A Bright Spot

This is a good sign. Although we should prepare ourselves, the immigration issue will become central in future elections!

Nov. 04, 2004
Kobach considers going back to teaching
By BRAD COOPER
The Kansas City Star

One day after his stinging defeat in the race for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District, Republican Kris Kobach was thinking about his return to academia.

"I'm looking forward to being in the classroom. I enjoy it," said Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "I enjoy talking about ideas and teaching ideas and the law."

Kobach, who campaigned against gay marriage, abortion rights and illegal immigration, left open the possibility that he also might return to the U.S. Justice Department as an adviser to Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Kobach said Ashcroft invited him to return after Kobach left the Justice Department last year to run for Congress against Democratic U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore.

Whether he returns could depend on whether Ashcroft remains in the Cabinet for President Bush's second term.

Moore defeated Kobach with 55 percent of the vote. Kobach finished with 44 percent, and two third-party candidates each finished with less than 1 percent.

Kobach, 38, blamed his loss on a series of Moore ads that charged Kobach with associating with groups that had white supremacist ties. Kobach said he underestimated the ads' effect.

One of those groups in the ads, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, retained Kobach to challenge a Kansas law that gave in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants. Kobach said he would continue to be involved in the case.

Kobach said the campaign ads about white supremacists severely hampered his ability to work in academia beyond UMKC.

"When someone makes a smear that has anything to do with the issue of race, that's poison in academia," he said. "If I were to seek a job at some other law school, it might be very difficult."

Kobach said he did not think the charges would cause him friction with other law school colleagues, but he said he would always wonder whether his students believed the charges.

Some of his colleagues said the type of conservative campaign Kobach ran was not viewed fondly by other faculty members. Kobach ran a campaign that emphasized the role of church in government.

"To some extent, Kris' taking the hard-right approach to his campaign was upsetting to some people on the faculty," said law professor Doug Linder.

"At the same time, we have a commitment to a diversity of ideas, and he'll still have a home here and have friends."