| John True Smithee | |
|---|---|
| Texas State Representative from District 86 (Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Potter, and Randall counties) | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1985 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | September 7, 1951 Amarillo, Texas |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Becky Lynn Smithee |
| Alma mater | West Texas A&M University |
| Occupation | Attorney |
John True Smithee (born September 7, 1951) is an Amarillo attorney who has been a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives since January 1985.
Smithee's District 86 includes rural Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, and Deaf Smith counties. His district office is in Amarillo. He represents that part of Amarillo, some 40 percent of the population, located to the south of the central city within Randall County. The remainder of Amarillo, the seat of Potter County, is represented by Smithee's Republican colleague, David Swinford of Dumas, the seat of Moore County to the north of Amarillo.
Smithee is chairman of the House Insurance Committee and serves on the Higher Education Committee.
Smithee was first elected to the Texas House in 1984, when he was thirty-three. He was reelected to his twelfth two-year term in 2006 with 86.5 percent of the vote over a Libertarian Party opponent. No Democrat filed in the heavily Republican district.
He received a bachelor of business administration degree from West Texas A&M University (then West Texas State University) in Canyon, the seat of Randall County, and his Juris Doctor from Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He is married to Becky Lynn Smithee (born January 7, 1956).
On December 29, 2008, Smithee announced, via the online political newsletter, Quorum Report, that he had received "more than twenty calls" from fellow Texas House members and that he would announce within 48 hours whether or not he would seek unseat incumbent Republican Texas Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland.[1] Smithee did not enter the race, won instead by another Republican, Joe Straus of San Antonio.
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