After three decades, Smith to call it quits
He would’ve run again if he were able to continue to chair science panel.
U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, an influe ntia l senior House member fifirst elected to Congress in 1986, announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election in 2018 when his sixyear stint as chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology comes to an end.
“I love my job; there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing,” Smith said in a conference call with reporters, explaining that he would have run again if he could have kept the Science Committee chair beyond next year, but that, and the imminent arrival of a second grandchild, suggested that this was the time to step down.
Smith’s district stretches from San Antonio to Austin — where his 21st Congressional District is one of six to lay claim to parts of Austin — and west into the Hill Coun-
try past Leakey. He was considered a safe bet for re-election and, without mentioning any names, he said he is confident a Republican will keep the seat.
Smith, who was the first member of Congress to contribute to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, said that nothing about the current climate in Washington — which has some other members of Congress heading for the exits — had turned him off about the job.
“That had no impact on my decision whatsoever,” said Smith, the 14th-most-senior member of the House and second-most-senior member of the Texas delegation after Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis.
On the contrary, Smith said that Trump “deserves a lot more credit than he is getting,” and that the stock market and other economic indicators are very positive.
Smith is a diligent, knowledgeable lawmaker, soft-spoken and affable, but in some of his views, if not his manner, he was Trump before Trump. Smith was a founder of the Border Security Caucus and the Media Fairness Caucus, where he railed against what he said was a persistent media bias that changed the outcome of elections.
Smith’s reign as Science Committee chair was most controversial for his skepticism about climate science, using his powerful perch to accuse federal scientists of pushing an “extreme climate agenda.”
In February, Smith convened a hearing called “Making EPA Great Again,” and the American-Statesman at the time reported that Smith has called far fewer scientists to testify before his committee than people associated with the types of industries the Environmental Protection Agency is charged with regulating.
Smith took pride in introducing the bipartisan STEM Education Act, passed unanimously in both the House and Senate and signed into law in 2015 by President Barack Obama, which strengthened science, technology, engineering and math education efforts and expanded the definition of STEM to include computer science.
“Having chaired the Ethics, Judiciary, and Science Committees, and also served as a member of the Homeland Security and Budget Committees, I’ve been able to shape policy involving ethics, immigration, crime, intellectual property, space, energy, the environment, the budget and high tech,” Smith wrote in an email to supporters Thursday. “And, through the years, it’s been gratifying to have been named one of the 100 most influential people in D.C., one of the most effective members of Congress, and Legislator of the Year.”
The Legislative Effectiveness Project, a joint effort by researchers from the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, named Smith the most effective legislator out of 449 House members who served in the 112th Congress between 2011 and 2013.
On Thursday, Smith apologized to reporters for bragging about himself, noting that “sometimes I think legislators would better be called bakers because we trade in half-loaves and slices and even crumbs.”
“You’re never going to throw a touchdown pass, you’re never going to hit a grand slam,” Smith said. “You’re just going to grind out singles and first downs, but over time, that can add up.”
“Persistence is sometimes more important than IQ,” he said.
Of a potential successor, Smith said, “There are going to be a number of good candidates. I’m not concerned about who might follow. I’m confident it will be a Republican.”
Smith’s district includes some of Bexar, Travis, Comal and Hays counties and all of Bandera, Blanco, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr and Real counties. It stretches to Austin’s West Campus and includes Old West Austin, parts of downtown Austin, a small pocket of Southeast Austin and a wide swath of South Austin. He also represents the west side of San Marcos and some conservative Hill Country counties.
The district is drawn to elect a Republican, but Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said it is a “lighter shade of red and could conceivably be won by a top-tier Democrat with substantial funding if they have the good fortune to face a nightmare Republican candidate and President Trump’s approval ratings continue to fall some more over the next year.”
House Speaker Joe Straus ran Smith’s first campaign for Congress. But, while Straus’ recent announcement that he was not seeking another term in the state House stoked rumors that he knew that Smith was about to retire and would seek to succeed him, starting over at the bottom of what Straus has derided as a dysfunctional Congress seems an unlikely ambition.
State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, could be well-positioned to make a run for the seat, though she would have to abandon her campaign for re-election. Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, is on the outskirts of the district (living in the district is not required to run) and she isn’t up for re-election in 2018, so she could make the race without giving up her seat.
On the Democratic side, Joseph Kopser, an Austin tech executive and 20-year Army veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq, raised $213,000 during the three months ending Sept. 30 — outpacing Smith by $14,000, which might have been a telltale sign that Smith, at 69, was not looking to run again.
There are two other very active Democratic candidates, but they raised lesser amounts the last quarter. Derrick Crowe, an Austin organizer and former congressional staffer, raised $25,000, while Elliott McFadden, chief executive of the nonprofit Austin B-cycle, raised $16,000.