Chris Steineger

Chris Steineger
Kansas State Senate District 6
Former Member
In office
1997-2013
Party	Republican
Elections and appointments
Last election	November 6, 2012
Term limits	No
Personal
Birthday	January 8, 1962
Place of birth	Kansas City, KS
Profession	Development Director, Cross-Lines Cooperative Council
Websites
Office website
Personal website

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Chris Steineger (b. January 8, 1962, in Kansas City, Kansas) is a former Republican member of the Kansas State Senate, representing District 6 from 1997 to 2013. On January 22, 2010, he announced his candidacy for the statewide office of secretary of state, challenging Democratic incumbent Chris Biggs. Steineger lost the party nomination to Biggs on Tuesday, August 3, 2010, receiving nearly forty percent of the vote. Steineger switched to the Republican Party in 2010 after previously serving as a Democratic senator.

Steineger owns and manages rental property, develops residential real estate, and manages other financial assets. He has experience at all three levels of government, including staffing for U.S. Representative Jim Slattery in Washington D.C., as an assistant in the City Administrator’s office in Kansas City, KS, and as a tax auditor and collector with the Kansas Department of Revenue. He has also worked in the private and non-profit sectors. His father is former Sen. Jack Steineger, a veteran of the Kansas Legislature for 28 years.

Policy positions

State Senator Chris Steineger supports the following issues:

• Encourages careful conservation of natural resources and use of sustainable energy resources
• Health care system should be restructured to have universal coverage and also cost the state less.
• Supports firearm ownership
• He has a focus on early education
• Local governments should be consolidated
• Cuban trade embargo should be ended

He has also sponsored/co-sponsored these recent pieces of legislations:

• A bill to decrease the number of Kansas Legislators
• A bill to establish a county consolidation commission
• A resolution encouraging funding for the United States Airborne Laser defense program
• A resolution to create a budget stabilization fund

County Consolidation

On February 14, the Senate Ways and Means Committee introduced legislation, SB204, that would reduce the number of Kansas counties from 105 to 23. The bill, championed by Sen. Chris Steineger (R), is designed to strengthen counties and improve efficiency. A Wichita State University study has found that such a consolidation could result in hundreds of millions in yearly savings.

Committee assignments

2011-2012

In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Steineger served on these committees:

• Commerce
• Financial Institutions and Insurance
• Public Health and Welfare

2009-2010

In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Steineger served on these committees:

• Administrative Rules and Regulations (Member)
• Assessment and Taxation (Member)
• Education (Member)
• Financial Institutions and Insurance (Ranking Minority Member)
• Joint Committee on Information Technology (Member)
• Joint Committee on Legislative Post Audit (Member)

Controversies

Campaign treasurer

At the same time he faced accusations that he acted in open violation of state campaign finance laws, Forward Kansas, a liberal-leaning news website, ran a story questioning whether or not Mike Sager, Campaign Finance Director for the Steineger secretary of state campaign, was the same individual who was "indicted for a felony count of stealing from his campaign funds and, also, a misdemeanor count of filing false campaign finance reports in order to subsequently cover up the theft."

Steineger admitted to the Kansas City Star that when he originally hired Sager, he was not aware of his past. Since discovering that, however, he had since dumped him as his campaign treasurer. Mysteriously, two days after this story was published, he refused to take questions on the matter with another online news source and sent a campaign spokeswoman to "dodge questions."

Ethics complaints

Not long after launching his campaign for secretary of state, the Kansas State Ethics Commission accused State Senator Chris Steineger of at least twice knowingly violating the state's campaign finance laws. Along with being implicated for using financial contributions from his state senate campaign to pay for poll conducted on behalf of his secretary of state committee, he faced being charged with infringing on a state law that "prohibits [state] politicians from seeking contributions from lobbyists, corporations, unions and political action committees while the Legislature is convened from January to May." Several days after these allegations were first reported, Steineger admitted that "a preliminary review of emails sent on behalf of his campaign for secretary of state indicated requests for donations went to several registered lobbyists" and that he would take full responsibility for the actions of campaign.

