High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! James Albon Mattox (August 29, 1943 - November 20, 2008) was a Dallas lawyer and Texas Democratic politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state Attorney General, but lost high profile races for Governor in 1990, the U.S. Senate in 1994, and again as attorney general in 1998. He was known as the "people`s lawyer" because of his advocacy of what he deemed the needs of everyday Texans.