Mike Conaway Republican voters have three choices for their party’s candidate for the District 11 of the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes Lampasas County and other parts of Central Texas, and extends to the New Mexico border.

Profiles of each candidate are featured below.

Mike Conaway, incumbent District 11 U.S. representative, is seeking a fourth term. A Republican from Midland, Conaway said he has compiled a very conservative record of votes on both fiscal and social issues.

The National Journal in 2008 ranked Conaway as the 24th-most conservative member of the 435- seat House of Representatives. Conaway also received a 100 percent rating from National Right to Life from 2005 to 2009, a 95 percent rating from the American Conservative Union in 2007 and 2008, and an “A” rating from the gun rights association Gun Owners of America in 2005 to 2007.

Al Cowan Americans for Tax Reform, an association that advocates a uniform national income tax rate, gave the congressman a 95 percent rating from 2005 to 2009.

Because of what he called each interest group’s “built-in biases” for ranking politicians, however, Conaway said he does not let ratings affect his votes.

“They’re of no value to me in doing my job, except for refuting a misplaced statement by one of my opponents,” Conaway said. “What I’m interested in doing is what’s best for District 11 of the United States.”

Balancing the national budget, Conaway said, is one of his highest priorities. The congressman has written “no new programs” legislation that would require Congress to compensate for any new federal program by eliminating another program of equal or greater cost.

Chris Younts Conaway also supports a constitutional amendment to require Congress to pass a balanced budget. In 1996, an amendment to that effect came within one vote in the Senate of being sent to the states for possible ratification, Conaway said.

Because the national government has made $62 trillion in “unfunded promises,” he said the “entitlement mentality” will need to be renegotiated. Gradually raising the retirement and early-retirement ages for receiving Social Security benefits could help shave Social Security deficits, the congressman said.

Medicare and Medicaid reform will be far more difficult, he said, although Conaway acknowleged changes need to be made gradually to keep those programs solvent.

“It’s going to be hard to do,” he said, “but it’s the right thing to do.”

Although Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make up large percentages of the national budget, Conaway said “earmarks” — spending requests that representatives submit to the Appropriations Committee after the total budget amount has been set — have no effect.

“Once [the appropriation] passes, that total amount is going to be spent no matter what,” he said.

By submitting “earmark” requests — such as for Fort Hood or for Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo — Conaway said he can try to influence how federal money is spent, rather than leaving the decision to “President Obama or some bureaucrat.”

“Democrats love this when Republicans beat each other up over earmarks,” Conaway said, noting that earmarks account for $18 billion of a 2010 budget larger than $1 trillion — or less than 2 percent. “Every minute we spend arguing about earmarks is a minute we don’t spend talking about a balanced budget amendment ...” or other important budget issues, he said.

Conaway added that he supports gradual reforms to decrease health insurance costs, such as protection for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, allowing interstate sales of insurance, passing tort reform and creating “associated health plans” to make larger risk pools for families and small businesses.

“Do these as stand-alone bills, and give enough time for people to actually read the bills and understand them,” Conaway said.

With private-sector experience as an accountant and with the influence he has gained as an incumbent, Conaway said he can fight the United States’ budgetary problems effectively.

“Being able to influence what the conference is doing is important,” the congressman said. “I have influence you don’t get just by showing up.”

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Al Cowan, who owns a computer leasing company in Austin, is running as a Republican for the District 11 U.S. House of Representatives seat.

A strong believer in term limits, Cowan pledged to serve no more than three two-year terms in the House. Cowan noted that Conaway is running for his fourth term.

“The turnover of ideas and energy is good,” Cowan said. “People can get complacent when they’re in a place for a certain amount of time.”

“I don’t think our founding fathers intended career politicians,” he added.

“Out-of-control” congressional spending, Cowan said, motivated him to run against Conaway. The challenger noted that Conaway voted for the $750 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program — which Cowan called a “bank bailout.” Cowan also said he opposes “millions of dollars of earmarks” Conaway has suggested for projects in District 11.

Cowan also decided to run for office because of his concern that lobbyists’ influence can persuade incumbents to vote against their constituents’ best interests.

