An unusual chain of events has led Kansas to a state leadership situation that probably is unique in Kansas history and is unlikely to occur again any time soon.

With Tuesday’s appointment of Securities Commissioner Chris Biggs as the new Kansas secretary of state, five of the state’s six top elected offices now are held by Democrats. Even stranger is that the only Republican in the group, Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger of Lawrence, also is the only official still serving in the office to which she was elected.

A string of resignations and appointments by two Democratic governors have led to the current situation.

The first was the resignation of Attorney General Paul Morrison, a Democrat who was elected in 2006, but resigned after less than a year in office amid reports of an extramarital affair during his campaign. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appointed Stephen Six, who then was a Douglas County district judge, to take Morrison’s place. The Democrat-for-Democrat switch maintained the political status quo.

The next resignation was Lynn Jenkins who stepped down as state treasurer after she was elected to represent the Kansas 2nd District in Congress in 2008. Jenkins is a Republican, but the appointment belonged to Sebelius, who tapped fellow Democrat Dennis McKinney for the job.

A few months later, Sebelius accepted an appointment to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson stepped into the governor’s office and appointed former Lawrence legislator and Democrat Troy Findley as his lieutenant governor.

The shift in political power was completed Tuesday with the appointment of Democrat Biggs to replace Republican Ron Thornburgh who had given up his race for governor and resigned as secretary of state to go into the private sector. It is the first time a Democrat has held that office since 1951. Biggs already had announced his plans to run for secretary of state this year. One other Democrat and three Republicans also are in the race, but the conventional wisdom is that serving even a few months in the office will give Biggs an important advantage in the race.

It’s an interesting turn of events. Praeger and Parkinson are the only current state officials who ever were elected to a statewide office, and Parkinson wasn’t elected to the office he now holds. On one hand, it’s unsettling that so much power lies in the hands of people not chosen by the voters. On the other hand, it’s comforting to know that our system of government allows such transitions to occur so smoothly that they go almost unnoticed by the state’s residents.

Kansas voters will get their say in November. It will be interesting to see how well they like some of the officeholders someone else chose to represent them.