Steve Stockman

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This article is about the American politician. For other people named Steve Stockman, see Steve Stockman (disambiguation).

Steve Stockman
United States Representative from Texas's 22nd district
In office 1995-1997
Preceded by	Jack Brooks
Succeeded by	Nick Lampson
Born	November 14, 1956 Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Political party	Republican

Steve Stockman (born November 14, 1956) is a political activist and a former conservative Republican congressman from the Texas's 9th congressional district, which at that time represented Chambers, Galveson, Jefferson, and part of Harris counties, including part of metropolitan Houston.

Stockman was born in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, near Detroit. In 1992, Stockman ran as a Republican for the House of Representatives against Jack Brooks. Stockman was unsuccessful in his first campaign, but in 1994, he unseated the 42-year incumbent Brooks, then chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and served one term in Congress. Stockman recently served as director of the Campus Leadership Program at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia from August 2005 to October 2006.

Contents 1 Legislative Record 2 Controversies 3 Reelection attempts 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Legislative Record

In Stockman's one term in office, he sponsored 22 bills or resolutions and cosponsored 241. One sponsored resolution was agreed to by both the House and Senate; 37 cosponsored bills or resolutions passed the House, of which 18 passed the Senate. Of those, 2 were vetoed and 1 died in conference.

Notable sponsored bills in the 104th Congress included:

• H.CON.RES.166 Authorizing the use of the Capitol Grounds for the Washington for Jesus 1996 prayer rally. This was Stockman's only succcesful sponsored legislation.
• H.J.RES.87 A constitutional amendment to prevent citizenship to native-born children of non-legal residents, and other changes.
• H.R.2087 To provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception.
• H.R.2393 To eliminate background checks, waiting periods, and registration requirements for firearms.
• H.R.2749 To investigate the Kinsey Reports
• H.R.4222 To make private school costs tax-deductible

Notable cosponsored bills in the 104th Congress which became law included:

• H.R.436 required heads of Federal agencies to differenciate between different types of fats, oils, and greases, when issueing regulations.
• H.R.1514 authorized and assisted programs to enhance safety, training, research, and development in the propane gas industry. The bill was aimed at improving the industry for the sake of consumers and the public.
• H.R.1627 amending the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; as well as, the Fderal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
• H.R.2137 amended the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to require the release of information to protect the public from sexual offenders (Megan's Law).
• H.R.3396 To define and protect the institution of marriage, the Defense of Marriage Act.

Notable cosponsored bills in the 104th Congress which did not become law included:

• H.J.RES.1 A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
• H.J.RES.79 An amendment to prohibit desecration of the flag.
• H.R.2 Line-item veto
• H.R.123 to declare English as the official language of the Government of the United States.
• H.R.1833 Banning Partial Birth Abortion

[edit] Controversies

In April 1995, following the Oklahoma City bombing of the Federal building, Stockman received national attention when a fax about the bombing sent to his office that day from a member of the Michigan Militia appeared to have been sent prior to the bombing, based on a timestamp on the fax. Subsequent investigation determined that the clock of a fax machine was improperly set, the timestamp was erroneous, and the fax had been sent very shortly after the first national media reports of the event. However, the attention led to a sidebar article on Stockman and Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth in the May 8, 1995 issue of Time magazine, entitled "The Movement's Sympathetic Ears on Capitol Hill" that detailed their supposed associations with the Militia movement.

In June of 1996, Stockman and his campaign alleged that Houston Press reporter Tim Fleck trespassed in Stockman's campaign headquerters (which was also his home) and "terrorized his wife". Fleck countered with a lawsuit alleging libel and slander. Both the charges and ultimately the lawsuit were dropped. ^{[1] [2]}

[edit] Reelection attempts

The November 1996 election for District 9 was unusual. After normal primaries had been held, the district boundaries of the 18th, 29th and 30th districts were struck down as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in Bush v. Vera^[3], necessitating redistrincting of the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 18th, 22nd, 24th, 25th,26th, 28th and 30th districts. Because the redistricting was held after the normal primaries, those primaries were discarded and elections for these districts were held as special elections, open to all candidates without a primary, and requiring a majority to win the seat outright. These elections were held concurrently with the normal general election for other positions. Stockman led Democrat Nick Lampson in the special election, 46.44% to 44.13%, but did not get a majority in a 3-way race. ^[4] In the subsequent head-to-head runoff, Lampson defeated Stockman, 52.83% to 47.16%. ^[5]

In 1998, Stockman was an unsuccessful Republican primary candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission. He lost to Governor George W. Bush's preferred candidate, Tony Garza, by a margin of 53-47 percent. Garza went on to win the Railroad Commission position in the November general election.

In 2006, he attempted to run as an independent candidate for Texas's 22nd congressional district, Tom DeLay's former seat, however he failed to gather enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.^[6] However, Stockman did register for the Special Election to fill out the remainder of the term for the Texas 22nd Congressional district, one of five candidates.^[7]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Congressional biography of Steve Stockman
• Steve Stockman biography at Infoplease.com
• Campus Leadership Program at the Leadership Institute
• Time "The Movement's Sympathetic Ears on Capitol Hill"
• Look Up Bills Sponsored/Cosponsored by Steve Stockman
• More information on Stockman's 2006 bid for Congress

Preceded by: Jack Brooks

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 9th congressional district 1994–1995

Succeeded by: Nick Lampson