It's very official, he's off the ballot. The following is an email from Tom DeLay:
Earlier this year, I resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives and became a resident of the State of Virginia to establish my new business, and where I now legally reside, pay taxes and vote.
This decision was and is irrevocable, which I made clear from Day One.
My action was taken in accordance with Texas law, federal precedent and common sense. I felt it was my duty to allow Texas Republicans to choose a new candidate for the Fall Election Ballot.
In November, voters in the 22nd District of Texas deserve a choice between candidates who actually live in the District, between a Republican and Democrat, and between those two people whose names should appear on the ballot.
Unfortunately, the Federal courts have slammed the door shut on a fair ballot choice between two 22nd District residents representing our two major parties.
The court ruling allows a Democrat – who just moved into this community – to have his name appear on the ballot, but denies the Republican Party the opportunity to place a District Republican resident on that same ballot.
Voters should be concerned. While judges are denying Texas voters a fair choice this Fall, the courts allowed the Democrat Party in New Jersey to withdraw Robert Torricelli and substitute Frank Lautenberg in a similar case just weeks before the 2002 U.S. Senate election.
As a Virginia resident, I will take the actions necessary to remove my name from the Texas ballot. To do anything else would be hypocrisy.
I strongly encourage the Republican Party to take any and all actions necessary to give Texas voters an up-or-down choice this Fall between two major party candidates.
You gotta love it. If you have read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or seen the movie, Tom DeLay is like Bilbo Baggins, slipping the ring on, becoming invisable, slipping it off, becoming visible, and now he has disappeared again!
By now it is obvious that Toms constituency will either vote Republican or may not vote at all. These types of situations alos cause violence at the polls.
I am very surprised the courts have taken such a partisan position on the issue of Tom's withdrawal, as if in some kind of bizarro revenge for the success of Toms redistricting efforts, which BTW the Dems did repeatedly ( e.g. Philedelphia to increase minority votes) and Republicans still beat the Dems.
Now if the Dems do win Tom's seat, they truly are guilty of the very thing they have so repeatedly accused of George Bush: Stealing an Election.
And if I know anything about Texans, they will not stand for that for as long as it takes to light a match and put it to a touch hole.
This battle, not solved in our courts ,will likely be solved in the streets of Houston, a price that the Texas judges have stupidly not forseen would be paid.