirmed he met and spoke with Young about running against Roth. “We are certainly recruiting candidates in districts where we thought we could replace” lawmakers who voted for more taxes, he said.

But Roth, the incumbent, said most of the people he has talked to have agreed with his decision to support the state sales tax. It was a tough decision, he said, but one that was necessary to prevent further damage to schools, public safety and the social services safety net after six rounds of earlier budget cuts.

The tax increase was approved in the House in May on a 64-61 vote.

Twenty-one Republicans voted for the increase. Of those, 18 are seeking re-election. Of the 18, 10 — more than half — have drawn primary opponents.

Meanwhile, 55 Republicans voted against the tax bill. Of those, 52 are seeking re-election, and only 10 — less than a fifth — have a primary opponent.

But the Republicans who voted for the tax increase say they aren’t sure whether their primary contests represent an organized effort to install no-tax discipline throughout the GOP.

“We won’t know until we see the candidate contribution lists,” Roth said. Campaign finance reports to the state are due July 26.

Rep. Don Hill, R-Emporia, said his primary opposition probably stems from a combination of his vote for the tax increase plus a general anti-incumbent mood in the political world.

“I’ve had two Republican primaries before, so when you’re in the middle of the road sometimes you get attention from both sides of the street,” Hill said.

His Republican opponent, Daniel Buller, just received his master’s degree in history at Emporia State University.

“He didn’t vote the Republican way,” Buller said of Hill. But Buller described himself as a reluctant candidate, saying he would rather be putting up hay at his family’s ranch and looking for a job. Running for office, he said, “has taken me out of my comfort zone. But I’ll give it my all.”