Rep. Steve Buyer (R) Elected 1992, 7th term
Born:	Nov. 26, 1958, Rensselaer
Home:	Monticello
Education:	The Citadel, B.S. 1980, Valparaiso U., J.D. 1984
Religion:	Methodist
Marital Status:	married (Joni)
Military Career:	Army, 1984-87, 1990-91 (Persian Gulf); Army Reserves, 1980-84, 1987-present.
Professional Career:	IN Dep. Atty. Gen., 1987-88; Vice Chmn., White Cnty. Repub. Party, 1988-90; Practicing atty., 1988-92.
DC Office	2230 RHOB20515, 202-225-5037; Fax: 202-225-2267; Web site: www.house.gov/buyer
State Offices	Bedford, 812-277-9590; Monticello, 574-583-9819; Plainfield, 317-838-0404.
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The landscape of central Indiana is some of the most prosaic in the United States, mostly flat, with neat farms and frame-bungalowed towns, looking mostly unchanged from many years ago. Across this landscape run some of the nation's chief transportation arteries. The earliest was the old National Road, from Baltimore to St. Louis, which was paralleled by U.S. 40 in the 1930s. Also here are the great east-west rail lines, on which famed railroad passenger trains like the old Wabash Cannonball rumbled along Indiana's Wabash River. Today the Cannonball no longer runs: People bounce around the Midwest on commuter airlines from small city to hub, and U.S. 40 has been replaced for through traffic by Interstate 70. The landscape still looks rural, and there are some large farms. But the economy here is more industrial, with small factories at crossroads and in courthouse towns. This is a part of America with little heritage from the early waves of immigration, relatively few blacks, and only a handful of Latin and Asian immigrants. Traditional cultural values have not been shaken so much here as in other parts of the nation.

The 4th Congressional District of Indiana covers much of this territory, running from Indiana's northern plains to its southern hills. It includes all or part of 12 counties in western Indiana, including the far western edge of Indianapolis and Marion County, and extends south past (but not including) Bloomington to Lawrence County, which was the source of the limestone used to rebuild the Pentagon after the September 11 attacks. The largest city is Lafayette, where the main business is Purdue University, Indiana's land-grant college and the alma mater of C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb. Growing and prosperous, Lafayette tends to vote Republican. Even more Republican are the small counties and the suburban territory outside Indianapolis--places like fast-growing Hendricks County, which delivered 73% for George W. Bush in 2004.

The 4th District's congressman is Steve Buyer (pronounced BOO-yer), a Republican elected in 1992. Buyer grew up in White County, graduated from The Citadel, served in the Army, worked in Indianapolis and started a family law practice in Monticello, where he joined all the civic organizations. As a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserve, he was called to active duty in fall 1990, serving as legal adviser at a prisoner-of-war camp in the Persian Gulf. Buyer was enraged that most House Democrats, including then-Congressman Jim Jontz, voted against the war. After Buyer returned to Indiana, where he was White County Republican vice chairman, he began making speeches around the Hoosier heartland attacking Jontz on his Gulf War stand. Jontz was a skilled politician, but Buyer won 51%-49%.

As a mainstream conservative, Buyer has made a legislative mark in the House. On the Veterans' Affairs Committee, he has spent much time on the lingering effects of Gulf War illness--which Buyer says is incorrectly referred to as "Gulf War syndrome." He successfully co-sponsored legislation that allows the Veterans Administration to compensate Gulf War vets suffering from chronic disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses that became manifest to a degree of 10% or more within a year of that war--a real departure in veterans' law. In 2004, he led an investigation that uncovered lapses in the hiring process for medical practitioners at VA hospitals. When he chaired the Military Personnel Subcommittee on Armed Services, he won enactment of what military officials call the greatest expansion of health care benefits for military retirees in at least three decades. But Buyer later took issue with Veterans Committee chairman Chris Smith over the implementation of that law, contending that some wealthy veterans had taken advantage of the new the benefits, causing costs to soar. In January 2005, the Republican Steering Committee voted Smith out of the Veterans' Affairs Committee chairmanship, evidently because of his opposition to the leadership on budget and labor issues, and installed Buyer. So after 12 years in the House he is a committee chairman.

