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Page 2 | Landmarks 2007
STORY: LAURA GUTSCHKE
PHOTO COURTESY OF: PETE LANEY
H
E’S WORKED WITH
some of the icons of Texas politics, sat with titans of business
and addressed a national television audience to introduce the
43rd President Of The United States.
But, when James E. “Pete” Laney (‘65, B.S. in
agricultural economics) reflects upon the benchmarks of his 34 years as a state representative,
including a record-tying five terms as speaker of
the House of Representatives, the group he refers
to the most is the constituents.
When constituents contacted his office in the
district or at the Texas Capitol with issues ranging from problems with retirement benefits to input on pending legislation, Laney had one mandate: take care of them. When the Legislature
was in session and 16-hour workdays were the
norm, he still made time to meet with individuals
who came by his office, especially those with disabilities or other physical hardships.
After fellow representatives elected him
speaker in 1993, Laney enacted new rules on
how legislation is processed to increase public
access to the proceedings.
“I wanted to let the public have input in the
process, and to make sure members of the House
had an opportunity of having their legislation
heard. Every member of the House has a constituency, and that constituency needs to be represented in the legislative process,” said Laney.
And by constituency, he means all the people in
Texas, regardless of voting record or party affiliation.
Staying in touch with the people of his district
became a greater challenge over the last three
decades because of Texas’ population growth
and county shifts with each of the last three redistricting measures. When he first took office on
Jan. 1, 1973, Laney’s district consisted of about
75,000 people in Hale and Swisher counties and
part of Lubbock County. In his last term, Laney
represented the recently redrawn House District
85, which stretches across 16 counties and includes about 150,000 people.
WHY POLITICS
Laney was born in 1943 and grew up on a family farm seven miles northwest of Hale Center
that was also one and a half miles from where his
great-grandfather, originally started farming in
1905. In high school, Laney participated in many
extracurricular activities and at Texas Tech University was active in student government and Phi
Delta Theta fraternity.
Despite serving on the Student Senate at the
university, he had no political aspirations after
graduation. He worked on the farm and, after
earning his pilot’s license in the early 1960s, flew
for a charter service. (He later owned an aerial
spraying service.)
He decided to run for the House of Representatives in 1972 after four-term veteran Ralph
Wayne chose not to run again. Redistricting
caused Laney to face off against a four-term fellow Democrat Delwin Jones.
“I had listened to people complain about problems with the government, but they did not want
to do anything about it—some of them didn’t
even vote,” said Laney.
THE GROUP HE REFERS TO THE
MOST IS THE CONSTITUENTS
Grass roots, down home and cordial might
best describe Laney’s first race. Friends managed
his campaign, wrote news releases and helped
him design campaign brochures, all without pay.
Laney and primary opponent Jones occasionally
traveled together to public forums. Laney went
on to win the primary and the seat, taking office
in 1973.
Jones and Laney have remained friends
throughout the years, and Jones returned to the
House of Representatives in 1989 after switching
to the Republican Party. After becoming speaker
in 1993, Laney appointed him to important committees, including chair of the House Redistricting Committee.
MAKING A MARK IN AUSTIN
In his first term in the 63rd Legislature, Laney
and about half of the representatives were freshmen because of the Sharpstown Stock-Fraud
Scandal that resulted in the departure of several
incumbent politicians. In addition, newcomers
filled the three most powerful Texas government
positions: Gov. Dolph Briscoe, Lt. Gov. William P.
“Bill” Hobby and House Speaker Price Daniel, Jr.
“The institutional memory was not there, so
there was a big learning curve for us. But, it was
also an advantage to us new ones because there
Page 3
was a more level playing field,” said Laney, who
was appointed to the Agriculture, Environmental
Affairs and Transportation committees.
The learning curve was further facilitated in
1974 when members of the House and Senate
came together for a constitutional convention to
attempt to re-write the Texas Constitution. Although members failed by three votes to have a
final document presented to voters, Laney said a
silver lining of the seven-month event was that
many working relationships were forged between
members of both houses.
When he returned to Austin in 1975, for his
second term, new House Speaker Bill Clayton
appointed him chairman of the Committee on
Administration, a position he retained for eight
years. In effect, the post made Laney, Clayton’s
right-hand man in running the House of Representatives. He next served as chairman of the
Committee on State Affairs for 10 years under
House Speaker Gib Lewis.
During his first 20 years of public service in Austin, Laney provided leadership on economic development, health care and public education issues
that especially benefited rural and smaller cities.
Laney garnered statewide praise in 1991 for
authoring an ethics reform bill, which is still
in effect today, that required greater public accountability of legislators.
LEADER OF THE HOUSE
In 1993, Laney was elected unanimously as
Speaker of the House. His first major order of
business was changing House Rules governing
the legislative process. The Calendar Committee,
which votes on which bills move to the House for
consideration by all, was required to meet publicly. In addition, a series of deadlines was implemented for proposed bills to make their way
through to the House body, eliminating the lastminute flurry of activity that often saw legislators considering hundreds of bills in the last few
days of the session.
Perennial watchers of Texas politics describe
Laney’s five terms as speaker as an era of bipartisanship.
“My committee chairmen were both Democrat
and Republican. I appointed them because of their
abilities, not their party affiliation,” said Laney.
He also encouraged members to vote what was
best for their constituents and did not punish members if they voted their district over their party.
“You’re elected to the House by your district
constituency and you’re elected Speaker of the
House by the other 149 house members so, as
speaker, you serve two constituencies,” Laney
said. “I worked hard for the people in my district,
but I also worked hard for my fellow legislators
Page 4 | Landmarks 2007
and helped them with their legislative programs.
I may not have been enamored with a legislator’s
bill, but if it was important to him and his constituents, then we had a process available for
them to sell their program. Only if the program
adversely affected my district did I interject myself into the process,” said Laney.
One of Laney’s close friends was fellow Democrat Bob Bullock, who had served as a representative, secretary of state, comptroller and
lieutenant governor. Bullock, who died in 1999,
I WORKED HARD
FOR THE PEOPLE
IN MY DISTRICT
was outspoken—completely opposite of Laney’s
soft-spoken, congenial disposition. But, the two
shared a mutual friendship and a love for Texas.
“Bob and I wanted to do what was best for
Texas, and when that’s your main objective, then
it’s easy to get along, and things go better in the
legislative process,” said Laney.
To that end, Democrats Laney and Bullock
met for breakfast once a week with Repub–
lican Governor George Bush when the three
served together.
When Governor Bush was declared President
of the United States in mid-December 2000, he
asked his friend Laney to introduce him to the
worldwide audience. From the podium of the
House of Representatives, Laney introduced the
new president and spoke of how Bush worked
with members of both parties to take care of the
people’s business in Texas.
POLITICAL CHANGES
Starting in the1990s, Republicans progressively made more gains in the House, Senate and
statewide offices. In 2003, Republicans controlled
the House of Representatives for the first time in
more than 120 years, and Republican Tom Craddick from Midland was chosen as speaker. Laney
continued to work as diligently as usual in the
House, even though his committee assignments
were less prestigious than in years past.
‘PETE’ LANEY’S OBSERVATIONS ON
POLITICS, FARMING AND MORE
“When Bush was elected president, we
didn’t export Texas politics to Washington
as we had hoped. We imported Washington
politics to Texas.”
“Production agriculture is the only business in the world where the producer goes
to market and says,” ‘What will you give me
for this product?’ It’s one of the few industries that does not pass its expenses on.”
“There are people you meet in life whom
you admire and from whom you can learn,
and you want to take advantage of what
they know. I definitely did that. It started in
my family with my grandfather and I continue to learn from others today.”
