Posted on 09/16/2006 10:33:58 AM PDT by SolidSupplySide
Vice President Dick Cheney will be traveling to Houston to raise funds for the Congressional campaign of Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, several sources told the Fort Bend Herald this week.
Sekula-Gibbs, a Republican, is running for the District 22 seat as a write-in candidate. She joined the race in August after courts ruled that the Republican Party could not appoint a candidate to replace Tom DeLay on the ballot. DeLay withdrew his name from consideration in August after resigning the office.
Also running is Democrat Nick Lampson and and Libertarian Bob Smither, who has said he is picking up support from disaffected Republicans.
Fort Bend County Party Chairman Gary Gillen confirmed that Cheney will be visiting Houston and hosting a fundraiser luncheon there in early October.
"What it says is, this race for the 22nd District is important," said Gillen. "I think this is indicative that the White House is aware of this race, the White House is concerned about this race and the White House believes it can be won.
"Otherwise, they wouldn't be going through these efforts for Shelley," said Gillen.
Mike Malaise, the spokesman for Lampson, said he would not comment on Cheney's visit because it has not been confirmed by Sekula-Gibbs' campaign.
As for Lampson's own campaign, Malaise said "we're not focused on that kind of thing."
"We're focused on getting our message out to the voters," he said.
Lisa Dimond, the spokeswoman for Sekula-Gibbs, said any questions should be referred to the White House.
This would be Cheney's second fundraiser for the 2006 District 22 race. He hosted a dinner for DeLay in December of 2005, and raised $500,000 for the former candidate.
ping
I do hope that voters there are good spellers.
This is a very important seat. For one thing, it is, or was, a safe seat, so the last thing you need is for the wrong person to get elected and re-elected.
For another, the Dems used a crooked prosecutor and a crooked press to force DeLay out of office. So it's especially important not to let them get away with stealing the seat.
Does anyone know if Sekula-Gibbs is the right person for the job? Surely the Republican party in Texas should be paying close attention to this election.
Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is a pro-life doctor and Houston City Councilwoman. Sounds good to me, though she's not perfect. Her liability is that her name is not easy to spell.
Get 'R Done
"Letdown": Cheney?
IBTZ!
I hope they pull out the stops to win this write-in.
The Republicans were in a difficult position when selecting a replacement. Due to legal issues, it wasn't practical to choose someone who was already on the ballot running for another office. Almost all state and county offices are up for election in November. Therefore, the talent pool was quite shallow.
Sekula-Gibbs is a soon-to-be term limited city councilman from Houston. She was not up for re-election in November. And while I agree with Clintonfatigued that she's not the perfect candidate, I honestly believe that Sekula-Gibbs was the only reasonable choice the GOP had. (Yes, that means I think that David Wallace would have been an unreasonable choice.)
Thanks..... Well I guess Cheney can drum up some oil money, etc for the gal.
Didn't mean to post the I69 stuff on your thread... It was going on another thread but I screwed up.
She would have been smart to drop the Secula and run under the name of Gibbs.
Can the republicans make up rubber stamps with her name that they could give to voters to take in and use to write in her name on the ballot, or is that illegal?
I have to hope that if someone writes in "Gibbs" that it will count for her. And certainly if they skip "Secula" it should count for her.
She should have a really good campaign issue -- "The Democrats didn't want you to have a choice, so they sued to keep me off the ballot.
Now, you can keep them out of office, by writing in Shelly Sekula Gibbs.
Show them that in a democracy, the PEOPLE decide which names are on the ballots, not the special interests.
Done (enter)
Vote (enter)
Agreed. It could be a real problem for write-in votes, especially if the Dems demand a recount and manage to throw out all the ballots where the name is misspelled or shortened.
With the judges in Texas being so unpredictable, it could sink her prospects.
"Can the republicans make up rubber stamps with her name that they could give to voters to take in and use to write in her name on the ballot, or is that illegal?"
That's an excellent idea. Hopefully it's legal.
All four counties in the district use electronic voting machines. You've got to spin a dial to get the letters you want. Hit "enter". A lot like putting your initials in the high score slot of Tempest.
A rubber stamp is worthless.
Wouldn't you want unpredictable judges? After all, Texas case law is difficult on misspellings. Just like the "DeLay is ineligible" case, Republicans would benefit from activist judges not constrained by law or precedent.
I personally don't think Sekula-Gibbs would have been the candidate if the courts had somehow found DeLay ineligible. A finding of DeLay's ineligibility would have opened up a lot of potential candidates that a write-in campaign wouldn't. For example, any politician already on the ballot in a November race would have been eligible if DeLay had been declared ineligible. That means state legislators or county executives could have been nominated. Because DeLay was found eligible, it limited the choice to people not on the November ballot -- essentially elected municipal officials.
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