Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Nick Lampson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nick Lampson | |
 |
|
|
|
|
| In office 1997–2005, 2007–present |
|
| Preceded by | Shelley Sekula-Gibbs |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
|
|
|
| Born | February 14, 1945 Beaumont, Texas |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Susan Floyd |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Nicholas "Nick" Valentino Lampson (born February 14, 1945) is an American politician from the state of Texas.
Lampson was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 9th congressional district from 1997 to 2005. After redistricting, he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Texas's 2nd congressional district in 2004. After a one-term hiatus from Congress, he returned to Congress from the 22nd district, which was formerly represented by former Republican majority leader Tom DeLay until June 9, 2006. On November 13, 2006, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs was sworn in to serve out the remainder of DeLay's unexpired term and served approximately 51 days. She had won a special election held on the same day as the general election, in which Lampson defeated her. Lampson had complained about Gibbs' campaign style, and many believe this will be a hotly contested seat in 2008 for Lampson.
Lampson's current district includes much of southeastern Houston and many of the city's southern suburbs, including Sugar Land, Galveston and Missouri City.
Contents |
Lampson is a lifelong resident of southeast Texas and a second-generation Italian-American. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and a master's degree in education from Lamar University.
Lampson taught high school science before entering politics.
In 1976, Lampson was elected Jefferson County property tax assessor. He served in that post for 18 years. He did not seek a ninth term as tax assessor in 1994.
In the 1996 election Lampson won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives representing Texas's 9th congressional district. The district included Lampson's home in Beaumont as well as Galveston and parts of Houston. The district had been represented by the Democratic Jack Brooks for 42 years, but Brooks had been one of the most prominent Democratic incumbents to lose reelection in the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, which brought the House under the control of Republicans for the first time since 84th United States Congress following the 1954 elections.
The November 1996 election for the 9th district was an open primary due to judicially-mandated redistricting. In that election, incumbent Republican Steve Stockman, who had upset Brooks in 1994, received 46 percent to Lampson's 44 percent of the vote. However, Lampson defeated Stockman in the December runoff with over 52 percent.[1]
Just months into his first term, a family in his district suffered a widely-publicized tragedy. A 12-year-old girl from Friendswood was abducted and found murdered two weeks later. Lampson was moved by the family's courage and the response of the community and he established the first-ever Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, which now numbers more than 120 members from both parties. Bob Smither, the father of the murdered girl, was Lampson's Libertarian opponent in the 2006 election. The Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus was directly responsible for nationalizing the AMBER Alert system. Lampson sponsored legislation to fund law enforcement efforts to stop child pornography and exploitation on the Internet. (After returning to Congress in 2007, Lampson re-formed the bipartisan caucus with Steve Chabot of Ohio.)
In addition to the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, Lampson was also active in other issue-oriented Congressional caucuses, including Manufactured Housing, Correctional Officers, I-69 Highway, Coast Guard, Coastal, Human Rights, Spina Bifida, Cancer, Asian and Pacific American and Arts. He also served as the chairman of the Congressional Study Group on Germany.
Lampson had been reelected three times without serious opposition, but in 2003, DeLay orchestrated a controversial mid-decade redistricting effort to get more Republicans elected to Congress from Texas. Internal Department of Justice memos indicated that the redistricting plan was illegal. Nearly every white Democrat in the Texas delegation was threatened with defeat, including Lampson. His district, which was renumbered as the 2nd district, was radically altered; Galveston, which had been the heart of the district and its previous incarnations for over a century, was removed. Also removed was the portion of Houston including NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. In its place, several heavily Republican areas in and around Houston were added to the district.
In the 2004 election, Lampson's Republican opponent was Ted Poe, a longtime felony court judge in Harris County, home to most of Houston. On November 2, 2004, Lampson lost to Poe, 43-55 percent. Jefferson County gave Lampson a majority, but he was heavily defeated in Harris County, which supported Poe with 70 percent of the vote.
On May 4, 2005 Lampson announced that he was going to run in Texas's 22nd congressional district, which had been held by Delay for 20 years. In the 2003 redistricting, the 22nd district absorbed much of Lampson's former territory, including most of Galveston and the Johnson Space Center. In fact, Lampson had briefly considered a so-called "kamikaze" run against DeLay as a result. He sold his home in Beaumont and moved to Stafford, a city halfway between Houston and Sugar Land, where both sets of parents had lived for over a century after immigrating to the United States from Italy.
