The Chronicle‘s Michelle Mittelstadt reported last week that Rep. Nick Lampson was not rewarded with a seat on the House Appropriations Committee:
Nick Lampson, who earned bragging rights for Democrats by claiming the seat once held by Republican powerbroker Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, lost a three-way Texas derby for an Appropriations Committee seat.
The job is a political plum because it permits members to steer millions of dollars in federal funds to their home districts and determine the spending of billions more.
Pelosi’s hand-picked Democratic Steering Committee chose for the seat Ciro Rodriguez, the former congressman from San Antonio who thrilled his party with a come-from-behind runoff victory Tuesday over 14-year Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla.
Pelosi’s move can be interpreted as bolstering the Texas Democrat with the better chance of being re-elected in 2008. That’s Rodriguez, not Lampson.
Before the decision, speculation had surfaced that if Lampson were appointed to Appropriations, he might push to fund the Richmond METRO light-rail option opposed by Rep. John Culberson. That always seemed more like METRO wishful thinking than reality, but this news should put such speculation to rest.
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