Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Barry Smitherman
I am uncertain why everyone here has assumed that he fails; it appears to me that he passes. No doubt the current draft of the article is promotional and needs some NPOV treatment, but he holds a statewide elective office and Texas Railroad Commission  (which, as y'all know, of course, regulates oil and gas, not railroads) is "historically one of the most important regulatory bodies in the nation" and still "an important actor on the national energy stage".http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mdr01    There's also actual coverage (275 hits on HighBeam), including not only coverage of his activities on the Railroad Commssion but also about public controversy over how he got fired from his high-level Bank One job for writing an op-ed piece that his bosses didn't likehttp://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-84963794.htmlhttp://www.houstonpress.com/2002-05-02/news/barry-barry-quite-contrary/, coverage of his days running the Texas PUChttp://www.chron.com/business/article/PUC-vet-now-working-on-the-Railroad-Commission-2143627.phphttp://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-270540042.html, and some sources about his role in a protest of "aggressive" TSA patdown practiceshttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/06/16/quote-of-the-day-after-texas-state-official-left-sore-from-a-tsa-patdown/http://gcn.com/articles/2011/06/28/texas-criminalize-tsa-pat-down-legislation.aspxhttp://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/house-speaker-calls-pat-down-bill-a-stunt-1561078.html?printArticle=y
— User:Arxiloxos, 01:31, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
Stance: keep
Cited policy: WP:POLITICIAN (Wikipedia:Notability)