Medical Update
Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) on Sunday had successful quadruple heart bypass surgery and will be absent from the House for the next three to four weeks while he recovers, according to a statement released by the Congressman’s office Monday. [IMGCAP(1)]
Lampson became the second House Member in less than a week to undergo bypass surgery. Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) had the procedure in a Boston hospital on March 19.
“The physicians have indicated that the surgery proceeded well, and that Congressman Lampson will make a full recovery,” spokesman Bobby Zafarnia said in the statement. “Though this was a serious procedure, Congressman Lampson has his family with him, his spirits are high, and he looks forward to returning to his office and serving his constituents as quickly as possible.”
The operation — coronary artery bypass surgery to treat blockages of the arteries on the surface of his heart — was performed in Houston at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. The procedure was scheduled after an examination on Friday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., found irregularities in the Congressman’s heart.
Lampson began his second stint in Congress in January, after winning the 22nd district seat left open by former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who resigned from Congress in June. His seat will be a top Republican target in 2008.
PAC Woman. If the new director of the National Association of Broadcasters’ political action committee is any indication, the NAB is going to start spending more money on Democratic candidates. The group, whose PAC gave nearly 60 percent of its donations to Republicans in the previous election cycle, just tapped Anne Brady, who most recently served as the deputy Western finance director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
She replaces Republican Anne Devlin, who left NAB’s PAC in December.
Lobbyists familiar with the NAB said the group wanted to lure a Democrat for the position to balance its president, David Rehr, who is well-known in Republican fundraising circles.
— David M. Drucker and Kate Ackley