On Tuesday, May 18, 2010, the Kansas State Ethics Commission ruled that Steineger "improperly used his Senate campaign fund to pay for polls testing his name recognition ahead of a possible run for statewide office." At the same time, however, the commission was unable to find sufficient evidence to say he knowingly violated state campaign finance laws by requesting contributions from lobbyists while the State Legislature was still in session. Steineger was then ordered to pay a fine of $5,000.

Campaign contributions

2008

According to Follow the Money, Steineger raised $50,468 in 2008 for his state senatorial campaign.

Listed below are the top four contributors:

Donor	Amount
Howard Grace	$2,000
Cerner Corp.	$1,500
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City	$1,000
Kansans for Lifesaving Cures	$1,000

Elections

2012

See also: Kansas State Senate elections, 2012

Steineger ran for election in the 2012 election for Kansas State Senate District 6. Steineger ran unopposed in the August 7 Republican primary and was defeated by Pat Pettey (D) in the general election which took place on November 6, 2012.

Kansas State Senate, District 6, General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Pat Pettey	62.1%	11,637
	Republican	Chris Steineger Incumbent	37.9%	7,106
Total Votes				18,743

1996

1996 Race for State Senate, District 6 - Democratic Primary
Candidates		Percentage
Chris Steineger (D)		40.7%
Pat Huggins Pettey (D)		39.0%
Gary Christ (D)		20.3%
Total votes		5,727

• 1996 Race for State Senate, District 6 - General Election
  • Chris Steineger ran unopposed

2000

• 2000 Race for State Senate, District 6 - Democratic Primary and General Election
  • Chris Steineger ran unopposed in both contests

2004

2004 Race for State Senate, District 6 - Democratic Primary
Candidates		Percentage
Chris Steineger (D)		65.8%
Stan S. Frownfelter (D)		34.1%
Total votes		5,067

2004 Race for State Senate, District 6 - Democratic Primary
Candidates		Percentage
Chris Steineger (D)		79.2%
Joy Holt (F)		20.7%
Total votes		18,241

2008

• 2008 Race for State Senate, District 6 - Democratic Primary and General Election
  • Chris Steineger ran unopposed in both contests

2010

See also: Kansas Secretary of State election, 2010

2010 Race for Secretary of State - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Chris Biggs	60.3%
	Democratic Party	Chris Steineger	39.7%
Total Votes			80,872

Scorecards

Kansas Economic Freedom Index

The Kansas Economic Freedom Index is a project of Bob Weeks, creator of the blog Voice For Liberty in Wichita. The purpose of the Index "is to identify Kansas legislators who vote in favor of economic freedom — and those who don’t." Legislators receive a rating from 0-100 percent based on their votes on bills promoting economic freedom.

2010

Chris Steineger received a rating of 58% on the 2010 Kansas Economic Freedom Index.

Personal

Chris lives with his wife Shari in their 1920s Craftsman bungalow in Kansas City, Kansas.

Contact information

Capitol Address:
300 Southwest 10th Avenue, Room 181-E
Topeka, KS 66612-1504

Phone: (785) 296-7375
Toll Free Phone: (800) 432-3924
E-mail: chris.steineger@senate.ks.gov

District Address:

51 South 64th Street
Kansas City, KS 66111

Phone: (913) 287-7636
Fax: (913) 287-6879

Campaign Address:
Chris Steineger
6505 E. Frontage Rd, Suite 6
Merriam, KS 66202

Phone: (913) 403-8084
E-mail: chris@chrissteineger.com

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a google news search for the term Chris + Steineger + Kansas + Senate

All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.

External links

Suggest a link

• Kansas Legislature - Senator Chris Steineger profile
• Kansas Democratic Party - Senator Chris Steineger biography
• Chris Steineger for Kansas Secretary of State Campaign website
• Project Vote Smart - Chris Steineger biography
• Chris Steineger on Facebook
• Chris Steineger on Twitter
• State Senate Campaign contributions: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008

References

Political offices
Preceded by -	Kansas State Senate District 6 1997–2013	Succeeded by Pat Pettey (D)