The congressman from the 25th District is Lloyd Doggett, first elected in 1994 in the old 10th District. He is a liberal Democrat and a respected voice in his party on tax and environmental issues. Read More
The congressman from the 25th District is Lloyd Doggett, first elected in 1994 in the old 10th District. He is a liberal Democrat and a respected voice in his party on tax and environmental issues.
Doggett grew up in Austin, finished first in his class at the University of Texas and was student body president in 1967. In 1972, at age 26, he was elected to the state Senate. In the 70s, as part of a large liberal bloc, he pushed for laws against job discrimination and cop-killer bullets and for generic drugs. He has long been a close ally of trial lawyers, the one strong institutional force supporting liberal Democrats in Texas. In the legislature, he was one of the “Killer Bees” who hid out to prevent a quorum on changing the rules in the Democratic primary and filibustered against what he called anti-consumer bills.
In 1984, he ran for the U.S. Senate, narrowly edging out two House members to win the Democratic nomination. Then, despite the campaign help of crack Democratic consultant James Carville, Doggett lost the general election 59%-41% to U.S. Rep. Phil Gramm, a Democrat who had switched to become a Republican. Doggett was elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1988. When Democratic U.S. Rep. Jake Pickle retired after 31 years, Doggett ran for his seat. He won the Democratic primary with token opposition and in the general election won by a solid 56%-40%.
In the House, Doggett’s voting record puts him among the most-liberal Texans and near the center of all Democrats. He has been a close ally of Nancy Pelosi of California, backing her against fellow Texan Martin Frost in her 2002 race for minority leader. In 2002, he was a leader in opposing the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. He is at times highly partisan. When Republicans won a House majority in 1994, he was a frequent critic of Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich and a close ally of Minority Whip David Bonior of Michigan, who led an effort to diminish Gingrich’s power by raising continual questions about his ethics.
In recent years, Doggett drew the most attention for a protracted standoff with Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry in 2010 over a provision that Doggett added to a House-passed bill giving states aid to hire and retain teachers. The provision, which applied only to Texas, required the governor to maintain the state’s current level of education funding over the next three years, State Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit, arguing Texas was unfairly singled out. Doggett was unrepentant: “Instead of running to the courtroom, the governor should focus on our classrooms,” he told The Texas Tribune. The requirement was eventually removed in the fiscal 2011 budget deal.
When Democrats controlled the House between 2007 and 2010, Doggett was active and often influential on the Ways and Means Committee. His priorities included eliminating tax shelters and loopholes and giving the federal government power to negotiate prescription drug prices for Medicare. He also sought tax incentives for purchasers of plug-in hybrid electric cars. In May 2009, when President Barack Obama announced his plan to reform international tax policy, he cited Doggett’s input on proposals to crack down on overseas tax evasion. Doggett also pressed the president’s Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission to scrutinize the more than $1 trillion a year that the Internal Revenue Service provides in the form of reduced taxes or refunds to companies and individuals. The commission’s report called for eliminating most so-called “tax expenditures.” Doggett refused to back Obama’s tax-cut deal with Republicans in the 2010 lame-duck session for its inclusion of tax cuts for high-income taxpayers.
Reflecting his district’s environmental activism, Doggett was among the Ways and Means Democrats who asserted the panel’s role in global warming legislation, then dominated by the Energy and Commerce Committee. He initially announced he would oppose the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill to limit carbon emissions in June 2009, but after lobbying from Pelosi ended up backing what he called “this flawed bill.” On other issues, Doggett won House passage in 2008 and 2009 of a bill to create a “silver alert” modeled on the Texas program to track wandering senior citizens who may have Alzheimer’s disease.
Republicans have long been giddy at the prospect that redistricting might end Doggett’s congressional career. In 2004, the GOP stretched his district 300 miles south to the Mexican border. But he took up the challenge. As some other dislocated Texas Democrats took their fight to the courts, Doggett took his case to the voters of his new district. He started by working hard to get the support of elected officials and party activists along the border. Meanwhile, the best-known Hispanic challengers for a Democratic primary dropped out for various reasons. But Doggett’s strong local base and relentless pursuit of new voters prevailed. If he lost, Doggett told voters, “Tom DeLay will have won,” a reference to the powerful GOP majority leaders from Texas who had orchestrated the remap. Doggett won the primary 64%-36%. He led 88%-12% in Travis County and held Leticia Hinojosa, a former district court judge from McAllen, to a standoff in Hidalgo County.
Although the primary effectively sealed his re-election, Doggett faced a spirited challenge in the 2004 general from Becky Armendariz Klein. She called herself a conservative “new voice with new ideas” and cited her experience as policy director for Gov. George W. Bush and as chairwoman of the Texas Public Utility Commission. Doggett tweaked her for her bid for ethnic voters, saying she’d pulled out her “long forgotten maiden name” to run for the seat. He won 68%-31%, getting 79% in Travis County and 60% in Hidalgo County.
He had far less trouble in 2006 and 2008, winning with 67% and 66% respectively, after the Supreme Court ordered his district redrawn to include areas closer to Austin. In 2010, he drew a tough challenge from Republican Donna Campbell, a doctor and hospital emergency department director who raised more than $765,773. But Doggett spent $1.2 million and won 53%-45%, carrying Travis County by 2-to-1.
During August 2011, Doggett became a leading Lone Star critic of Gov. Perry’s presidential ambitions. With tension still simmering from their fight over education funding, Doggett pulled no punches in seeking to paint Perry as an extremist. “He’s messed with Texas, and we think he shouldn’t mess with America,” Doggett opined. Doggett also faces a potentially difficult re-election campaign in 2012, as a redistricting plan signed by Perry and awaiting court approval would make his district much more Republican. If the plan withstands the court challenge, Doggett is expected to run in a newly-created 35th District.
