Governor; Elwill Shanahan was re-elected as Secretary of State; William Fletcher was re-elected as insurance commissioner; and Tom Van Sickle was elected as treasurer. Kansas Senate: Republicans won 27 seats, a net loss of 5 seats since the 1968 election. Robert Bennett was elected Senate President. Kansas House: Republicans won 80 seats, a loss of four seats. Pete McGill was elected Speaker. State Party: William Falstad continued as state party chair until January 1973 when the state committee elected Jack Ranson chair. The change in dates reflected the changeover from 2-year to 4-year terms for the governor and other statewide elections. Statutory party organization (1972-1992) In 1972, the legislature further regulated the structure and operations of political parties. The changes added additional detailed guidance on filling precinct vacancies, requiring county committees to reorganize within two weeks of the primary, that district committees would reorganize within 90 days of the primary, that the state committee would consist of 22 delegates from each district (eliminating the old provision that each county chair was a delegate), that the executive committee would include the state officers, district chairs and vice-chairs, and the primary federal and state elected officials or their designees, and it re-designated the party council as the platform committee. This statute was amended somewhat in 1977, 1980, 1988, and 1989 adding the chairs of affiliated groups to the executive committee. Modern party history: 1974 to today The modern political history of Kansas begins in the early 1970s as a result of two major structural changes. First, in the late 1960s, one-man one-vote became the legal standard governing redistricting. Before this, each of Kansas' 105 counties had one state representative, regardless of population, with the remaining 20 representatives allocated to a county based on population. The House reapportioned the 20 extra legislators in 1959 and 1909. State Senate and Congressional districts had no requirement to be of roughly equivalent population and consisted of groups of entire counties. The old system heavily weighted the legislature in favor of rural areas and diluted the political power of the new population centers in Wichita, Topeka, and Johnson County. The new paradigm for legislative districts caused substantial changes to state legislative districts and the composition of the legislature, increasing the political power of cities and suburbs at the expense of the rural areas. Second, the Kansas Constitution was amended in 1972 to make the term for statewide