Volume 4, Issue 5 | March 30–April 26 - Community Impact Newspaper

CoFFee WitH iMPaCt
Lamar Smith
U.S. House of Representatives, R-District 21
By Andrea Leptinsky
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-District 21, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
in 1986. Smith serves as a member of several congressional committees, including the
Homeland Security Committee. He also is a member of the Committee on Science,
Space, and Technology, which oversees renewable energy policies; the Subcommittee
on Research and Science Education; the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation;
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He is also the first
Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from Texas.
In 1980, Smith won the 57th District state representative race, and two years later, he
was elected to serve as the Precinct 3 commissioner of Bexar County.
District 21, as it is currently organized, includes portions of Bexar and Travis counties
and all of Comal, Real, Kerr, Bandera, Kendall and Blanco counties. The district’s
population is about 700,000.
When talking about redistricting Texas to
accommodate four new districts, is it the
one vote that really matters, or is it the
political structure that’s at hand?
I think it’s a combination of both. And
this is not widely known necessarily, but
if there is a net change in the U.S. House
of Representatives by 25 seats—if there
is a net loss among the Republicans of
just 25 seats—you’re back to [Democratic
Party] Speaker Pelosi. So it does have some
impact on who may possibly control the
House. My own guess is that control of the
House is not going to come down to two
votes, and it may not make any difference,
but you never know.
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What effect will Texas’ delayed primary
have on the presidential election?
If we held the earlier primary three
months roughly before the May 29 date,
that would have enhanced the influence of
Texas in the nominating process. By the
end of May, I think the Republicans will
likely know who the nominee is by then,
so Texas might have less of an influence.
But it has now been decided by the state
Republican party, and I suspect by the state
Democratic party as well, that the delegates
to the national convention are not going to
be chosen in the primary. So it will be the
type of primary where you don’t choose
the delegates—a beauty pageant.
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Have you endorsed a candidate?
I supported Mitt Romney four years
ago, so it was not a surprise that I would
endorse him this year as well, and I’m
comfortable with that.
You recently pulled back the Stop Online
Piracy Act, saying you wanted to reach
a better agreement on its suggested
solution. Do you still support SOPA?
Well, SOPA is not going to rise again
in its current form. I do think we have to
address the current concerns. I still feel
there is a serious problem with online
piracy. And a lot of folks in Austin will
agree, whether they are musicians who
impactnews.com • March 2012 | NEWS | 15
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-District 21 (left), discusses redistricting, online piracy and the issues Texas will face
as a result of its delayed primary date with Community Impact Newspaper Publisher John Garrett.
see their recordings stolen and downloaded
for free … there are a lot of
individuals who are hurt by online piracy.
But there was also a lot of misinformation
about this particular piece of legislation.
The language of the bill clearly limited
our concerns to foreign websites primarily
engaged in illegal activity. When we
would get calls at the office about ‘You’re
getting ready to shut down Facebook,’
or ‘You’re getting ready to stop Google,’
… no one had really made a clear distinction
between domestic websites and
foreign websites primarily engaged in
illegal activity. And we were simply overwhelmed
by that misinformation.
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