Political offices sought or held: Member, Texas House of Representatives District 129, since 1999. Education: BBA, Baylor University, 1982; BA, University of Houston-Clear Lake, 1987. Background: Native of Houston; lifelong Texas resident; president/owner, Oates Industries, roof management/maintenance firm; Friend of Taxpayer Award, Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, 1999. Personal: 40, incumbent, business executive; resident of Houston. Wife, Jayne; three children.

AUSTIN - Texas politicians, mostly Republican, received more than $ 144,000 in campaign contributions for the 1998 elections from Koch Industries - a Kansas-based company indicted by a federal grand jury this week on allegations the company illegally released cancer-causing pollutants into the air around Corpus Christi. Environmentalists and Democrats have complained that the situation with Koch is symptomatic of a broader problem in Texas - campaign contributions from the petrochemical industry have resulted in slack environmental enforcement by the state.

State Rep. John Culberson, R-west Houston, received the Friend of the Taxpayer award from Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy "for his service to his constituents by protecting taxpayers and empowering consumers." Presenting the award is Carol Jones of Citizens for a Sound Economy. Culberson also received the "Taxpayers' Friend" award from the Texas Taxpayer Rebellion. Culberson won on April 11 the Republican Party's nomination for District 7 U.S. representative.