Chris Steineger

Chris Steineger

Member of the Kansas Senate from the 6th district
In office January, 1997 – January, 2013
Personal details
Born	(1962-01-08) January 8, 1962 Kansas City, Kansas
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Shari Wilson
Residence	Kansas City, Kansas
Alma mater	Kansas State University, University of Kansas
Profession	Consultant & investor

Chris Steineger, Republican member of the Kansas Senate, represented the 6th District from 1997–2013. Steineger switched parties from Democrat to Republican in November 2010. He is married and lives in Kansas City, Kansas.

Biography

State Senator Chris Steineger served the 6th Senate District in Wyandotte County 1997-2013. He has experience at all three levels of government, including staffing U.S. Representative Jim Slattery in Washington D.C.; Assistant in the City Administrator’s office in Kansas City; and as a tax auditor and collector with the Kansas Department of Revenue. He develops and manages residential real estate, and manages other financial assets.

Steineger’s public policy focuses include reducing the size and role of government; reforming and reducing social welfare; sale of University of Kansas Hospital; consolidation of Kansas counties; and health-care restructuring to provide lower costs and universal health insurance coverage for every American citizen.

Steineger was born in Kansas City and grew up in Muncie, Kansas, a township on the edge of the city limits. His father is former Sen. Jack Steineger, a veteran of the Kansas Legislature for 28 years. His mother Margaret served on various community boards. Steineger previously served as a board member for Kaw Valley Arts and Humanities Inc.; Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center; Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp.; and the International Relations Council of Kansas City.

Steineger is a global traveler, having visited more than 40 countries, including Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Israel, south-east Asia, China, Japan, Taiwan, India, the Caucuses region, and Cuba.

In 2003, he lived for three months in Japan on a Japan Society Fellowship studying Japanese agriculture, food processing, and food marketing. In 2004, Steineger studied European health care systems in Brussels on a Fellowship with the European Union Visitors Program. In 2006, Steineger lectured on American government, politics, elections, and campaigns at the Chinese Foreign Relations University in Beijing. In 2007, he went to Cuba and presented information on American Wetlands policy at the Caribbean Wetlands Symposium. That same year, he studied energy and health care systems in Israel as a Fellow with the American Jewish Committee's Project Interchange.^[1]

In December 2010, Steineger switched his affiliation to the Republican party.^[2]

Issue positions

Steineger lists the following positions on his website:^[3]

Encourages conservation of natural resources and use of sustainable energy resources. Move America's "borrow, consume, throw-away" culture forward to living within our means and sustainability.
Medicare, Mediacid, Veterans Administration, and other government health-insurance programs should be consolidated to lower bureaucratic administrative costs, then extend basic health insurance to every American citizen.
Libertarian beliefs on many issues of "individual freedom and choice vs. government interference and micro-management" including: gun ownership; smoking, drinking, gambling, abortion, seat belts, motorcycle helmets, same-sex marriage.
Supports firearm ownership for responsible citizens
A focus on early education programs, both public and private
Kansas' local governments (cities, counties, townships) should be consolidated to save $500 million taxpayer dollars annually for Kansas GDP
Cuban trade embargo should be ended^[4]

Committee assignments

Steineger served on these legislative committees:^[5]

Financial Institutions and Insurance
Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and Regulations
Assessment and Taxation
Education
Ways & Means (budget)
Commerce
Joint Committee on Legislative Post Audit

Major donors

Some of the top contributors to Steineger's 2008 campaign, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics:^[9]

Howard Grace, Cerner Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, Bank of America, Kansans for Lifesaving Cures

Finance, insurance, personal donations from his family trust fund and real-estate companies were his largest donor groups.

Organizations

Board President, Grinter Place Friends
Board member, International Relations Council
Board Member, Kaw Valley Arts and Humanities
Board Member, Wyandotte County Historical Society.

Steineger in the news

January 23, 2009 - Steineger spoke before a crowd of around 300 citizens at Americans for Prosperity's Defending the American Dream Summit in Wichita. He presented ideas on how Kansas can reshape its county structure to help alleviate Kansas' current budget crisis.^[10]

October 3, 2009 - Top Kansas Democrats met in Wichita for their annual Demofest gathering. They delivered energetic speeches to rally party support, but Demofest concluded without the important question answered of who will challenge Republican Senator Sam Brownback in the 2010 gubernatorial election. Steineger's name has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the governorship.^[11]

November 23, 2009 - Steineger was on hand to help celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Sister State relationship and the Taiwan Province in the Republic of China at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka. Other notable guests included Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson, and Congressman Dennis Moore.

2010 Secretary of State campaign

On January 21, 2010, Steineger announced his candidacy for Kansas Secretary of State. In his announcement, Steineger pledged to run the Secretary of State's office in a non-partisan manner.

2012 Senate campaign

Steineger ran unopposed in the August 7 Republican primary and was defeated by Pat Huggins Pettey (D) in the general election on November 6, 2012. Steineger had narrowly defeated Pettey in the 1996 Democratic primary. ^[12]