GOP's
Olson blasts Democrat
Lampson's record
Houston ChronicleBy Alan
BernsteinOctober 21, 2008
U.S. Rep. Nick
Lampson, left, and Pete Olson, who is challenging the incumbent for the 22nd
District, participate in a debate at the Bay Oaks Country Club in Houston on
Monday.
Democratic U.S. Rep.
Nick Lampson pleaded for bipartisanship and compromise, and Republican
challenger Pete Olson delivered a withering criticism of Lampson's legislative
votes Monday night in their only debate over a seat that has drawn the national
spotlight.
Olson, a former Senate
aide and Navy pilot, said repeatedly that Lampson talks good sense in the 22nd
District while voting for tax increases and wasteful spending in
Congress.
"Broken promises and
failed leadership" was Olson's refrain.
Lampson said Olson was
distorting his record and that he has voted the consensus of the
Republican-friendly district, sometimes by opposing the Democratic leadership in
the U.S. House.
Commenting on the
hundreds of town hall meetings he attended that drew 60,000 constituents,
Lampson remarked: "Could I not hear what you said? I voted the way this district
asked me to."
He said he has
pioneered centrist compromises on legislation and that Olson was unfairly
picking select language from objectionable bills that Lampson
opposed.
Turning to Olson, the
congressman said, "You've been distorting my record ever since you moved to
Texas."
Olson grew up in the
Houston area and
moved back here last year to run for Congress after serving in the military and
on Capitol Hill.
The debate at the Bay
Oaks Country Club in Houston was sponsored by the Bay Area Houston
Economic Partnership, which excluded Libertarian candidate John Wieder. His
campaign signs at a nearby gas station said, "Life begins at
fertilization."
Lampson represented a
district that spanned from Harris
County to Beaumont for eight years
before he was defeated largely because of election boundary changes promoted by
Tom DeLay, then the 22nd District's Republican congressman. After DeLay resigned
in mid-2006, leaving no chance for the GOP to replace him on the ballot, Lampson
won the seat.
Centrist voting
record
The national
Republican Party ever since has considered the seat ripe for retaking. The
district includes parts of Harris, Fort
Bend, Brazoria and Galveston
counties.
Olson lobbed several
wide-ranging allegations during the debate.
Lampson favored
unionizing every business in Texas, the
challenger said, and added, "I have pointed out, I hope in a respectful way,
that Nick Lampson has contributed to many of the serious problems facing
America
today."
For instance, he said,
Lampson voted against NASA funding and sending military units to back up border
agents along the boundary with Mexico.
Lampson said that as a
key legislator on NASA, whose Johnson Space
Center is in his district,
he actually led the way in the House to secure NASA funding. He repeatedly
mentioned that he has congressional seniority, experience and connections that
help fund some of the district's needs.
Lampson declined to
address many other legislative votes Olson cited, saying instead: "Mr. Olson has
talking points. I have action." He bemoaned "a partisan divide that has torn
this country apart and torn this district apart."
Lampson cited
endorsements from the National Rifle Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars and
the Texas Farm Bureau as proof that conservatives approve of what he called his
centrist voting record.
Said Olson: "My
opponent is a nice person, but let's face it, he hasn't been too nice to
families who need tax relief."
Monday night's
campaign match-up was the only one Lampson agreed to attend with Olson before
the Nov. 4 election.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6069350.html
