Nick Lampson Has Forsaken Us
It is a simple, relatively benign story we are working on concerning Nick Lampson, our former congressman, tax assessor and school teacher, a man who dedicated decades to Southeast Texas public service.
We wrote a similar story after Republican Ted Poe dislodged Lampson from office in 2004.
The basic idea is to write how a politician affiliated with one party goes about establishing himself and gaining constituents' respect and support on the opposite party's turf.
In Poe's case, it was a Republican finding footing on traditionally Democratic soil. Now, for Democrat Lampson, it's the opposite over there in Sugar Land, a solidly Republican territory which he claimed Nov. 7 by beating a write-in Republican.
We wanted Lampson's comments for the story, but we couldn't get him to call us back after repeated attempts.
Yesterday, I called Mike Lykes, Lampson's interim chief of staff, and inquired why our Southeast Texas son was not giving his old newspaper the brush.
Lykes' response was shocking: It was not in Lampson's best interest to talk to The Beaumont Enterprise.
He cited a media and blogger beating - with the expected carpetbagging accusations - that Lampson suffered during this past year's campaign. I pointed out that I couldn't recall any such beating from The Enterprise.
He said he would talk to Lampson and then get back with me later in the day. He didn't.
Today, I called Lykes around midday to check the status of whether we still had a working relationship with Lampson, who began representing the 9th Congressional District in 1996, served as Jefferson County Tax Assessor-Collector for almost 20 years and was a teacher for nine years.
Lykes didn't return the call.
I made another call late in the afternoon and was put to voice mail. I left a blunt message. Lykes quickly called back.
Again, I asked whether he talked to Lampson. He did, and here was his response:
"He's not going to comment on the story," Lykes said. "We're just going to focus on the new District 22 area."
I asked why Lampson would want to divorce his former constituents here, people who are interested in what he was doing, people who voted for him and donated money to his campaigns, and Lykes replied: "It's not that he doesn't want to have anything to do with the district ... It's Ted Poe's district, and we don't want to step on Poe's toes."
Running that through my political translator, it basically means Lampson feels that any kind of appearance of dabbling in his old district would only fuel those carpetbagging charges. So, for the sake of political strategy, we've essentially been divorced.
In my 20 years as a journalist, I've never experienced anything like this.
My view is that any reporter from any place should be able to call the congressman who represents Boise, Idaho, and, at best, get a prompt callback from the congressman or, at least, some kind of statement cranked out by his public relations folks.
I once won a lunch bet by saying I could get U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm to call me back in 30 minutes. He called me back in 20. I had a nice lunch that day.
Alan Simpson, a former U.S. senator from Wyoming, once said that when the media is calling, answer the damn phone.
Perhaps Lampson should take note.
We wrote a similar story after Republican Ted Poe dislodged Lampson from office in 2004.
The basic idea is to write how a politician affiliated with one party goes about establishing himself and gaining constituents' respect and support on the opposite party's turf.
In Poe's case, it was a Republican finding footing on traditionally Democratic soil. Now, for Democrat Lampson, it's the opposite over there in Sugar Land, a solidly Republican territory which he claimed Nov. 7 by beating a write-in Republican.
We wanted Lampson's comments for the story, but we couldn't get him to call us back after repeated attempts.
Yesterday, I called Mike Lykes, Lampson's interim chief of staff, and inquired why our Southeast Texas son was not giving his old newspaper the brush.
Lykes' response was shocking: It was not in Lampson's best interest to talk to The Beaumont Enterprise.
He cited a media and blogger beating - with the expected carpetbagging accusations - that Lampson suffered during this past year's campaign. I pointed out that I couldn't recall any such beating from The Enterprise.
He said he would talk to Lampson and then get back with me later in the day. He didn't.
Today, I called Lykes around midday to check the status of whether we still had a working relationship with Lampson, who began representing the 9th Congressional District in 1996, served as Jefferson County Tax Assessor-Collector for almost 20 years and was a teacher for nine years.
Lykes didn't return the call.
I made another call late in the afternoon and was put to voice mail. I left a blunt message. Lykes quickly called back.
Again, I asked whether he talked to Lampson. He did, and here was his response:
"He's not going to comment on the story," Lykes said. "We're just going to focus on the new District 22 area."
I asked why Lampson would want to divorce his former constituents here, people who are interested in what he was doing, people who voted for him and donated money to his campaigns, and Lykes replied: "It's not that he doesn't want to have anything to do with the district ... It's Ted Poe's district, and we don't want to step on Poe's toes."
Running that through my political translator, it basically means Lampson feels that any kind of appearance of dabbling in his old district would only fuel those carpetbagging charges. So, for the sake of political strategy, we've essentially been divorced.
In my 20 years as a journalist, I've never experienced anything like this.
My view is that any reporter from any place should be able to call the congressman who represents Boise, Idaho, and, at best, get a prompt callback from the congressman or, at least, some kind of statement cranked out by his public relations folks.
I once won a lunch bet by saying I could get U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm to call me back in 30 minutes. He called me back in 20. I had a nice lunch that day.
Alan Simpson, a former U.S. senator from Wyoming, once said that when the media is calling, answer the damn phone.
Perhaps Lampson should take note.
posted by Brian Pearson at 5:12 PM
4 Comments:
I should probably bite my tongue and hold my peace.. But look at who's answering the other end of the phone. You hit the nail on the head.. Answer the phone! I dont care who's district it is.. The media is their voice.. He will need his vocal cords in place one day.. all of them..
Both Poe and Lampson serve districts with solid Republican voting bases. Poe won the seat in 2004 with less than 40% in Jefferson County but did pay attention to the districts concerns for 2 years and gained 53% locally in 2006.
Lampson only won because his opponent was hampered by a write in handicap. That district votes 60% Republican and Nick's pro gay, pro abortion, pro spending voting record will haunt him in 2008. Carpet bagging is the least of his problems.
Not to worry though. He will then have qualified for a Federal pension to complement his County and State (teachers) benefits.
never resting isn't correct. DeLay engineered his district to be only marginally Republican, putting more GOPers into other districts so that they could win--assuming that he'd always be able to hang onto his seat.
DeLay himself only got 55% of the vote last time; there's no serious way to assert that Lampson didn't get 51% on merit. Their previous representative didn't exactly engender good feelings about his party, and everywhere that a poster boy for corruption was involved in a House race, that corruption WAS an issue.
If DeLay's pro spending record didn't hurt him, why would it hurt Lampson? :)
I wouldn't classify 55 percent as an "only."
That's a pretty fair stomping in these parts!
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