Randy Neugebauer

Infobox_Congressman
name =Randy Neugebauer


date of birth= birth date and age|1949|12|24
place of birth= St. Louis, Missouri
state = Texas
district = 19th
term =2003-present
preceded = Larry Combest
succeeded = Incumbent
party = Republican
spouse = Dana Collins
religion = Baptist
residence= Lubbock, Texas
occupation= real estate developer
alma_mater= Texas Tech University

Randy Neugebauer (born December 24, 1949) is a politician from the state of Texas, currently representing the state's 19th Congressional district. The district includes a large swath of West Texas, including Lubbock and Abilene. He was sworn in on June 5, 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. Neugebauer serves on the House Committee on Agriculture, and Committee on Financial Services. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Dana. Neugebauer is a staunch fiscal and social conservative. On his original campaign Website, he described himself as "a committed pro-family, pro-life conservative who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."

Early life and education

Neugebauer (pronounced NEW GUH BOWER) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and reared in Lubbock. He graduated from Coronado High School and later from Texas Tech University in 1972 with a bachelor of business administration in accounting. [http://randy.house.gov/?sectionid=2&sectiontree=2]

Neugebauer has long been involved in the real estate business, having served as president of the development company Lubbock Land before his election to Congress. He was also the president of the state Homebuilders Association from 1996-1997. [http://randy.house.gov/?sectionid=2&sectiontree=2]

Political life

Neugebauer was a Lubbock city councilman from 1992 to 1998. He was mayor pro tempore from 1994 to 1996. While involved in Lubbock government, Neugebauer worked to reduce taxes and to privatize city services.

Neugebauer was elected to Congress after a hotly contested special election runoff in the spring of 2003. The seat came open after 18-year Republican incumbent Larry Combest announced his retirement not long after having been reelected to a 10th term in 2002. The 19th is one of the most conservative areas of Texas (indeed, in the entire nation), and it was taken for granted that Combest would be succeeded by another Republican. [http://randy.house.gov/?sectionid=2&sectiontree=2]

Neugebauer finished first in the crowded seven-way, all-Republican field. However, as he finished well short of a majority, he forced into a second round of balloting with fellow Republican Mike Conaway of Midland, the chairman of the Texas Board of Public Accountancy and a friend of President George W. Bush. In a close third-place finish in the first round of balloting was State Representative Carl Isett of Lubbock. In the runoff election, Neugebauer defeated Conaway by only 587 votes. Soon afterward, Conaway won election to Congress in the newly created 11th District in 2004.

Neugebauer ran for a full term in 2004, facing 26-year incumbent Democrat Charles Stenholm of Abilene. Stenholm had previously represented the Abilene-based 17th District, but that district had been dismantled in the 2003 Texas redistricting, and most of Stenholm's territory was thrown into Neugebauer's District. Although Stenholm had more seniority, the new district retained about 60 percent of Neugebauer's former territory. Neugebauer won by 10 points, and was reelected in 2006 with no substantive opposition.

Neugebauer is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act [ [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04777: Thomas (Library of Congress): HR 4777] ] and voted for H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. [ [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04411: Thomas (Library of Congress): HR 4411] ] In 2008, he opposed H.R. 5767, the Payment Systems Protection Act (a bill that sought to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act while the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve defined "unlawful Internet gambling").

References

External links

* [http://randy.house.gov/ Congressman Randy Neugebauer] official U.S. House website
* [http://www.randyforcongress.com/ Randy Neugebauer for U.S. Congress] official campaign website
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Randy_Neugebauer Profile] at SourceWatch Congresspedia