Topeka ? It’s been so long since Kansas last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate that the party sometimes has trouble coming up with one, let alone two, candidates willing to compete in a race.

But Democrats have a choice this year between two candidates — Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor and Lawrence attorney Patrick Wiesner — who believe they can win this November against whoever wins the Republican nomination.

“I’m not worried at all about (Sen.) Pat Roberts or Milton Wolf,” Wiesner said. “I have my own issues to worry about in the Democratic primary.”

Chad Taylor

Taylor said it “really doesn’t matter” to him who wins the Republican race. “I think there’s such an interesting compare-and-contrast between myself and all the other candidates in the race, I think that people are going to have a broad opportunity to choose between very different people.”

Taylor is serving his second term as the Shawnee County prosecutor. He grew up on a farm outside Topeka, got his undergraduate degree from Kansas University and studied law at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

He describes himself as “a fiscal conservative and social moderate,” but said he is not necessarily as fiscally conservative as Wiesner.

On his campaign website, Taylor says passage of the Affordable Care Act was “a defining moment for our country, providing millions of previously-uninsured Americans with health care,” and he believes Congress should focus on trying to improve it rather than repeal it.

“Speaker (John) Boehner has said it’s the law of the land,” he said. “The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has said it’s the law of the land. And 58 recall votes later, it’s still the law.”

Patrick Wiesner

Wiesner grew up in on a farm in Trego County and earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Fort Hays State University. He moved to Lawrence in 1989 to attend KU Law School and has stayed there ever since, although his law firm Wiesner & Frackowiak, LC, is in Overland Park.

Before going into private practice, he was a military attorney in the U.S. Army Reserves where he dealt with federal contracts and purchasing. Today he focuses on federal tax law.

He also describes himself as a fiscal conservative. “I’m to the left on social issues, like having a safety net for poor people,” he said. “On fiscal issues, I’m to the right of Roberts.”

Wiesner said if he’s elected, reforming the federal tax code will be his top priority, and that’s the biggest issue separating him from Taylor.

He said he wants to simplify the tax code so it’s easier to understand. He also said the United States should commit to spending 3 percent of gross domestic product each year toward paying down the national debt.

“If the economy grows at two and a half percent, in just under 25 years, the debt will be paid,” he states on his website.

Taylor calls that “dangerous.”

Taylor favors returning to a budgeting rule used during the Clinton administration known as PAYGO – or “pay as you go,” which required all new spending to be paid for, either with increased revenue or reductions in other areas of the budget.

“Bringing accountability and transparency back to the process is the only way we will put our financial house in order,” Taylor states on his website.

Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. In the past five Senate races, the biggest share of the vote any Democrat has gotten was 36.4 percent, when former Congressman Jim Slattery challenged Roberts in 2008.

But recent SurveyUSA poll indicated that 2014 could be a volatile year. In various head-to-head match-ups between either Democrat against either Republican, it showed the race could be close because a large number of voters remain undecided.

“If there was ever a year when partisan labels don’t matter, it’s this year,” Taylor said.