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Campaign '06: Tom DeLay's Gift to the Democrats
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Race
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Oct 23, 2006 09:29pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Weekly News Magazine - TIME Magazine |
| News Date | Tuesday, October 24, 2006 03:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The controversial former House leader thought he could help the G.O.P. by getting out of this year's race. But his departure has thrown his home district into election chaos — and very likely into the Democrats' hands
By HILARY HYLTON/AUSTIN
Posted Monday, Oct. 23, 2006
When former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay announced in an Austin courtroom five months ago that he was moving on to a new stage in his life and then sashayed out of the courthouse with that ever-present grin, he left voters in his district in a whirl of confusion and anger. DeLay told TIME he thought he could do more for the conservative cause outside Congress, but that still left his constituents with lots of unanswered questions.
Texas' 22nd Congressional district may be as flat as the rice fields that run to the horizons southeast of Houston, but it has been a roller-coaster ride for Republicans, in yet another of those once safe G.O.P. districts that is now a gleam in the eye of Democratic Party leaders. "If this race gets any rockier, writing about it will require a chisel," Bob Dunn, editor of the FortBendNow news blog, told his readers.
After Democrats pleaded successfully with the court in June to block Republicans from replacing the tarnished DeLay on the ballot, he requested that his name be dropped, leaving the party with no option but to run a write-in candidate. That spot has fallen to Houston city councilwoman and dermatologist Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. And even in a district that President George W, Bush won with 64% of the vote in 2004, most experts on both sides of the aisle say winning with a write-in campaign is a long shot. |
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