High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Russell Bennett Cummings was a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 22 in Harris County from 1967 to 1971, who is best known for having worked for passage of the state's open meetings and open beaches laws. He lost his bid for a third term in the 1970 general election to Republican A. Sidney Bowers, III. According to the Houston Chronicle, Cummings was a "Democrat living in a Republican-leaning district. But his "legislative record was conservative enough to have satisfied conservative Republicans." In that same election, Republican U.S. Representative George H. W. Bush lost his celebrated race against Lloyd Bentsen, for the United States Senate seat vacated by Ralph W. Yarborough, whom Bentsen had defeated in the Democratic primary.