O’Hara seeking state Senate seat in southern JoCo

Republican Charlotte O’Hara, a former state representative who made a brief bid for Congress in 2010, is in the hunt to be the next state senator from southern Johnson County.

O’Hara is running for the seat held until recently by Pat Apple, whom Gov. Sam Brownback appointed to the Kansas Corporation Commission. Apple’s resignation is effective Thursday.

O’Hara will face Molly Baumgardner, the former Johnson County Community College board member, in a vote of 37th District precinct committee members.

The election will be at 7 p.m. April 21 at Spring Hill High School, 19701 S. Ridgeview Road, in Spring Hill, according to Hawver’s Capitol Report.

Don’t expect Apple to endorse O’Hara. She challenged Apple in the 2012 GOP primary for the state Senate seat, but was soundly defeated.

O’Hara is a conservative, and she’s been the subject of much speculation in recent months with recent talk suggesting that she would run for chair of the Johnson County Commission.

But her interest in the state Senate appears to quash that move.

This story was originally published April 8, 2014 at 10:58 PM with the headline "O’Hara seeking state Senate seat in southern JoCo."