People in the news

Dennis Moore

Former U.S. Representative (January 1999-2011)

(Congress Bio Directory)

Read more

Background

At a Glance

Career History: Private attorney, (1989-1999); Johnson County (Kan.) District Attorney, (1976-1989); Assistant Attorney General of Kansas, (1971-1973); U.S. Army, (1970-973).
Birthday: Nov. 8, 1945
Hometown: Anthony, Kan.
Alma Mater: University of Kansas, Bachelor degree, 1967; Washburn University, Law Degree, 1970

Spouse: Stephene
Religion: Protestant
Committees: Member, Financial Services Committee (Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations); Member, Small Business Committee
Email

Path to Power

Moore was born, raised and educated in Kansas and actually benefited by his home state's move to the political right, not because he championed the social issues so important to Kansas conservatives but because the state's Republican Party had gone to war with itself over issues like abortion and the teaching of evolution in the classroom. Those divisions helped propel Moore to Congress in 1998.

Moore's father, Warner Moore, ran for Congress in Wichita in 1958 and lost by less than one percentage point. But Dennis Moore's own political ascension took a different route - through the prosecutor's office.

Read more

After earning his law degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., in 1970, Moore served three years in the Army and Army Reserves. Moore's first job was in the state attorney general's office, where he remained until 1973 when his commitment to the Army ended. He then opened a private practice in the affluent suburban enclave of Johnson County.

Prosecutorial Career

Moore was elected Johnson County district attorney in 1976 and went on to win re-election twice more, in 1980 and 1984. In 1986, while still serving as county prosecutor, Moore ran as the Democratic nominee for Kansas attorney general, but lost to the incumbent Republican.

During his tenure as Johnson County's district attorney, Moore prosecuted an oil company for rigging gas pumps to cheat consumers and created the county's first victim-assistance unit.

Moore returned once again to private practice after 12 years as a prosecutor, but this time as a criminal-defense lawyer, a move that opened the door for Republicans to attack him during his House campaigns as being "on the side of the criminal."

Moore remained politically active in Johnson County, helping to establish a shelter for battered women and program to prevent child abuse. He won election to the county's Community College Board of Trustees in 1993 and again in 1997.

1998 House Race

Moore's political success in Johnson County, where registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by nearly 60,000, did not go unnoticed by state and national Democrats, who sensed that a feud between moderate and conservative Republicans in a House district dominated by Johnson County could work to Democrats' advantage.

In 1998, Democrats recruited Moore, then 52 and in his third marriage, to run against the incumbent Republican, Rep. Vince Snowbarger, a Christian conservative who had been narrowly elected just two years earlier in a coup by conservatives to oust a more moderate three-term Republican, Rep. Jan Meyers, from the seat.

Despite his initial success, Snowbarger's conservative views were out of sync in the state's most affluent district, which favored moderate Republicans. In 1998, many of those moderates ended up supporting Moore, making him the first Democratic congressman from that part of Kansas in 37 years.

Re-Election Efforts

During his House campaigns, Moore has kept his distance from some of the more volatile social issues that divide his constituents - and his Republican challengers. When the Kansas Board of Education in 1999 voted to allow public schools to de-emphasize Charles Darwin's theory of evolution because it conflicted with Biblical teachings that God created man, Moore was among the Kansas politicians who refused to be drawn into the debate. When pressed by a reporter about his view of the decision a year later, Moore said only that the decision was "a step backward."

Despite a decade in office, Moore's district remains a battleground for national Democrats and Republicans, and Moore has faced both conservative and moderate challengers in each of his five bids for House re-election. Rumors circulated immediately after Moore's last race in 2008 that he would soon retire from politics, but Moore responded by quickly announcing his intention to run for re-election again in 2010.

From his seat on the House Financial Services Committee, and his appointment in 2009 as chairman of the panel's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Moore has become an influential player in two high-profile issues facing Congress: The economic recession and health-care reform.

