Lampson to DeLay: Get Moving Already

Just days after Congressman Tom DeLay announced he would step down from office in May or June, the Democrat candidate for the seat is pushing for him to get out now.

“Tom DeLay lost this race. Now it’s time for him to move on,” Nick Lampson said in a statement Wednesday. “Our seat in Congress should not be empty while Tom DeLay tries to manipulate who his successor will be.”

In an exclusive interview with The Daily News on Monday, DeLay announced his intentions to resign from office and move to Virginia. He said he wanted to remain in the U.S. House to finish up work on funding for NASA, a number of transportation and drainage issues and possibly get the ball rolling on replacing the income tax system with a national sales tax.

“He’s literally trying to pull a fast one on the voters. Last I checked, he’s just some unemployed guy from Beaumont who doesn’t have the power to call for a pizza, let alone a special election,” said Flaherty. “He doesn’t want to give Republican voters the chance to pick a new candidate because he knows that candidate will win in a walk.”

Any special election won’t happen until DeLay actually makes it official with a letter to Gov. Rick Perry.

Once DeLay sends that letter, the governor can then call for an election. But, based on Texas election laws, the only unified election dates available are May 13 and Nov. 7.

If the governor wants to make sure the congressional seat for the rest of the current term — which ends in January — is filled before the general election in November, Perry would have to call an emergency special election.

Lampson spokesman Mike Malaise said it was undetermined if the former congressman would himself enter in a special election race. Still, Lampson wants one sooner than later.

Well the other DeLay replacement candidates better start getting busy figuring out their campaign strategies.

We can all wish for the perfect conservative candidate, but the one that can beat Lampson in November is the one that we should be looking to support. Not that I think Sekula-Gibbs is that candidate, but at least she is engaging the Party precinct chairmen, brings some financial wherewithal and has name recognition in a large part of CD22 District. And unlike Lampson, she lives in CD22 already.

The other contenders had better start figuring out and implementing their 3 prong campaign plans soon as this is going to be a different kind of campaign process.

1. Convince the eligible precinct chairs that they are not only worthy of representing the 4 County Republican Parties on the November ballot, but that they have the best chance of beating Lampson.
**This needs to happen within the next month.**

2. Raise quickly (after the date that the RPT Chairman, Benkiser determines DeLay is officially ineligible to be on the ballot and the Sec of State opens the campaign fundraising window) sizable campaign funds. They better have a sharp campaign treasurer and legal council ready to hit the ground running. It also helps if they have sizable personal funds or previous campaign funds they are legally allowed to rollover into their congressional campaign.

3. They need to get out and charm every likely voter in CD22 and influential leader in and around CD22 to ensure them that they are better to represent them in Congress than Lampson. This is going to have to overcome a blizzard of Lampson propaganda and Democrat dirty tricks.

And if this isn't enough, the 4 county electors might deadlock in a 2-2 tie, thus putting in the hands of the RPT SREC body to vote for the nominee. A smart candidate should also be lobbying the SREC members as a contingency for this possible (if not likely) scenario.

Also a fair number of the eligible precincts in CD22 do not currently have seated precinct chairs due to various reasons. Precinct chairs could be voted into those seats before May by their county executive committee, but the clock is ticking before their Party bylaws prevent this from being possible before the deadline. If this doesn't happen, in at least 2 of the 4 counties, there will be only a few eligible precinct chairs to decide which candidate they choose and which fellow precinct chair gets to be 1 of the 4 electors of which candidate appear on the CD22 ballot.

This is going to be a complex, frenetic and politically charged process, where both candidates and Party officials need to step up to the challenge quickly and professionally to avoid allowing Lampson, the Democrats and the media to exploit any real or perceived weakness in the Republican selection process and the candidates' campaigns as they navigate this uncharted territory.

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