Conaway, Cowan said, has received $1.3 million in “special interest money.” The challenger also said when Conaway voted for TARP the congressman acknowledged that most voters in District 11 opposed the program.

“When you’re trading your vote for political gain and voting for legislation you know is bad, it’s not good for your constituents,” Cowan said.

Cowan advocated reducing the scope of the national government and giving state and local governments more control of political issues. He opposes increasing the national debt ceiling and said he would support a constitutional amendment to require Congress to pass a balanced budget each year.

In addition, Cowan said he opposes the health insurance legislation that has been discussed in Congress in recent months. Reform should come in small steps rather than in one huge bill, Cowan said.

The candidate supports making health insurance portable for those who move to another state, providing protections to ensure those who change jobs do not have to forgo insurance coverage and limiting medical malpractice awards. National tort reform, Cowan said, could help lower insurance premiums.

To reduce the national deficit, Cowan said he would work to eliminate waste in Medicare, while ensuring that changes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are implemented gradually.

Compared to Conaway’s other challenger, San Angelo businessman Chris Younts, Cowan said he has a greater variety of experience.

A University of Texas graduate with a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s degree in computer science, Cowan served for eight years as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army Reserves. Before he and his wife, Penny, founded their company, Cowan worked for eight years for IBM. He also served a term on the Eanes Independent School District from 1999 to 2002.

“I just think that kind of experience would stand me in good stead to face the issues I would face in Congress,” he said.

Cowan noted that he has oil and gas business interests in the Midland area and also has agricultural knowledge because his wife’s family raises blueberries and cultivates pine trees in East Texas.

Cowan and his wife have been married more than 38 years and have two adult children, Beth and Alvin.

“The people of District 11 are good people, solid people,” Cowan said. “It would be a personal honor to represent them.”

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Chris Younts, a former rancher who owns a family-run insurance company in San Angelo, is running for the District 11 U.S. House seat on a platform of fiscal restraint and constitutional limits on congressional power.

Conaway’s 2008 vote to approve TARP spending, along with the congressman’s suggested “earmarks” for spending in his district, have motivated Younts to try to unseat the incumbent.

“I think it goes against everything America stands for,” Younts said of TARP, which gave money to large banks in an effort to stabilize credit markets. “To say somebody is ‘too big to fail’ means somebody is too small to succeed.

“That is an incredible intrusion by government into our private institutions,” Younts added.

TARP “opened the door” Younts said, for other government actions he considers unconstitutional, including the $789 billion economic “stimulus” plan, payments to and control of automobile manufacturers and attempts to pass health insurance legislation.

Younts said District 11 is one of the most conservative congressional districts in the country and needs a strongly conservative representative. Younts characterized Conaway as a “moderate Republican.”

“I don’t think the people of the 11th District are being represented as well as we should be,” Younts said.

The congressional candidate said he will work to limit the national government, particularly in respect to economic issues, to its constitutionally enumerated powers.

“We need to allow the free market to work,” he said.

Younts supports many of the main Republican alternatives to Democratic health care proposals, including calls for legalizing interstate purchases of health insurance. The main problem Americans face with health insurance, he said, is not availability but affordability. The San Angelo businessman believes sales of insurance across state lines would reduce the cost of purchasing health insurance.

Younts added that he hopes to improve the quality of military veterans’ health care, possibly by moving the Veterans Administration within the Department of Defense.

Younts also said Conaway has not made border control a high enough priority. Citing Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which empowers Congress to call “forth the militia to ... repel invasions,” Younts said Congress should fund National Guard patrols on the United States’ borders to stop what Younts called an illegal immigration “invasion.”

The candidate opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“I don’t think that’s right for the people who came here legally,” he said. “What are you telling those who came here legally and waited to become citizens? That’s a terrible message.”

Younts, married to his wife Tara for nearly 27 years, has two adult children, Matt and Mandy. The candidate described himself as strongly “pro-life.” He also believes U.S. representatives and senators should serve no longer than six years in Congress.

Before opening his insurance business, Younts raised livestock west of San Angelo, worked for 11 years as an engineer in the San Angelo Fire Department and operated a pecan orchard in Comanche County.

“I know the whole district, and I think I can represent the whole district,” Younts said.