Topeka ? An unusual combination of circumstances has put Democrats in five of six statewide offices in Kansas, a new political pinnacle for them in a Republican-leaning state.

Their ascendancy is even more unusual because none of the five was elected to the position he now holds. All of them owe their current jobs to an appointment by a Democratic governor.

The Kansas Democratic Party’s unprecedented moment of power may not last past the next 10 months. Heading into what the Kansas Republican Party expects to be a good election year, the Democrats’ jump to prominence in statewide offices is another motivational tool for GOP activists.

Democrats insist their office holders will be judged on performance, not party labels. But they also know that history is against them holding onto five statewide offices at once.

“It could be a long time before that happens again,” acknowledged State Treasurer Dennis McKinney, one of the Democrats.

The Democrats captured their fifth statewide office last week when Chris Biggs became secretary of state. Appointed by Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson, Biggs is finishing out the term of Republican Ron Thornburgh, who resigned last month to become a vice president for an Olathe company that manages government Web sites.

The only Republican in statewide office now is Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006.

“It just throws more wood on the fire,” said state GOP Chairwoman Amanda Adkins. “All this is doing is firing up our base.”

The events leading Democrats to their present position begin with then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ announcement in May 2006 that Parkinson was her choice for lieutenant governor on her ultimately successful re-election ticket. He was a former state GOP chairman who switched parties; another party switcher, Paul Morrison, was elected attorney general that year as a Democrat.

But Morrison was forced to step down in January 2008 after acknowledging an extramarital affair. Sebelius appointed Steve Six, then a Douglas County district judge, to fill out the remaining three years of Morrison’s term.

Kansas law doesn’t require a special election to fill a vacancy in a statewide office, even if one can be held at the same time as a regularly scheduled general election, like the one in November 2008.

Also in 2008, then-State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, a Republican, won the U.S. House seat for the 2nd District of eastern Kansas. Sebelius appointed McKinney, from Greensburg, then the Kansas House minority leader.

Kansas law doesn’t require a governor to fill a vacancy in a statewide office with someone of the same political party as the previous office holder.

One more event in 2008 would change Kansas’ political landscape: the election of Democrat Barack Obama as president. He picked Sebelius as U.S. secretary of health and human services, and in April 2009 she resigned as governor to join his Cabinet. Her departure elevated Parkinson to governor.

Parkinson then named his chief of staff, Troy Findley, as lieutenant governor.

Previous offices

Democrats held four statewide offices, which had happened only twice before in Kansas.

The first was in October 1938, when a vacancy occurred in the state treasurer’s office and Gov. Walter Huxman, soon to lose his bid for re-election, appointed a fellow Democrat. Democrats also held the offices of lieutenant governor and superintendent of public instruction.

Then, in 1958, when Gov. George Docking won re-election, fellow Democrats won contests for lieutenant governor, treasurer and state printer.

The superintendent of public instruction’s position was abolished in 1969, to be replaced by an education commissioner appointed by a new, elected State Board of Education. The state printer’s office was abolished in 1977. Kansans also used to elect a state auditor but that office was abolished in 1975.

As of May 2009, Democrats held as many statewide offices at one time as they ever had in Kansas, where registered Republicans now outnumber them better than 3-to-2.

Ten months later, Thornburgh stepped down early as secretary of state to take his private sector job. He’d already decided to give up the secretary of state’s office after four terms and who’d abandoned a campaign for governor.

Biggs’ appointment gives Dem-ocrats what is perhaps the most Republican statewide office.

Democrats have held it only once before, in 1949-51, when elected statewide officials served only two-year terms. And political legend has that the Democratic challenger unseated the Republican incumbent in 1948 only because they shared the same last name — Ryan — and many voters confused the two.

Run likely to end

The secretary of state was a Republican even after the Great Depression caused Kansans to vote twice for Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president. A Republican secretary of state survived the great national GOP split in 1912, when conservative backers of President William Howard Taft battled progressive Bull Moose supporters of former President Teddy Roosevelt, with some disastrous results for the Kansas GOP.

Only the great Populist Party uprising of the late 19th century took more offices out of Republican hands. The elections of 1892 and 1896 were wipeouts for the Kansas GOP, with Populists sweeping statewide offices on the ballot.

This year, many Republicans expect dissatisfaction with Obama and Congress, frustration with the economy and the rise of the Tea Party movement to help them undo Democrats. Parkinson isn’t running for a full term, and Republican U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback is the leading candidate for governor.

Thus, in a year’s time, the Democrats’ possession of five statewide offices might seem a fluke that’s not likely to happen again for decades.