The Daily Background

Who would have thought, a year ago, that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s seat, in the reddest part of Texas would end up going to a Democrat this year? Well, DeLay resigned in disgrace, and now a Democrat is poised to win the race, according to Congressional Quarterly, a nonpartisan political analysis group.

The Texas Republican Party establishment has rallied around a single candidate, Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, in their unusual write-in campaign to salvage the 22nd Congressional District seat vacated in June by
Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader.

But the extreme rarity of successful write-in campaigns for Congress and the presence of a solid Democratic nominee on the ballot in former Rep. Nick Lampson has prompted CQPolitics.com to change its rating on the 22nd District race to Leans Democratic from No Clear Favorite.

I maintain that DeLay’s big mistake (other than being a corrupt son of a bitch), was to drop out after he had won the primary. He probably knew he’d end up dropping out, but he was greedy and wanted to show everyone that he could hold his seat if he wanted to, he just didn’t want to. So he won the primary, and thus effectively doomed his party’s chance of nominating a new candidate, leaving a write-in campaign the only option to keep the seat “red” in November.

Shelly Sekula-Gibbs? That’s a hell of a write-in name, no?

Filed under: oh six midterm Elections, Z-TDB Blog