2010 Election

Republicans are already lining up to challenge Moore again in 2010. Former state Rep. Patricia Lightner (R) was the first to formally enter the race, though others are expected. Lightner said she's concerned "over the loss of liberty stemming from legislation coming out of Congress and the Obama administration."

The Issues

Moore walks a political tightrope in the House. He generally votes with fellow Democrats on issues like President Obama's February 2009 economic stimulus bill, but has sided with Republicans on a number of issues, from taxes to illegal immigration.

Moore voted to continue funding for the Iraq war, but also bucked the George W. Bush White House by supporting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. He also supported a non-binding Democratic resolution criticizing Bush's 2007 troop surge. He voted with Democrats to allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices from pharmaceutical companies, but also for Bush's energy plan, which granted $14.5 billion in additional tax breaks to oil and gas companies.

Read more

At times, Moore appears tentative in supporting Obama, a fellow Democrat. In August 2009, when Republicans attacked Obama's plans to speak to students in the opening days of school, Moore didn't pick sides. "I would hope parents would have (their students) listen to the president," he said. "Having said that, parents have, and schools have, a right to make their own decisions."

Health-Care Reform

Though he sits on the House Financial Services Committee, which has a leading role in crafting health-care reform legislation sought by the Obama administration, Moore refused to hold townhall meetings on the subject during the congressional recess of August 2009, citing death threats received by his office.

As a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative and moderate Democrats, he took credit for slowing the White House's rush to pass health-care reforms in the summer of 2009; he said the bill couldn't be allowed to substantially increase the federal deficit. "We need to have something that doesn't break the bank," Moore said.

Moore was reluctant to embrace the desires of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats to include a "public option" in the health care reform plan, a provision that would allow the government to offer health insurance to some Americans. Moore said such an option "is not my first choice," but that he expects Congress to eventually approve it.

In an August 2009 op-ed article in The Kansas City Star, Moore said he believed an "optional publicly provided health-care plan should be part of reform." "We are in need of changes to our health-care system, but we can't afford to pass just any version of reform." he wrote. "If we are going to do it, we must do it right. That's why I'm working to ensure that any health reform legislation that is considered by Congress provides sensible reform in a fiscally responsible way and does not add to our national debt."

The Economy

As the chairman of the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, Moore has demonstrated a more populist streak, forcing banking and insurance executives to reveal how much they were being paid even as the federal government was bailing out their failing institutions. He also attacked the massive bonuses executives continued to pay themselves and their employees while accepting taxpayer money to keep their companies afloat.

When he learned that he would be leading the investigation into potential misuse of government funds by financial institutions, Moore said, "I went home that evening and said to my wife, 'Now, you're going to see Mr. District Attorney again.'"

Taxes

Tax cuts are popular in Kansas and Moore often portrays himself as a supporter of lower taxes, claiming he voted 155 times in ten years to cut taxes, including eliminating the marriage penalty and estate tax and is fighting to alter the alternative minimum wage. But he voted against President Bush's nearly $1 trillion tax cut proposal in 2001 and against making those cuts permanent in 2002, arguing that such broad cuts would worsen the federal government's budget deficits.

Gun Control

Few issues highlight the differences between Moore and his Republican constituents better than gun control. Moore supports it, including requiring background checks for people buying guns at gun shows, a three-day waiting period for purchasers and allowing gun manufacturers to be sued for misuse of their product. No other Kansas politicians, including former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a fellow Democrat, took such a strict stance on the issue.

The Network

Moore has little in common with other members of the Kansas congressional delegation, all of whom are Republicans and most of whom are stepping down to run for other offices in 2010.

Sen. Sam Brownback, is retiring to run for governor in 2010. Reps. Jerry Moran, and Todd Tiahrt are both vying to replace Brownback in the Senate in 2010. Sen. Pat Roberts is not up for re-election until 2012. Rep. Lynn Jenkins is the only Republican member of the delegation seeking re-election in 2010.

Read more

Additional Resources