John Whitmire
Encyclopedia
John Harris Whitmire is the longest-serving of current members of the Texas State Senate
representing District 15
, which includes much of northern Houston
, since 1983. Previously he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives
from 1973 through 1982. He also served as the Acting Governor of Texas in 1993 as part of the Governor for A Day tradition.
Whitmire was born in Hillsboro, Texas
to James M. Whitmire and Marie Harris Whitmire and graduated from Waltrip High School
and the University of Houston
.
In 2003, Whitmire was one of the "Texas Eleven", a group of Democrats
who fled the state for New Mexico
in 2003 in a quorum-busting
effort aimed at preventing the passage of controversial redistricting
legislation that would have benefited Texas Republicans
.
National House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
, a powerful figure in Texas
politics, advocated arresting Whitmire, along with the other members of the Texas 11, telling reporters that he supported using Federal Bureau of Investigation
agents or U.S. marshals to arrest the runaway Democrats and bring them back to Austin
, asserting that redistricting is a federal matter of federal
concern.
It was Whitmire who first broke ranks and headed back home to Austin. His stated reason for doing so was that he wished to preserve consensus in the state Senate instead of allowing no-holds-barred partisan civil war to continue. Others have speculated about a possible "deal" between Republicans and Whitmire.
Besides the New Mexico controversy, he voiced his opposition to the City of Houston's Safe Clear program which unanimously passed by Houston Mayor Bill White. Whitmire introduced legislation to disband Safe Clear where it was deemed a revenue generator to which two Houston City Councilmembers decried its policy. The proposed legislation was later withdrawn after a private meeting in Austin where Mayor Bill White and Whitmire negotiated.
In July 2005 Texas Monthly
, in its article “The Best and Worst Legislators of 2005” the magazine named Whitmire one of the ten best legislators in the Seventy-ninth Texas Legislature
.
In 2008 Whitmire received threatening calls from death row inmate Richard Tabler who had a smuggled cell phone in his death row cell.
Whitmire is the former brother-in-law to Kathy Whitmire
, the mayor of Houston from 1982 to 1991.
and frequented by politicians and lobbyists, alleged that she was fired in retaliation for having refused to serve Whitmire, whom she says appeared intoxicated. Whitmire is alleged to have threatened to have the bartender fired, to prevent the police from coming to the scene—and other similar abuses of power. Shortly after the incident, the bartender was fired. She sued the manager and owner of the bar. Unbeknownst to the bar manager the employee reportedly tape-recorded the conversation. On the audio tape, which has not been released publicly, the bar manager stated that employees are to give state senators anything that they want, that as long as senators came to the bar the bar would not be investigated by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and that Senator Whitmire could "kill them."
and asked the agency to end the practice of last meals or he would get the State Legislature to pass a bill doing so. The agency replied that last meal requests were accommodated "within reason" from food available in the prison kitchen, but it agreed to end the practice immediately at Whitmire's insistence.
Texas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...
representing District 15
Texas Senate, District 15
District 15 of the Texas Senate is a senatorial district that currently serves a portion of Harris county in the U.S. state of Texas. The current Senator from District 15 is John Whitmire.-2006:-2002:-2000:-1996:...
, which includes much of northern Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, since 1983. Previously he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...
from 1973 through 1982. He also served as the Acting Governor of Texas in 1993 as part of the Governor for A Day tradition.
Whitmire was born in Hillsboro, Texas
Hillsboro, Texas
Hillsboro is a city in and the county seat of Hill County in Central Texas. The population was 8,232 at the 2000 census.Hillsboro, located on Interstate 35 where I-35E and I-35W meet south of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, is the primary center for trade and commerce in Hill County...
to James M. Whitmire and Marie Harris Whitmire and graduated from Waltrip High School
Waltrip High School
Stephen Pool Waltrip High School is a secondary school located at 1900 West 34th Street in Houston, Texas, United States, 77018.Waltrip, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District....
and the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
.
In 2003, Whitmire was one of the "Texas Eleven", a group of Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
who fled the state for New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
in 2003 in a quorum-busting
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
effort aimed at preventing the passage of controversial redistricting
Redistricting
Redistricting is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to...
legislation that would have benefited Texas Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
.
