DeLay Seat Turns into Fiasco

GOPUSA ^ | August 16, 2006 | Bobby Eberle

[Columbine]

In a recent speech, I told the audience about the political landscape of the 2006 elections. It’s going to be much tougher for Republicans than in recent election cycles. As a political party, we must have our act together in order to be successful. Unfortunately, that task has become tougher. The congressional seat of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay is now in jeopardy thanks in part to a failure in leadership from party officials.

Following a primary election victory, Rep. DeLay decided, through the advice of party officials, that because of the media circus that was surrounding his pending court case and other factors, the road to reelection would be tough. His opponent, former Rep. Nick Lampson, is very well funded, and has enlisted the support of Hollywood liberals and far-left organizations to help him win the seat.

In order to give the best possible opportunity to a new Republican candidate, a plan was put into place, undoubtedly under the guidance of party officials, whereby DeLay would move to Virginia, and thus be ineligible to run for a Texas congressional seat. Following Texas state law, a process would then unfold in which a new Republican nominee would be chosen to face Lampson. Sounds good on paper, right? However, the process quickly bogged down, and with no leadership or statewide/national media message the case disappeared into the courts with disastrous results.

[Ben Ficklin]

What changed?

He resigned his seat in the House. Should he seek re-election so he could resign a second time?

[fortheDeclaration]

Not yet, we can win this thing. There will be no straight party vote and every block must be checked. 22 will have a blank space next to repub. check this spot and system will allow to dial in name of write in. With a 60% Repub.constituency a great effort could just do it. Also the dems voters just might not have what it takes to show up. Lamson is an interloper with no strong local support.

Amen.

I think the Republican rank and file are going to turn out to make sure Lampson doesn't get elected by choosing our candidate for us.

We believe in a TWO party system.

The key is education on write-in's, and unity on the candidate.

Lampson will not get over 45% of the vote.

[Sashasasha]

Isn't this a pretty conservative District? I would think this Dem BS would irritate enough voters that they would vote for a good Republican write-in.

[fortheDeclaration]

really play well in that district" I assume your tong is placed firmly in the teeth. With out the lawsuit the Rats would not have prevailed. Yes it was botched, yes DeLay could have and should have run and won. However we have been dealt a hand we must win and If we have to draw to a straight flush then deal the cards.

Amen.

This is a case where the rank and file are going to have to clean up the mess the leadership made.

No use in looking back, the issue is now, how best to beat Lampson.

[fortheDeclaration]

Bottom line: The GOP in that district needs to hold a primary the first week of September. Period. Full stop. That will stop the possibility of having multiple GOP candidates. It also means Delay maybe be required to have his name on the ballot by law, but he need not be the GOP nominee. The ballots can be prepared with a different name as the GOP nominee.

The candidate picked this Thursday should be the Republican backed one.

All Republicans should agree with that decision.

I do not think Delay's name will be on the ballot.

You see, the Democrats did not mind his name being removed, just not being replaced with someone else, that, they said, was unfair to them!

[fortheDeclaration]

Tom is acting like he has the sword hanging over his head.

I think he got fed up with the weak national leadership.

He was a hardball type of guy, take no prisoners.

I expect the charges to be dropped after Nov.

There is no case against him.

[fortheDeclaration]

Frankly, if the write-in is so difficult, it might be best to support the Libertarian candidate.

There would be some poetic justice in the Lampson being the first Democrat defeated on the National level by a Libertarian.

Ofcourse, like all Democrats, he will then claim a moral victory, he got rid of Delay, which was his real goal.

[gumboyaya]

NO not ever.

[gumboyaya]

NO not ever.

[fortheDeclaration]

Why not, he has stated he will vote for our leadership.

Better then a Democrat in there.

[Candor7]

I would support Tom DeLay for president and work in his campaign.

[DeweyCA]

Agreed. Rove is no genius. The only reason that Bush is still in the White House is that the SwiftBoat vets destroyed Kerry's credibility. Rove was not willing to get involved with that. In fact, Bush and Rove bent over backward to not draw attention to Kerry's numerous lies about his service in Vietnam.

[fortheDeclaration]

I would support Tom DeLay for president and work in his campaign.

Yes, he is a good man that was abandoned by his leadership.

[AmishDude]

Why do you say that?

[spudsmaki]

And one of the reasons Bush won the first time was Katherine Harris bravely stood her ground on the law. Her treatment by the Bushes has plumbed new depths of ingratitude and disloyalty.

Course, another reason Bush won is that Gore and Lieberman proposed throwing out all those military absentee ballots on technicalities. Not even liberal Dems could stomach that and abandoned those two.

[Prodn2000]

Well, I disagree. It is very, very relevant. The House of Representatives is composed of 435 individuals whose sole purpose is to provide "the people" with a voice in our government. In fact, each Rep. is supposed to represent the same amount of people. When there is a vacancy in the House, it can only be filled by an election in that district. Article I of the Constitution tells us how Reps are elected.

The Senate, however, represents the states and the states' governments. When there is a vacancy in the Senate, the governor of the state may appoint a replacement until the next 2-year election cycle. The 17th amendment tells us how Senators are elected.

[Coop]

It's irrelevant. They're officials accountable to election law.

[Prodn2000]

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. If a state makes an unchallenged unconstitutional election law, then they're not accountable to that law. Delay should have made a real effort to get the Supreme Court to take his case, not his "quitter's try."

BTW...that was the fastest response EVER! :-)

[sinkspur]

DeLay is responsible for this mess. He decided, two or three weeks after winning the friggin' primary, that he couldn't win.

The landscape had not changed. DeLay didn't want to go back to being a little fish in a big pond.

[GeronL]

Democrats never have the problem of replacing a candidate