Texas: General Elections 2006

Since the boys are taking their sweet time in picking a race to follow, I’m claiming the most amusing one: the scramble for DeLay’s old seat.  There has been so much random crap going on with this seat, and quite frankly, it’s approaching ridiculous. A lion with a chair and whip taming a ringmaster would be more normal than this thing is right now. I’ll summarize this as best I can, or at the very least, the crap that’s happened over the past month:

Aug. 3: The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit says that DeLay must run as the GOP’s nomination. If you’re wondering why that’s a problem, skimming this might help; renouncing the nomination he won might also play a small part. The Republicans were trying to get him off the ballot (and far far away, but that’s another story) so that someone else could run, seeing how it’s slightly sketchy elect someone who’s resigned because of corruption accusations (in addition to the aforementioned). While we may doubt it from time to time, Texans are not stupid as posts. The party vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court…

Aug. 7 …who promptly told the Republicans to shut the hell up, the “shut the hell up” sentiment (NOTE: “sentiment.” Not actual words, for those of you who failed rhetoric) coming from Justice Scalia. Somewhat surprising, since Scalia is considered conservative. Technically, since the Court’s not in session, they had to file some sort of emergency something or other that Scalia, the justice in charge of the 5th Circuit during the break, declined to hear/consider/act on. DeLay stopped campaigning soon after he won a pathetic percent, yet still a majority, of the votes in the primary back in March. He did hint, however, that he would run if the Court didn’t take him off the ballot. Odd? Slightly, considering he allowed the GOP to find replacements for him before that.

Aug. 8: DeLay appears to have second thoughts, however, and pulls out of the race. The Republicans are now forced to mount a write-in campaign or else the district will be lost to Democratic challenger Nick Lampson, who has served in the HoR for two other districts (the 9th and 2nd, respectively). Any person wanting to be a write-in candidate must register by August 29.

Aug. 9: David Wallace announces that he will be a write-in candidate for Delay’s now-vacated seat. Wallace, at present, is mayor of Sugar Land (yes, dead serious, that is a city in Texas), which is a Houston suburb located in the 22nd District.

Aug. 10: Since we all just can’t get along, a Houston city councilwoman (Shelley Sekula-Gibbs [say that five times fast]) requests that the GOP support her in a write-in campaign for the 22nd District. The Republicans go nuts: now not one, but two GOP candidates have expressed an interest to run, and since there are no primaries to whittle the field down to one, both would appear on the ballot. Getting one strong Republican to have a decent showing was going to be hard enough, but now two of them gunning for it? Oooh boy.

Aug. 21: Wallace withdraws from the write-in campaign. Wow, something actually going the Republicans’ way?

Aug 28: The GOP selects Councilwoman Sekula-Gibbs as their special friend, dubbing her the write-in child for the November election. CQ officially changes its stance from the 22nd District being “no clear favorite” to “leans Democratic.”

Aug. 30: The governor announces that there’ll be a “special election” to vote for someone to complete the remainder of DeLay’s term. The Democrats go nuts because of Gov. Perry’s reluctance to hold such an election right after DeLay resigned. They contend that it’s a ploy to give added visibility to the Republican write-in campaign, since its attempts to get a name other than “DeLay” on the ballot have failed. Lampson announces that he too will run in the special election, which will be held the same day as the general election (Yay, American politics! So convoluted).

Sep. 1: Oh, but wait: Lampson withdraws from the special election, saying he wants to focus more on the general election, which, if he wins, will give him the seat until 2008. Sekula-Gibbs pretty much will get to finish out DeLay’s term, provided she registers for the special election.

Sep. 3: Drama’s not over yet, folks. Four other opponents, three of whom are Republican) register for the special election in addition to Sekula-Gibbs. No joke. Two (a former Air Force officer, and a doctor) are not considered serious contenders, but the other two (Steve Stockman and Libertarian Bob Smither) pose threats.

Seriously, anyone else glad they don’t live in Texas’s 22nd District right now? For anyone who’s trying to keep track of which person’s in what election (and, for that matter, why there are even two elections), here you go: