Jim Landtroop

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James Frankli
"Jim" Landtroop, Jr.​

Texas State Representative
for District 85​
In office
January 2011​ – January 2013​
Preceded by Joseph P. Heflin​
Succeeded by Ken King in reconfigured District 88​

Phil Stephenson in reconfigured District 85​


Born January 16, 1968
Fort Worth, Texas
Nationality United States
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Catherine D. "Cathy" Landtroop​
Children Braden, David, Kenneth, and Lauren Grace Landtroop

Parents:
​James, Sr., and Bobbie S. Landtroop

Residence Lubbock, Texas

Formerly: Plainview, Hale County, Texas​

Alma mater Keller High School

Texas Wesleyan University
Texas A&M University

Occupation Insurance agent​
Religion Nondenominational Christian: Harvest Christian Fellowship.​

James Franklin Landtroop, Jr., known as Jim Landtroop (born January 18, 1968), is a businessman from Lubbock, Texas, who is a Republican former one-term member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 85 in the South Plains. He lost his 2016 bid to return to the House with an intra-party challenge to Representative John Frullo of Lubbock​.

In the general election held on November 2, 2010,the conservative Landtroop, who then resided in Plainview in Hale County, unseated two-term Democratic incumbent Joseph P. Heflin of Crosbyton, 17,426 votes (61.6 percent) to 10,853 (38.4 percent). Landtroop won fifteen of the sixteen counties in the district, losing only in Heflin's own Crosby County. He secured comfortable margins in two of the larger counties in the district, Hale and Howard, which includes Big Spring.[1]

In the Republican runoff election held on July 31, 2012 in District 88, Landtroop was defeated for a second term by Ken King, a Moderate Republican and the president of the Canadian Independent School District in Canadian in Hemphill County in the northeastern Panhandle. King received 7,541 votes (54 percent) to Landtroop's 6,426 ballots (46 percent).[2]​>​ ​

Background

​ A fifth-generation Texan, Landtroop is a son of James, Sr., and Bobbie S. Landtroop (both born c. 1940) of Ranger in Eastland County to the east of Abilene, Texas. Landtroop was born in Fort Worth and graduated in 1986 from Keller High School, in which he was starting point guard for the basketball in Keller in suburban Tarrant County. After capturing two state championships, he subsequently enrolled at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, at which from 1986 to 1988 he played basketball and was active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He then transferred to Texas A&M University in College Station, at which he majored in business management and became the star player for the Aggies. He was a member of Sigma Iota Epsilon, the national management honor society. After college, he was drafted in the third of the National Basketball Association draft as a part of the Philadelphia 76ers.[3]

He is employed by State Farm Insurance, originally in Plainview, in 1999 and currently, Lubbock. He has been a member of Lions International, the Chamber of Commerce, United Way, and the American Cancer Society. He was a founding member of the Plainview Bible Church (established 1999) and served as the boys' varsity basketball coach at Plainview Christian Academy, at which his team went to the state semi-finals in 2009.[3] Upon his relocation to Lubbock, he attends Harvest Christian Fellowship.[4]​ ​

Legislative races

In 2006, Heflin defeated Landtroop, who made his first bid for the state House, by 217 votes to claim the seat vacated by James "Pete" Laney, a former Texas House Speaker. Heflin received 14,323 votes (49 percent) to Landtroop's 14,106 votes (48.3 percent) and David K. Schumacher (born 1946) of Anson, nominee of the Libertarian Party, who polled 793 ballots, or 2.7 percent.[5]

Landtroop said that he re-entered the state legislative race in 2010 after his 2006 defeat because he is "tired of our big-spending, over-reaching government." [3]Then Texas Attorney General and now Governor Greg Abbott, came to Plainview to campaign for Landtroop, citing their mutual opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law in March 2010 by U.S. President Barack H. Obama.

Landtroop declares himself a "conservative voice for West Texas. In victory, Landtroop said that "God has just blessed us with this victory, and we look forward to representing the people of this district in this next session". He ran with the support of the Tea Party.[4]

In addition to Hale and Hemphill, the home counties of Landtroop and King, respectively, the 88th District includes these other counties (listed alphabetically): Armstrong]], Bailey, Briscoe, Castro, Cochran, Donley, Gray Gray, Hansford County, Hockley, Lamb, Lipscomb, Ochiltree]], Roberts, Swisher, and Yoakum. Few of these counties in District 88 had been in District 85, in which Landtroop sought his second term.

