Kansans Vie Over Who's Best for Business

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The Wall Street Journal

Kansans Vie Over Who's Best for Business
By KEVIN HELLIKER
August 29, 2007; Page A2

JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. -- In this land of leafy corporate estates and mansion-lined cul-de-sacs, registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1. Yet since 1998, they have elected a Democrat to represent them in Congress. That incongruity is making Johnson County a nationally watched battleground ahead of the 2008 elections. At stake is a district of extraordinary value to leaders of both parties in Washington, and at issue is whether a Democratic incumbent can retain the support of one of America's most prosperous and conservative centers of business.

The district gained importance for Democrats following their many congressional victories last November in right-leaning suburbs. Faced with skepticism about whether they can retain those seats in 2008, they can point with confidence to Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore, who has won re-election four times here on the outskirts of Kansas City, Mo. For Republicans, Rep. Moore represents a pesky contradiction to their argument that conservative Americans vote a straight ticket during presidential elections: In 2000 and 2004, voters here supported George W. Bush -- then switched columns and chose Rep. Moore, a self-described conservative Democrat who has voted with Republicans on issues such as trade, tax cuts and tort and bankruptcy reform.

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That victory came as Johnson County was developing into an epicenter of conflict between fiscal and social conservatives in the Republican Party. In a state where some Republican leaders have made high priorities out of combatting abortion, the teaching of evolution in public schools and other nonfiscal issues -- prompting some moderate Republican leaders to switch parties -- Rep. Moore has benefited from a perception that his opponents cared less about business than about abortion. But last week, any chance of him enjoying that advantage in 2008 vanished when a Republican state senator named Nick Jordan announced his candidacy for Rep. Moore's seat. An entrepreneur, a former president of this county's largest tourism and convention body and a legislator renowned for measures aimed at stimulating economic growth, Mr. Jordan says his efforts have helped attract dozens of companies and thousands of jobs to Kansas.

Having recently completed so-called candidate school in Washington at the invitation of national party leaders, Mr. Jordan is already taking aim at his opponent. "Democrat Dennis Moore has been elected from this district by consistently portraying himself as something he is not -- a Republican," according to one of Mr. Jordan's campaign messages.

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In Washington, meanwhile, Democratic leaders are including Rep. Moore in a program, called Frontline, designed to shore up support for party members facing tough campaigns. It isn't the first time Rep. Moore has been included in the Frontline program, and his campaign manager, Julie Murz, predicts it won't be the last. "We're in an overwhelmingly Republican district," she says, "so we're always going to be part of it, I'm afraid."


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