Topeka ? When Republican Gov. Sam Brownback won re-election last year, and the GOP picked up five more seats in the Kansas House, many analysts predicted the 2015 session would become an open field for conservatives to pursue an aggressive agenda on abortion, gun rights, teachers unions and the Supreme Court.

So far, however, that has turned out to be only partially true.

To be sure, conservatives have had some success, especially in the Senate, where they passed significant bills dealing with gun rights and abortion.

But in the final days before last week’s “turnaround” deadline, moderate Republicans and Democrats showed they still have some muscle by negotiating a compromise on city and school board elections, and beating back bills in both chambers to weaken the power of teachers unions.

Meanwhile, there has been little movement on proposed constitutional amendments to change the way Supreme Court justices are selected. And, to the surprise of many Statehouse observers, House Speaker Ray Merrick consented last week to allow hearings on bills calling for expansion of Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act.

“Turnaround” is the traditional midpoint of a legislative session, and the deadline for most bills to pass out of the chamber where they were introduced. In other words, it’s the deadline for the House to send most of its bills over to the Senate, and vice versa. Bills that don’t make it past that deadline, other than those that are exempt from the deadline, are generally considered dead for the rest of the session.

Here’s a look at some of the major legislation that passed, and some that didn’t, during the first half of the 2015 session.

• Abortion: On Feb. 20, the Senate passed, 31-9, S.B. 95, the Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, banning certain abortion procedures and allowing certain individuals to seek civil damages against doctors who perform them.

• Gun rights: On Thursday, Feb. 26, the Senate passed S.B. 45 allowing people to carry concealed handguns without completing a training course or obtaining a state license. The vote was 31-7. The bill would repeal existing law requiring training and a permit to carry a concealed handgun and would allow virtually anyone over age 21 who is otherwise legally qualified to own a gun to carry it concealed, except in businesses that post signs indicating they do not allow weapons on their premises.

• Professors’ opinions: One bill that did not make it past turnaround was H.B. 2234, which would prohibit university employees from using their titles or affiliations when writing newspaper opinion columns. The bill appeared to be targeted at Insight Kansas, a group of professors from various universities in Kansas who write columns on Kansas politics. The bill was introduced in the House Local Government Committee and referred to the Education Committee, but never advanced to the floor of the House.

• Teachers unions: Both the House and Senate considered bills that would have weakened the bargaining power of teachers unions by amending the Kansas Professional Negotiations Act. But both bills were heavily amended during floor debate, and the bills that came out looked much more like the negotiated compromise that had been brokered by the Kansas National Education Association and other groups representing school boards and administrators. The final versions of those bills passed with overwhelming majorities in both chambers.

• Local elections: After several months of study last summer and fall, there was a big push to move municipal and school board elections to November, coinciding with state and federal races, and to make them partisan. Many believed that would give Republicans more control over school boards and other local governments. But the Senate on Thursday passed a compromise bill moving those elections to November of odd-numbered years and leaving them non-partisan. In a Twitter post, Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew, a Democrat who opposed partisan local elections, called the final bill “a good compromise.”

• Medicaid expansion: Two bills were introduced in the House to authorize expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act: one from the Vision 2020 Committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, another by Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita. Merrick, R-Stilwell, had initially said he would not allow hearings on either bill. But when Ward offered his bill as an amendment onto another, minor bill dealing with Medicaid, Merrick relented and agreed to have the Appropriations Committee hold hearings, in exchange for Ward withdrawing his amendment.

Those summaries only represent the status of certain bills as of the turnaround deadline. In recent years, though, it has become more of a soft target because bills originating from the tax and budget committees, as well as the federal and state affairs committees, which handle most of the hot-button social issues, are exempt from those deadlines.

So those committees can introduce bills at any time during the session, right up to the final day, no matter what the actual subject of the bill is. And any member can offer the language of one bill as an amendment onto another related bill being debated on the floor.

As the saying goes in the Statehouse, nothing is ever a sure thing until it’s signed by the governor; and no bill is ever completely dead until the final gavel comes down on Sine Die, the ceremonial end of the session.