The 22nd had long been considered a solidly Republican district, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+15. A Democratic presidential candidate had not carried the district since Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election; Democrats hadn't held the congressional seat since after the 1978 election (Ron Paul had held the seat as an independent before DeLay took over in 1985). Traditionally, among districts in the Houston area, only the 7th District was considered more Republican.
However, DeLay, who was then the House Majority Leader, was seen as vulnerable. He had only won reelection by 14 points in 2004 against a relatively unknown Democrat who spent virtually no money—an unusually close margin for a party leader. Many experts believed that the 22nd had become much more competitive as a result of DeLay's attempts to make the other Houston-area districts more Republican. Most importantly, DeLay had been investigated for corruption and was indicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges. DeLay denies all allegations and a Texas judge dismissed the former charge in late 2006; still, this damaged DeLay in the campaign. [2]
Some media pundits attacked Lampson. Fred Barnes of Fox News Channel called him "a carpetbagger" who "moved into" DeLay's district. However, as mentioned above, Lampson had represented a large portion of the current 22nd during his first stint in Congress, and both sides of Lampson's family have strong roots in Fort Bend County. [3]
On April 4, 2006, DeLay withdrew his candidacy for the upcoming November midterm elections, [4][5] citing troubling poll numbers. [6] Lampson announced on August 17, 2006 that three major police associations had endorsed him. These organizations are the National Association of Police Officers, the International Union of Police Associations, and the Texas State Police Coalition. On September 22, 2006, the Hotline ranked Texas' 22nd Congressional District House race as third (up from a previous ranking of fifth), in a list of the top 30 House races in the country.[7]
Additionally, other traditionally conservative organizations backed Lampson's candidacy. The National Rifle Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars both supported Lampson in the 2006 election.
Three national political journals—the Cook Political Report, Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Congressional Quarterly—rated the race as Leans Democratic. On October 30, 2006, a Zogby poll commissioned by the Houston Chronicle-KHOU-TV that was released, showing Sekula-Gibbs at 27.9 percent and Lampson at 36 percent, with nearly 25 percent were still undecided.[1]
Lampson defeated Sekula-Gibbs in the November 7, 52 to 42 percent (with 6 percent going to Libertarian Bob Smither). He began serving in Congress on January 4, 2007.
Lampson is the chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. He recently outlined his ambitions in relation to energy and environmental issues at a symposium hosted at the University of Houston. One theme of the symposium was the obstacles that are faced in moving away from fossil fuels. Video of Lampson speech
Texas Governor Rick Perry announced on August 29, 2006, that a special election would take place for the unexpired term of Tom DeLay, coinciding with the general election on November 7, 2006. This means that voters voted once in the special election for a candidate to finish DeLay's term until January 2007, and voted a second time for a candidate to represent District 22 from January 2007 to January 2009. This resulted in a scenario in which the constituents of District 22 sent one person to Washington for the last two months of the 109th Congress, Republican Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, and a different person, Lampson, to Congress for the next full term, as Lampson himself did not file for the Special Election.
Lampson has worked on seniors' issues at the local and national levels as a director of the Area Agency on Aging, and a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging.
Lampson has also been active in local groups such as the American Heart Association, Land Manor (a rehabilitation facility) and the Young Men's Business League. He chaired the 1995 Bishop's Faith Appeal and was recognized as the Outstanding Young Man of Beaumont in 1978 by the Texas Jaycees. He is also a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Lampson lives in Stafford. He is married to Susan Floyd Lampson, a special education teacher; the couple has two grown daughters, Stephanie and Hillary.
Lampson underwent quadruple bypass surgery on March 25, 2007 at the Texas Heart Institute.
- U.S. Congressman Nick Lampson official House site
- Nick Lampson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Federal Election Commission — Nicholas V Lampson campaign finance reports and data
- On the Issues — Nicholas Lampson issue positions and quotes
- OpenSecrets.org — Nick Lampson campaign contributions
- Project Vote Smart — Representative Nicholas V. 'Nick' Lampson (TX) profile
- SourceWatch Congresspedia — Nick Lampson profile
- Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Nick Lampson voting record
- Nick Lampson for U.S. Congress official campaign site
| Preceded by Steve Stockman |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 9th congressional district 1997–2005 |
Succeeded by Al Green |
| Preceded by Shelley Sekula-Gibbs |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 22nd congressional district 2007–present |
Incumbent |