Still in the Army Reserves, Buyer was called to duty again in March 2003 during the war with Iraq. He returned home, collected his gear and had received a leave of absence from Speaker Dennis Hastert. But the Army later notified Buyer that his high-profile status jeopardized both him and his Army colleagues; he was not deployed. Later, it was revealed that the brigade to which he had been assigned was among those blamed for the prisoner abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib complex near Baghdad. In 2004, he was promoted to colonel by George W. Bush.

Buyer can be blunt. In 2004, when he learned that House Democrats had requested that the United Nations send "monitors" for the presidential election, he furiously forced a vote stating the House's opposition. Later that year, he circulated a proposal to bar reporters from the Speaker's Lobby behind the House chamber on the ground that lawmakers--from both parties--needed more space to meet privately with each other; the idea went nowhere.

Probably his most self-assured--and politically successful--strategy was his handling of redistricting in 2002. Democratic redistricters sliced up Buyer's old 5th District so that its remains were grafted onto seven of Indiana's nine surviving districts. Left without a seat, Buyer picked the one that happened to be the most heavily Republican, that happened to include his hometown of Monticello (population 5,723) and that had the least senior member of the delegation--first-term Republican Brian Kerns. This district, the new 4th, was 97% new to Buyer. It included seven of the 13 counties and 68% of the population from Kerns' old 7th District. Buyer charged Democrats with trying to end his career because of his work as a manager of the impeachment of Bill Clinton and in the Florida recount. He emphasized that Kerns's home in Vigo County was 70 miles outside the new 4th, and argued that he should run against the 8th District's John Hostettler. Kerns said Buyer should run elsewhere, and when he didn't, Kerns seemed dumbfounded. Kerns's reelection effort moved in fits and starts. In a peculiar campaign incident, Kerns claimed to witness the September 11 airplane crash into the Pentagon while he was driving to the Capitol. When subsequent inquiry raised questions about whether Kerns had been in the area, he responded, "Who knows?" With Buyer outraising Kerns by more than 3-1, the result wasn't close. Buyer bested Kerns 55%-30%, and carried every county. Buyer won easily in November 2002 and November 2004.

Committees

• Energy & Commerce (17th of 31 R): Health.
• Veterans' Affairs (Chmn. of 16 R).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	5	0	0	9	90	56	100	96	84	90	--
2003	10	--	0	5	--	68	97	92	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	39%	--	61%		25%	--	75%
Social	13%	--	87%		17%	--	83%
Foreign	35%	--	64%		9%	--	91%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Steve Buyer (R)	190,445	69%	$509,517
	David Sanders (D)	77,574	28%	$15,480
	Other	6,117	2%
2004 primary	Steve Buyer (R)	52,921	66%
	Dennis Hardy (R)	10,862	13%
	Mike Campbell (R)	8,403	10%
	Brian Paasch (R)	8,305	10%
2002 general	Steve Buyer (R)	112,760	71%	$924,869
	Bill Abbott (D)	41,314	26%	$21,634
	Other	3,934	2%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (61%); 1998 (63%); 1996 (65%); 1994 (70%); 1992 (51%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 196,010 (69%) Kerry (D) 85,179 (30%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 156,747 (66%) Gore (D) 74,660 (31%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fourth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +17
• District Size: 4,033 square miles
• Population in 2000: 675,617; 68.2% urban; 31.8% rural
• Median Household Income: $45,947; 8.0% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 29.6% blue collar; 56.5% white collar; 13.9% gray collar; 13.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 93.6% White, 1.3% Black, 1.5% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.8% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 2.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 17.0% German, 11.7% USA, 8.9% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.