Warren Chisum

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Warren Darrel Chisum (born July 4, 1938) is a staunchly conservative Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from the Panhandle city of Pampa, a community of some 20,000 people and the seat of Gray County. He has served in the state House since 1989. A key lieutenant of Speaker Thomas Russell "Tom" Craddick, Sr., of Midland, Chisum is the incoming 2007 chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, perhaps the most powerful committee in either chamber of the Texas legislature because all appropriation bills must originate in the lower body.

In addition to his own Gray County, Chisum represents a huge geographic area of twenty-one other Panhandle or West Texas counties in House District 88: Parmer, Bailey, Lamb, Castro, Swisher, Armstrong, Briscoe, Swisher, Armstrong, Briscoe, Hall, Donley, Collingsworth, Childress, Wheeler, Hutchinson, Roberts, Hemphill, Lipscomb, Ochiltree, and Hansford.

1 Political career
- 1.1 Texas House Appropriations Committee
- 1.2 Conservatism and political views
2 Controversy
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Political career

[edit] Texas House Appropriations Committee

Chisum described his chairmanship as "a bully pulpit. You really set the priorities for the state. We deal with a budget in excess of $200 billion" (for a two-year cycle). Joining Chisum on appropriations is Representative Carl Hawkins Isett (born 1957), a Republican from Lubbock.

Craddick rewarded West Texas in his chairmanship appointments. Chisum's other Republican colleagues, John True Smithee (born 1951) of Amarillo, the seat of Potter County, chairs the Insurance Committee, and David A. Swinford (born 1941) of Dumas, the seat of Moore County, heads the State Affairs Committee.

Newly-elected Representative Joseph Paul "Joe" Heflin (born 1951) of Crosbyton, the only Democrat in the Panhandle and South Plains delegation, was named to the Agriculture and Livestock Committee. Heflin defeated Jim Landtroop, a strongly financed Republican challenger, in the November 7, 2006, general election to succeed retiring Representative and former Speaker James E. "Pete" Laney of Hale Center in Hale County.

Craddick's appointments of Chisum, Isett, Smithee, and Swinford prompted Harvey Kronberg, editor of the Quorum Report, an online newsletter read in the Texas capital, to report that "the financial needs of West Texas have moved to the top of the table." West Texas is considered a major part of Craddick's base of support.

During a January 2007 rebellion against Craddick, Chisum led the effort to re-elect the Speaker, and Isett, Smithee, and Swinford never wavered in their support.

[edit] Conservatism and political views

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Chisum is an oil and natural gas producer and rancher. He began his career on oil drilling rigs and in truck yards.

Chisum served the first eight years of his House tenure as a Democrat, but he switched to GOP allegiance in 1996, when his district became measurably more Republican in orientation after redistricting. Chisum said that his relationship with the Democratic Party -- and fellow Panhandle resident, then Speaker Laney -- remains as cordial as it has ever been: "They were my friends then, and they are my friends now. I think probably the old-line conservative Democrat was just as conservative as some of the new conservative Republicans."

Chisum is a member of the Texas Conservative Coalition, a consortium of right-leaning House members. He headed the organization for a number of years.

He is particularly known for his opposition to same-sex marriages and adoptions.^[1] He has also opposed hate crimes legislation: "Any time you start producing a list of people who, for whatever reason, have greater protection than other people, I think you weaken the law," Chisum said. Though he declared crimes of "bias and prejudice... wrong... the record shows clearly that I've always opposed this laundry list."

Chisum has chided many of his conservative and Republican colleagues for failure "to stand up and be counted and take the abuse that you're going to take" for having unpopular views on liberal issues. Chisum is also critical of government in general. He boasts of having killed numerous liberal legislative agenda items: "Most of them don't come back up again.... The only thing the law ever does is, it either takes away your money or your freedom, so there's 100 times that we didn't take away your money or your freedom."

A former chairman of the House Environmental Regulation Committee, Chisum has opposed many environmental regulations as unwise government intrusion into private economic activities. He once tried to bring a nuclear waste dump into Andrews County but then voted against his own bill after opponents loaded it with objectionable amendments.

On January 30, 2007, Chisum introduced a bill in the Texas House which would clarify parental permission for their children to participate in sex education programs in public schools. The Chisum proposal would require parents to check "Yes" for their children to participate in the programs. Some school districts begin teaching students as young as five or six about sex, Chisum said.

Chisum said that existing state law requires school officials to give parents the option of removing their children from any sex education programs, but officials in some districts have not informed parents of their rights, the content of the programs, and at what age those programs begin. Chisum said that the checkoff-box bill he supports would make school districts more responsible to the wishes of the parents.

In his last election in 2006, Chisum won every county in the district to defeat the Libertarian candidate Timothy Justice, 24,044 to 4,244. There was no Democratic nominee.

Chisum resides in Pampa with his wife Omega C. Chisum (also born 1938).

[edit] Controversy

Chisum distributed an anti-evolution essay written by Ben Bridges, a Republican state representative from Cleveland, Georgia. The essay attacks evolution, claims that the sun revolves around the Earth, and contains links to a website calling Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan "Kabbalists".^[2] The website, fixedearth.com, espouses anti-Semitic, creationist and geocentrist beliefs, and claims that Jewish physicists are part of an ancient conspiracy attempting to destroy Christian teachings about the age and structure of the universe.^[3] Chisum came under attack by the Anti-Defamation League and others for supporting anti-Semitism and has defended himself by saying that the distribution was out of courtesy to Bridges, and that he was unaware of the content of the website. "I did not go to the website, which I understood maybe I should've done," Chisum said he’s "willing to apologize if I've offended anyone."^[4]