“I’m thankful to my supporters for placing their trust in me for so long. I’m thankful for the opportunity to represent the
values and ideas of this area—hard work,
fairness, integrity and bipartisanship. I’ve
always said it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets
the credit—and, together we have accomplished a lot.” - From news release announcing Laney would not seek re-election
As part of statewide redistricting, Laney’s dis-
FACT FILE
trict was redrawn in 2003 heavily favoring Re-
Family: Married the former Nelda McQuien (B.S. ’65) in 1963. All three of their
children and their spouses are graduates of
Texas Tech. KaLyn Laney oversees the Governmental Relations Department for the State
Bar of Texas; Jamey Phillips, an attorney, lives
in Lubbock is married to attorney Ronald
Phillips and they have four sons; and J. Pete,
an attorney, lives in Austin is married to Melonie and they have one son.
Public Service: The list of committees,
boards and commissions who have benefited
from Laney’s presence is extensive. In addition, he was elected president of the National
Speakers Conference, chairman of the Southern Legislative Conference and to the executive committee of the National Conference
of Sate Legislatures. He currently serves as
Chairman of the National Advisory Board of
the Ranching Heritage Association and is a
member of the board of trustees for the Texas
Scottish Rite Hospital.
Awards: Some of the awards include Outstanding Texas Leader of the Year by the John
Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute;
Texan of the Year by the Texas Legislative
Conference; Advocacy Award for Public Officials by the Child Welfare League of America;
Friend of Education Award by the Texas Classroom Teachers Association; Distinguished
Alumnus Award in 1988 and Outstanding Agriculturist in Public Service Awards in 1993,
both from the College of Agricultural Sciences
and Natural Resources; Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991 by Texas Tech Alumni Association; and an honorary doctorate from
Wayland Baptist University.
publicans. The 16-county district is now shaped
like a small “t”—stretching as far north as Hale
County with the city of Plainview to 200 miles
south to Reagan and Irion counties. It extends
from Terry County and the city of Brownfield in
the west to Jones County in the east—just above
the city of Abilene. Despite the district being
about 62 percent Republican, Laney won re-election in November 2004 with almost 59 percent
of the vote.
After more than three decades of public service, Laney announced his retirement from the
House in December 2005, and his term expired
on Jan. 9, 2007.
The list of awards from many diverse groups
that represented teachers, police officers, firefighters, universities, children, health care pro-
viders, agriculture and business on the local,
state and national level over the years are a testament to the value of Laney’s public service.
Laney credits his success also to his wife, Nelda, whom he met while they attended Texas Tech
University. Each legislative session, until their
children reached high school age, Nelda, KaLyn,
Jamey and J Pete, moved to Austin, giving him
a stable, calming home life that kept him centered amid the flurry of Capitol activity. Laney
returned home each week to stay in touch with
his district.
Nelda taught school in Hale Center after graduation and later established a reputation for herself as a selfless, dynamic volunteer in Austin and
West Texas circles. She was co-chair of the
Capitol Fund Drive, which solicited private funding for the restoration of the State Capitol and
was vice-chair of the Texas Capitol Restoration
Celebration. Nelda created a series of collectible
Capitol ornaments and raised millions for preservation of the Capitol. To date, she has now designed 24 ornaments for various organizations,
including Keep Texas Beautiful.
LANEY CREDITS
HIS SUCCESS
ALSO TO HIS
WIFE, NELDA
Laney continues to farm cotton in Hale County, and he works his public schedule around
spending time with his children and five grandsons. Laney also serves on the executive committee of the Southern Legislative Conference,
which fosters intergovernmental cooperation
between the 16 states in the South, and on the
executive committee of the National Speakers
Conference, which is composed of current and
former speakers of state legislatures.
And, despite the latest flavor of rancor in Austin politics, Laney still believes in the importance
of public service. To that end, he’s working with
college-aged students to encourage them to become involved in the political process.
“Because I’m not running for re-election, people think I’m not busy, but I am,” said Laney.
Page 5