Nick Lampson
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| Nick Lampson | |
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| In office 1997-2005, 2007-present |
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| Preceded by | Shelley Sekula-Gibbs |
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| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | February 14, 1945 (age 62) Beaumont, Texas |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Susan Floyd |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Nicholas V. "Nick" 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 District from 1997 to 2005. After redistricting, he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Texas's 2nd 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 Mr. DeLay's unexpired term and served approximately 51 days.
A lifelong resident of southeast Texas and second-generation Italian-American, Lampson earned his Bachelors Degree in Biology and Masters Degree in Education from Lamar University. In 1976, he was elected property tax assessor for Jefferson County. He served in that post for 18 years.
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[edit] Career in the U.S. House
Lampson didn't seek a ninth term as tax assessor in 1994, but in 1996 won the Democratic nomination for Texas's 9th District, which then included NASA's Johnson Space Center. The district had been represented by fellow Democrat Jack Brooks for 42 years, but Brooks had been one of the most prominent victims of the 1994 wave that brought the House into Republican hands for the first time since 1954. The November 1996 election for District 9 was an open primary due to judicially mandated redistricting and 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, Texas, was abducted and found murdered two weeks later. Lampson was so moved by the family's courage and the caring response of the community in banding together to search for the child, that 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.
With the power of this caucus behind him, the former high school science teacher fought in Congress to help families protect their children and aid communities and law enforcement searching for missing children. He sponsored legislation to fund law enforcement efforts to stop child pornography and exploitation on the Internet.
In addition to his own caucus, Lampson was 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.
[edit] 2004 election & redistricting
Lampson had been reelected three times without serious opposition, but in 2003, DeLay orchestrated a controversial mid-decade effort to get more Republican congressmen elected from Texas. Nearly every white Democrat in the Texas delegation was threatened with defeat, including Lampson. His district was renumbered the 2nd and radically altered. In particular, 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 Johnson Space Center. In its place, several heavily Republican areas in and around Houston were added to the district.
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%. Jefferson County gave Lampson a majority, but he was heavily defeated in Harris County, which supported Poe with 70% of the vote.
[edit] 2006 election
On May 4, 2005 Lampson announced that he was going to run in the 22nd District, which, had been held by Delay for 20 years. In the 2003 redistricting, the 22nd absorbed much of Lampson's former territory, including most of Galveston and NASA's Johnson Space Center. DeLay, who was then the House Majority Leader, had only managed a 14-point victory in 2004—far less than what is normally expected for a party leader in Congress. 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. It is possible that Lampson's chances may have increased given DeLay's indictment on conspiracy and money laundering charges, despite a Texas judge's dismissal of the former charge December 5th. [2]
Some media pundits attacked Lampson. Fred Barnes on Fox News has called him "a carpetbagger" who "moved into" DeLay's district, despite the fact that Lampson represented a portion of it earlier in his career. This portion included NASA's Johnson Space Center, which is one of the largest federal agencies in the district.[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 3rd, from a previous ranking of 5th, in a list of the top 30 House races in the country.[7]
Additionally, other traditionally conservative organizations have backed Lampson's candidacy. The National Rifle Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars both supported Lampson in the 2006 election.
Three national non-partisan political journals--the Cook Political Report, Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, and CQPolitics.com--all rated the race as Leans Democratic.
On October 30, 2006, a poll was released that was conducted by John Zogby, and paid for by Houston Chronicle-KHOU-TV which was intended to gauge the support for the various candidates in the 22nd District Congressional race. Sekula Gibbs received support of 27.9 percent of respondents, very close to the 36 percent support for Lampson, according to the poll of more than 500 likely voters in the 22nd Congressional District. Nearly 25 percent were still undecided.[1]
Nick Lampson defeated Shelly Sekula-Gibbs 52%-42% with 6% going to Libertarian Bob Smither on the November 7 General Election of 2006 and was sworn in as a member of the Democratic majority of the 110th Congress on January 4, 2007.
[edit] Special election
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.
[edit] Outside of politics
He 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.
He resides in Stafford, TX and is married to Susan Floyd Lampson, a special education teacher. The couple has two grown daughters, Stephanie and Hillary.
Mr. Lampson underwent quadruple bypass surgery on 25 March 2007 at the Texas Heart Institute.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- U.S. Congressman Nick Lampson official House site
- Biography 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 |
Categories: 1945 births | Current members of the United States House of Representatives | Living people | American politicians | Italian-American politicians | Sicilian-Americans | Members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas | Roman Catholic politicians | People from Beaumont, Texas