Landtroop is a recipient of the 2004 "Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal Award." He has worked in the campaigns of his friend, U.S. Representative Randy Neugebauer, a Lubbock Republican who first won Texas' 19th congressional district seat in a special election in 2003. He was the congressman's Hale County co-chairman in 2004 and later served on the Neugebauer campaign finance board. Neugebauer, who retired on January 3, 2017, endorsed Landtroop's legislative candidacy in 2010. In 2009, Governor Rick Perry appointed Landtroop to the Brazos River Authority Board.[3]

In 2011, Landtroop joined three other newly elected state legislators from West Texas and the Panhandle, Four Price of Amarillo, Charles Perry and John Frullo, both of Lubbock.

Landtroop v. King

​ In the Republican primary held on May 29, 2012, Landtroop led a four-candidate field with 6,358 votes (34.4 percent). Ken King trailed with 5,569 votess (30.2 percent). Two other candidates held a critical 35 percent of the ballots cast, Mac Smith, who received 3,368 votes (18.2 percent), and Gary Walker, who finished with 3,162 votes (17.1 percent).[6]

Canadian, Texas futures trade Salem Abraham, the grandson of an earlier Republican state representative, donated $100,000 to Ken King, Abraham's then colleague on the Canadian School Board.[7] In the heated race, Abraham attended a meeting in Levelland in Hockley County, at which then Governor Rick Perry endorsed Landtroop. As the gathering closed, Abraham rose to challenge Landtroop's campaign tactics against King. He was asked to hold his questions for a later time and then to leave the premises. Michael Quinn Sullivan, a conservative activist and founder of the group Empower Texans, which supported Landtroop, questioned the Canadian School Board's high rate of educational spending (nearly $38,000 per pupil in 2010-2011, with only $7,000 directly in the classroom) and property tax increases (five cents per $100 in assessed value in 2011).[8] ​ Abraham subsequently sued Daniel Greer and the group, Fix The Facts Foundation, also known as AgendaWise, for libel regarding the King-Landtroop campaign. The Texas 31st District Court in Canadian threw out the suit on grounds that Abraham had not proved malice on the part of the defendants. But the dismissal was overturned in July 2014 and remanded to the trial court by the Texas 7th District Court of Appeals in Amarillo. The circuit court said that Abraham's complaint is unrelated to his being a public figure. Greer had not mentioned Abraham's school board tenure in the report of the Levelland meeting.[7]

2016 race in Lubbock County

In his attempt to return to the legislature, Landtroop faced fellow Republican John Frullo in the 84th House district. One of the differences between the two candidates centered on Moderate Republican House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio, who presided over the House from 2011 to 2019. In his term in the House, Landtroop voted against Straus as Speaker in 2011; since he entered the House, Frullo backed Straus for Speaker. Frullo had a large fundraising advantage over Landtroop. Between January 22 and February 20, 2016, Frullo raised $237,912, Landtroop, $58,845. In three campaign finance reports filed since January 15, 2016, Frullo raised $418,000; Landtroop, $132,000. Landtroop's employer, State Farm, through its political action committee, gave $7,500 to Frullo, the chairman of the House Insurance Committee, but nothing to challenger Landtroop.[9]

Frullo prevailed with 9,895 votes (55.2 percent) to Landtroop's 8,032 (44.8 percent).[10]

Personal life

​ Landtroop and his wife, Catherine D. "Cathy" Landtroop (born May 24, 1969), a 1991 graduate of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, operates the consulting firm, Landtroop Strategies.[4] The couple has four children, Braden, David, Kenneth, and Lauren Grace.[3] ​ ​

References

  1. Texas Secretary of State, General Election Returns, November 2, 2010.
  2. Texas Secretary of State, Election Returns, Republican runoff primary, July 31, 2012.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 About Jim Landtroop. kcbd.com. Retrieved on November 5, 2010; no longer on-line.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Former state rep Landtroop running for TX House Dist. 84. Fox News in Lubbock. Retrieved on February 24, 2016.
  5. Texas Secretary of State, General Election Returns, November 7, 2006.
  6. Texas Secretary of State, Election Returns, Republican primary, May 29, 2012.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Salem Abraham v. Daniel Greer and Fix The Facts Foundation d/b/a AgendaWise: Appeal from 31st District Court of Hemphill County. law.justia.com (July 25, 2014). Retrieved on September 23, 2014.
  8. Michael Quinn Sullivan (July 25, 2012). Ken the Tax Man. Retrieved on September 23, 2014.
  9. Enrique Rangel (February 23, 2016). Frullo outraises Landtroop in House 84 fundraising race. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved on February 24, 2016.
  10. Texas Secretary of State, Republican Primary Election Returns, March 1, 2016.

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