I am asking - BEGGING - you to support to Nick Lampson in TX-22. Nick is a Blue Dog. He is also a fundamentally decent man, in a very Red district, which places him at as much risk as any Democrat in the last cycle. There is no other Democrat who can win in this district as it is currently drawn. And his success is a necessary component of several thing:
- making our House majority as large as possible - we do NOT want to lose seats we currently hold
- giving Noriega any possibility of defeating Cornyn by increasing votes
- aiding Obama in in having any possibility of winning Texas.
Those are obvious. But consider these words from an email Nick just sent me:
Redistricting is coming up and it must be recognized that we must win local state rep districts in order to get Dems back in control of Tx Government. My successful effort will impact 2 state rep districts and 2 state senate districts all of which can become Democratic in this election. It was through redistricting that DeLay took away Democratic dominance of Tx House delegation. We must control some State government to change it back.
And yes, let's not forget Delay.
Nick had previously served in the House of Reps. His was one of the districts that were redrawn by Delay, being divided between Louis Gompert and Delay himself. Nick polled better against Delay, but since he lived in the other part of the district, he ran against, and lost to Gompert.
Nick then decided to take on Delay. I first got to know him when he came to Washington to try to raise support. I wrote this diary in April of 2005, when I first met him. Please let me quote myself, a part of that diary:
There were a number of labor lobbyists present. When I asked why they supported Lampson, one from IBEW told me that it was more than just the politics of it, it was the absolutely clear difference in policy. The first example cited was that Lampson supports Davis-Bacon, Delay opposes. This lobbyist listed about a half dozen issues that demonstrated the absolute chasm between the positions of the two men.
Others in attendance were former staffers and interns for Lampson. One staffer now retired, when I asked him what phrase he would use for his ex-boss said
"The nicest person in the world. Just one word: NICE in all capital letters."
When I repeated this to the Congressman he joked that I had talked to the only one he had paid to say that. One former intern said that she was so looking forward to the campaign so that she could work on behalf of the most honorable man she had met in public service.
Another Congressional staffer, who had previously worked for Martin Frost and now works for Emmanuel Cleaver told me that Lampson was greatly respected by the staffs of all of the Texas Dems. I also spoke with a staffer from Ted kennedy and i noticed more than a few staffers from the DCCC, although I did not have the change for any conversations with them.
When I talked with Jim Oberstar, I asked him if he could tell me why he supported Nick Lampson. I have his permission to quote:
"Honesty, Integrity, a genuine commitment tom public service for itself and the good that it can accomplish."
Mr. Oberstar went on to talk about how Lampson had stayed on the issue of missing and exploited children (he used to regularly introduce legislation about this), raising it in foreign capitals when traveling on behalf of the Congress, and raising it with notable foreign visitors to Washington DC.
Nick Lampson filed to run against Tom Delay well before anyone was sure what would happen with the charges against the then Majority Leader. We knew that at a minimum Delay was going to have to stay home to defend his seat, and not use all of his fundraising capability to help other threatened Democrats. When Delay fouled up his resignation, that meant that we already had a credible candidate on the ballot, and thus we were able to pick off a seat that few had thought at all possible.
I can remember Markos making the point often during the 2006 cycle that our goal was to elect Democrats. We might not be happy with those more conservative than us, but needed to recognize when a Blue Dog or someone almost as conservative was the only meaningful chance of winning a seat. Thus people here supported Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and Melissa Bean. Patrick Murphy, one of Obama's earliest and most visible Pennsylvania supporters, is a Blue Dog. And because we were able to win seats like that, and like Nick Lampson in TX-22, we not only won control of the House, we did so by wider margin than almost anyone had predicted, giving the new Democratic leadership operational control even when some of the members, newly elected and already present, broke with the leadership in order to protect themselves back home.
Many here know that Rick Noriega has been spending his time to direct relief efforts in Houston in the aftermath of Ike. Nick has also been working hard: as you can read in this Houston Chronicle piece, Nick
arranged for a mobile communications unit owned by the House of Representatives to come to the Houston area. The 200 laptop computers and 200 phone lines, linked to a satellite truck parked outside, provided a way for storm victims without power or phone service to apply for hotel rooms.
FEMA would provide hotel rooms for up to 30 days, but many people had no phone service, no way of trying to find a room. This was an innovative way of helping them. And it was not just providing the communications capability:
Lampson said the volume of need was overwhelming. "I felt like I could be a resource person to do what I can to point these people in a direction where they can get help," he said.
Trevor Kincaid, an aide to Lampson, said the center would remain open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for at least a week, and longer if necessary. FEMA and the Small Business Administration, which can provide low-interest loans for businesses affected by Ike, will have staff in the center today, Kincaid said.
Nick is a former school teacher, whose first elected position was as tax collector - he was so likable they kept on electing him to office until Delay redistricted him. When the schools in his area were integrated, he volunteered to go to the black school. Let me again quote from that 2005 diary some material that will be relevant:
The immediate bond between us is because we share the experience of teaching adolescents. While we did not get into a great deal of detail on educational policy, when I mentioned that it was my real passion he told me that not only had he been a teacher, his wife was a Special Ed teacher working with kids on Life Skills, and his daughter was getting so frustrated with what was happening that she was thinking of leaving her job as a public school teacher. he then added "That should give you some idea of what I think about No Child Left Behind."
I want to share a story he then told me. I won't use quotes, because it is not word for word. I will put it into block quote, because it was Nick Lampson's story.
I was teaching around the time we really tried to integrate the schools in our district. We didn't do it by moving the kids, we started by moving the teachers. The took about 75% of us, strong teachers, from the white school, perhaps the newest and most modern building in the district. The black school was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, buildings. I remember that there was a group of buildings in a shape around a space, like a U, with a sidewalk across the end. There was always several inches of water in that open space, because of all the rain we get in that part of Texas. It never seemed to dry up. I went to talk to the principal about it, and he said he had been complaining about it for around 12 years. I asked if I could try to do something about it, and he told me if I wanted to, go ahead.
So I went out there with my biology students. They took samples, measured, and examined what they found. Sure enough, there were three things they identified that were harmful to humans. So I had them turn over their information to the Department of Health. The Health people told the school people that that "pond" had to be cleaned up or the building was going to close. They told the school in the morning, and by the afternoon there were crews draining the pond and fixing the site.
He and I talked a bit more, but this story encapsulated several things. One, this was authentic learning, relevant to the worlds of the students, applying knowledge in a real-world setting. This is the kind of lesson that sticks with kids forever. Further, it shows Lampson as one who can come up with creative ways of fixing problems for which others have not been able to come up with solutions.
Please, please, please: help Nick Lampson any way you can. Go to his campaign website where you can contribute. The Houston area is an expensive market. If you have time, you can also volunteer to assist. Remember, turning out votes for Nick also likely turns them out for both Noriega and Obama. And do NOT forget about those four state legislative districts, and how important taking them can be for the future for Democrats across the state.
And please, I beseech you, if at all possible help keep this diary visible so that more can get the message.
I do not agree with Nick on all things. But I respect him as fundamentally decent and honest. He is an example of someone who can and does work across the partisan divide to get things done.
Let me offer some more of his words:
You've stuck with me even though I have cast votes you couldn't possibly agree with. Thank you for that. You've also seen votes which I was in the House to make which my opponents would never make in behalf of your and my shared interests. We must win in districts like mine to keep control of the agenda in the House.
He's right. We must win districts like Nick Lampson's TX-22 to keep control of the agenda in the House.
For whatever you can do, I thank you, and on behalf of Nick I express his gratitude.
Peace.