National House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
Tom DeLay
Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned because of criminal money laundering charges in...
, a powerful figure in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
politics, advocated arresting Whitmire, along with the other members of the Texas 11, telling reporters that he supported using Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
agents or U.S. marshals to arrest the runaway Democrats and bring them back to Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, asserting that redistricting is a federal matter of federal
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
concern.
It was Whitmire who first broke ranks and headed back home to Austin. His stated reason for doing so was that he wished to preserve consensus in the state Senate instead of allowing no-holds-barred partisan civil war to continue. Others have speculated about a possible "deal" between Republicans and Whitmire.
Besides the New Mexico controversy, he voiced his opposition to the City of Houston's Safe Clear program which unanimously passed by Houston Mayor Bill White. Whitmire introduced legislation to disband Safe Clear where it was deemed a revenue generator to which two Houston City Councilmembers decried its policy. The proposed legislation was later withdrawn after a private meeting in Austin where Mayor Bill White and Whitmire negotiated.
In July 2005 Texas Monthly
Texas Monthly
Texas Monthly is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Austin, Texas. Texas Monthly is published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. and was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, Texas Monthly chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the environment, industry, and education...
, in its article “The Best and Worst Legislators of 2005” the magazine named Whitmire one of the ten best legislators in the Seventy-ninth Texas Legislature
Seventy-ninth Texas Legislature
The Seventy-ninth Texas Legislature met from 11 January to 30 May 2005 in regular session, and in consecutive called sessions from 21 June to 20 July and 21 July to 19 August 2005 . It met again in 2006 from 17 April to 16 May...
.
In 2008 Whitmire received threatening calls from death row inmate Richard Tabler who had a smuggled cell phone in his death row cell.
Whitmire is the former brother-in-law to Kathy Whitmire
Kathryn J. Whitmire
Kathryn Jean "Kathy" Whitmire was Mayor of the city of Houston, Texas, from 1982 to 1991.Whitmire was a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she taught political science classes in the Burns Leadership Academy. Whitmire was the daughter of Ida Reeves and Karl Niederhofer, a...
, the mayor of Houston from 1982 to 1991.
Cloak Room incident
In 2007 a bartender at a bar called the Cloak Room, located next to the Texas State CapitolTexas State Capitol
The Texas State Capitol is located in Austin, Texas, and is the fourth building to be the house of Texas government in Austin. It houses the chambers of the Texas Legislature and the office of the governor of Texas. It was designed originally during 1881 by architect Elijah E. Myers, and was...
and frequented by politicians and lobbyists, alleged that she was fired in retaliation for having refused to serve Whitmire, whom she says appeared intoxicated. Whitmire is alleged to have threatened to have the bartender fired, to prevent the police from coming to the scene—and other similar abuses of power. Shortly after the incident, the bartender was fired. She sued the manager and owner of the bar. Unbeknownst to the bar manager the employee reportedly tape-recorded the conversation. On the audio tape, which has not been released publicly, the bar manager stated that employees are to give state senators anything that they want, that as long as senators came to the bar the bar would not be investigated by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and that Senator Whitmire could "kill them."
End to special last meals
Whitmire was outraged when convicted murderer Lawrence Russell Brewer ordered a large last meal which he did not eat prior to his September 21, 2011, execution. Whitmire said that this was Brewer's attempt to "make a mockery out of the process." The senator contacted the Texas Department of Criminal JusticeTexas Department of Criminal Justice
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is a department of the government of the state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails and private correctional facilities, funding and certain...
and asked the agency to end the practice of last meals or he would get the State Legislature to pass a bill doing so. The agency replied that last meal requests were accommodated "within reason" from food available in the prison kitchen, but it agreed to end the practice immediately at Whitmire's insistence.
2002
2000
1996
1994
1992
External links
- Senate of Texas - Senator John Whitmire official TX Senate website
- Project Vote Smart - Senator John Whitmire (TX) profile
- Follow the Money - John Whitmire