A G.O.P. Legislator Ardently Conservative, God-Fearing and Not a Team PlayerRepresentative David Simpson, Republican of Longview, ruffled more than a few feathers during the Legislature's session.
By BECCA AARONSON and BRANDI GRISSOM
Published: June 2, 2011
He bowed his head, tightly shut his eyes and pressed his index finger to his lips, waiting and praying for the Texas Senate to approve one of his biggest priorities of his freshman legislative session: a measure that would apply criminal penalties to federal airport security agents who conduct intrusive pat downs.
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It is just unreasonable for the federal government “to say, ‘We grope you or you don’t fly,’ ” the lawmaker, Representative David Simpson, Republican of Longview, said.
As with all of the bills filed by Mr. Simpson, a Tea Party conservative, this one failed. The Senate sponsor of the measure pulled it after the United States Justice Department threatened to shut down Texas’ airspace if it became law.
In the just-ended legislative session, Mr. Simpson made a name for himself — and not always a nice one — with his passionate push for the so-called “anti-groping” bill and his outspoken stance against bills he believed represented government intrusion on personal freedoms. Driven by his beliefs in liberty and God, he said he set out in his first legislative session to restrict government.
“One hundred eighty-one people don’t have the wisdom, don’t have the knowledge, to tell 25 million people how to live their lives,” he said. “We’re not a house of God.”
Several legislative colleagues said they appreciated Mr. Simpson’s sincerity and devotion, but they also found his sometimes-confrontational approach and independent style off-putting, even annoying. And in Longview, at least so far, the reviews of his legislative debut are mixed.
Mr. Simpson, a 49-year-old father of seven, takes the criticism in stride. Quoting the Gospel, he said, “If all men speak well of you, woe be unto you.” A Reformed Baptist, he graduated from high school in wealthy Highland Park. In 1992, he moved to the tiny East Texas town of Avinger, where he served as mayor from 1993 until 1998.
He runs a lumber company, founded a religious book publishing company and leads prayer at his church. A self-defined Jeffersonian constitutionalist, Mr. Simpson attributes his Republican primary victory in a “David and Goliath-like battle,” against Tommy Merritt, a seven-term incumbent, to his encyclopedic knowledge of the Constitution.
“Civil government really should be simply protecting life, liberty and property and getting out of the way,” Mr. Simpson said.
In his view, life is governed in four spheres (in order of importance): self, family, church, civil. It is a philosophy that governs his life. Unlike most other lawmakers, Mr. Simpson brought his wife, Susan, and their four youngest children with him to Austin.
Even before he was sworn in, Mr. Simpson made waves under the pink dome. He joined conservative Christian groups’ unsuccessful efforts to oust Speaker Joe Straus — the first Jewish leader of the chamber — who Mr. Simpson said was not conservative enough. He led a small group in a prayer vigil outside the Capitol that was later broadcast on “The Daily Show.” Holding his cowboy hat in hand, he prayed, “Father, we plead with you that you would give us a godly, humble leader of the Texas House.” He was one of 15 legislators who voted against Mr. Straus, a move that usually lands lawmakers in the political doghouse.
Mr. Simpson further alienated himself when he used parliamentary procedures to knock the bills of several senior legislators off a fast-track House calendar. Representative Senfronia Thompson, Democrat of Houston, wrote one of those measures, the contentious puppy mill bill meant to regulate animal breeders. Mr. Simpson said it was an unnecessary government expansion that would cost the state money and create a “dog Gestapo.”
His tactics drew the ire of lawmakers annoyed that he broke the unwritten rules of decorum. That was a lonely day, Mr. Simpson said, but he was resolved, comparing his fight to Sam Houston’s against secessionists.
“Providence will dictate whether I did the right thing today,” he said at the time.
Mr. Simpson also opposed a measure that would ban salvia, a legal plant that has hallucinogenic effects similar to marijuana. Government’s role, he said, is to punish wrongdoers, not ban God’s creations. “Things are not the problem,” he said.
Late in the session, Mr. Simpson drew a public tongue-lashing from Representative Lois Kolkhorst, Republican of Brenham. During debate over a proposed statewide ban on smoking, he suggested that the ban include cologne, which he said might also contain carcinogens. The move drew guffaws and jokes, but Ms. Kolkhorst took umbrage.
“This is not a laughing matter, and I want to tell you, I thought you were a pretty good member,” she said. “This is out of bounds.”
After explaining that he had not intended to mock the dangers of smoking, Mr. Simpson withdrew the proposal.
Despite the public confrontations, he said, “I think I showed that if you stand up for your principles, you can still agree to disagree and work together.”
Some legislators, though, said Mr. Simpson missed the importance of building relationships in the Legislature. Without support from other lawmakers, guiding any bill through the byzantine legislative process is impossible. Some of his Republican peers were confounded by Mr. Simpson’s surprise opposition to their bills and by his religious zeal.
Representative Patricia F. Harless, Republican of Spring, said that she appreciated Mr. Simpson’s integrity, but that it was not always best for his constituents. “He is about what he thinks is right,” Ms. Harless said, “and I think sometimes that sabotages the good things that could happen for his district.”
Freshman legislators typically focus on local bills that bring dollars to their districts and votes to their re-election campaigns. None of the 12 bills Mr. Simpson filed were local. He refused to sponsor a bill in the House — even voted against it — that was a priority in Longview, his home district: permission to increase the local hotel-motel tax to raise money for a civic center. After studying hotel prices and occupancy rates over the last year, Mr. Simpson said he decided, “This was not a good time to be raising taxes.”
And there was the anti-groping bill, which would have made it a misdemeanor offense for a federal security agent to “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly” touch someone in places that would be “offensive to a reasonable person.” Mr. Simpson said his goal was to uphold the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches.
JoAnn Fleming, executive director of Grassroots America We the People, a conservative political action committee in Longview, said Mr. Simpson showed courage as a freshman legislator. He may have ruffled feathers, Ms. Fleming said, but he took a stand against government spending and intrusion, voting against a Republican-made budget that cut $15 billion, because it was not conservative enough.
“He didn’t sit down and shut up in a corner,” she said.
Not everyone in Longview was as pleased with Mr. Simpson’s performance. Some, Republicans and Democrats alike, even called his headline-making antics embarrassing.
Kelly Heitkamp, a lawyer in Longview and a Democrat, supported Mr. Simpson’s Republican predecessor. Mr. Simpson may mean well, she said, but he damaged the city’s credibility.
“This is not a far-right-wing community,” Ms. Heitkamp said, “and he is not representing this community as a whole.”
Despite his tumultuous start, Mr. Simpson plans to run for re-election. He said he learned a lot during his first session, and he hopes that with public outcry and support from lawmakers the anti-groping bill may be resurrected in the special session.
“Freedom brings people together,” he said, “and that’s why I’m here, really.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/us/03ttsimpson.html 
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