Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), chairman of the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee, has easily won reelection, beating his Democratic challenger by a 2-1 margin. However, Nick Lampson (D-TX), the ranking minority member of that subcommittee, lost his reelection bid to his Republican challenger, Ted Poe. Lampson was one of the staunchest pro-space Democrats in Congress, pushing such measures as the Space Exploration Act, which called for an ambitious new exploration policy long before President Bush unveiled the Vision for Space Exploration.
I am very sorry to hear about Mr. Lampson’s defeat.
Three and a half years ago Dan Goldin used Lampson (who represented NASA/JSC) to attack Dennis Tito’s flight to ISS just two days after Dennis’ launch. But Lampson’s constituents got so excited about Tito’s flight — the first time Lampson had seen this sort of excitement in the community around JSC — that he changed his mind, and publicly praised Tito at a hearing two months later.
This Republican will be sorry to see Mr. Lampson leave the House.
Lampsom was an ineffective nonentity, whose Space Exploration Act had few supporters and was going no where. I prefer to celebrate the bevy of pro space pols who were returned to office, including Congressman Delay and–of course–President George W. Bush.
So, all in all, is that a net loss for alt.space crowd ?
I’ll celebrate when we see results. Bush bought the “space vote” cheap. If, by four years from now, even one of our issues is seriously addressed at a high level, I’ll be stunned.
Meanwhile, we get four more years of disasterous forign misadventures, credit card economics, and social policies guaranteed to split the country. Even if we do get that high-level support, our country will be in no economic or social shape to take on major projects.
— Donald
Mark,
Lampson was in the minority, and definitely overshadowed by powerful leaders like DeLay.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t appropriate to note his departure with some small regret.
Of course I celebrate the President’s reelection and the new that many other strong space supporters are coming back for another 2 or 6 years. I suspect some other readers here are less celebratory.
– Jim
Posted by Jim Muncy at November 3, 2004 04:50 PM