Archive for the ‘Pete Sessions’ Category

Peter Anderson Sessions (born March 22, 1955) is a politician from the state of Texas. He is a Republican, and currently represents the 32nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives

Campaigns

In his 1991 election bid, Sessions finished third in a special election for the House of Representatives.

In 1993, Sessions left his job with Southwestern Bell to again run for Congress, against 5th District incumbent Democrat John Bryant. Sessions made a tour of the district with a livestock trailer full of horse manure, claiming that the Clinton administration’s health care plan stunk more than the manure. Sessions lost by 2,400 votes. He subsequently became Vice President for Public Policy at the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a Dallas-based conservative public policy research institute.

In 1996, when Bryant decided to seek a Senate seat, Sessions was elected to succeed him in the 5th District, defeating Democrat John Pouland with 47 percent of the vote. Sessions was re-elected in 1998, defeating school teacher Victor Morales with 56 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2000 with 54 percent of the vote.

When redistricting after the 2000 Census made the 5th slightly more Democratic, Sessions moved to the new 32nd District for the 2002 election. He won that with 68 percent of the vote over Pauline Dixon.

In 2004, Sessions defeated fellow Congressman Martin Frost, a 13-term Democrat, who had moved to the 32nd after the Republican-engineered redistricting in 2003 eliminated Frost’s former district. Sessions won 54-44%, in what was considered the most expensive U.S. House race in the nation. According to the Associated Press, “The race also was one of the nastiest, with Frost unearthing a decades-old streaking incident by Sessions in his college days and questioning Sessions’ commitment to security with an ad featuring the World Trade Center towers in flames. Sessions criticized Frost for booking Peter Yarrow of the ’60s group Peter, Paul and Mary for a fundraiser. Yarrow had faced an indecency with a child charge years earlier.”

March 2010 Sessions will face David Smith in a Primary Election. Sessions opponent, David Smith, is a businessman that is running partly due to the votes Sessions has cast over the years. Smith campaign has focused on Sessions support of the bailouts, increased federal spending, and Sessions being voted as one of the most corrupt Representatives in Congress. Sessions has faced over the years numerous ethics complaints which included among others holding a fundraiser at a Las Vegas strip club. Whoever wins the primary will face in the General Election Democrat Grier Raggio, an attorney.

Committee assignments

• House Committee on Rules
  • Subcommittee on Rules and the Organization of the House (Ranking Member)

Party leadership and caucus memberships

• National Republican Congressional Committee (Chairman)
• Results Caucus
• Malaysia Trade, Security and Economic Cooperation Caucus

Political positions

Sessions calls himself a conservative. He is a backer of free trade, and a member of a Republican cybersecurity task force created by Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.