Posted on 08/09/2006 3:15:57 PM PDT by SolidSupplySide
It appears at least two prominent GOP office-holders will vie for the congressional seat vacated by former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. DeLay announced Tuesday that he will withdraw his name from the ballot.
Houston City Council Member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs and Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace are both expected to file with the Texas Secretary of State's office for a write-in candidacy, which means their names would appear at polling locations for congressional district 22, but not on the electronic ballot screen. Voters supporting those two candidates on November 7 will have to highlight "write-in" on the E-Slate ballot, then spell out the letters of their selected candidate's name.
"Write-in campaigns are tough, there's no question about it," said Sekula-Gibbs, "But I have the committment and passion to make it work."
Wallace, thought to be DeLay's hand-picked sucessor by many political analysts, is also tossing his hat in the ring. A written statement from his campaign said "there's too much at stake to allow the liberals to win."
So far, local Republican officials have not chosen anyone as the prefered write-in candidate. Their decision would not technically preclude anyone from joining the race.
Once among the most powerful Capitol Hill politicians, DeLay finally said he would remove his name from the ballot, after Republican party lawyers had their appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court denied Monday. Justice Antonin Scalia refused to stay a lower courts' ruling which kept DeLay's name on the ballot, despite his resignation from Congress June 9. The lower court's ruling effectively prevented the Republican Party of Texas from naming anyone else to replace DeLay.
"As a Virginia resident, I will take the actions necessary to remove my name from the Texas ballot," said DeLay in a prepared statement, "To do anything else would be hypocrisy." The statement also urged Republicans to give voters "an up-or-down choice this fall between two major party candidates."
The only way the GOP can do that is by backing a "write-in" candidate. A spokesman with the Harris County Clerk's Office said that would likely delay official election results for several days after November 7.
Democratic Party candidate Nick Lampson and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Smither will be the only people who's names actually appear on the Congressional District 22 ballot.
"This whole thing has been a plot by Democrats to Disenfranchise Republicans."
Actually, that is exactly what is happening. The republicans should have a candidate on the ballot. Either that, or the whole process should be a write in (take the democrat off the ballot too and the one with the most votes wins).
I fear my sarcasm didn't show through. Anyway, expect the Republicans to narrow it down to one after a smoke-filled backroom deal is reached.
Great. Another Democrat in Congress.
Well it doesn't help in a write-in campaign to have to spell out Shelley Sekula-Gibbs .
My advise, lose the hyphen and get use to being known as "S" Gibbs.
They better get their act together and decide which ONE will be a write-in candidate.
That was my first reaction to this thread. I can't imagine a worse write-in name. She must be a Demo plant.
Repubs need to get their act together and unite behind somebody with a simple name, or they're going to lose a seat in Congress.
Yeah, especially with a name like that.
She's never been the brightest cow in the pasture.
An update if you're still interested. David Wallace, mayor of Sugar Land formally filed yesterday. He did this before the party could even meet on talking about the write-in strategy. Sekula-Gibbs is being a team player, saying that she will wait for the party to make a decision and abide by it. The party is none too happy with Wallace. They feel that Wallace is trying to force them into anointing him as the official Republican write-in candidate.
Unfortunately, all of this looks like posturing for 2008 rather than actually winning in 2006.
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