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Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2006
Posted on Sun Mar 05, 2006 at 11:20:27 PM EST
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Bump and Update: The New York Times reports here. My DD's Jonathan Singer weighs in here.

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Original Post 3/4/06

Could Tom DeLay get voted out of office by Texans before his criminal trial? It's possible. The Texas Republican primary is Tuesday and DeLay has challengers. He needs 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off election.

It will not help DeLay that his district is more Democratic, ironically by his own making. DeLay's legal and ethical entanglements stem from his efforts to redistrict Texas to elect more Republicans to the U.S. House....In that same Chronicle poll, 68 percent of respondents said they were undecided on a candidate in the Republican primary, a potentially worrisome sign for DeLay, who enjoys near universal name recognition in the district.

On the other hand, his challengers seem pretty light-weight:

DeLay's GOP opponents include Tom Campbell, an environmental attorney and general counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under President George H.W. Bush; retired schoolteacher and oil industry credit manager Pat Baig; and lawyer Mike Fjetland, who has run against DeLay three times.

Texas has no party registration in Texas which means that both Republicans and Democrats can vote in Tuesday's Republican primary. Conventional wisdom has it that Dems want DeLay to win the primary because they think he is beatable in November, and then they can count on his seat. So far, there is only one Democrat registered for the race, Nick Lampson.

I'd rather see DeLay go down in the primary. If Dick DeGuerin continues to press for an early trial date and wins the case for DeLay, it will be harder for Lampson to beat DeLay in November. Why take the chance?

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    Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week | 6 comments (6 topical)
    Re: Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week (none / 0) (#1)
    by BigTex on Sat Mar 04, 2006 at 07:38:20 PM EST
    Tom Campbell is the only person who has a chance of making a run off with Delay. Nick Lampson was picked 2 years ago to run against Delay in this race. He (Lampson) didn't expend nearly as much of his war chest as he could have against now Congressman Poe back then, and rumors in both districts before filing was that Lampson wasn't going to run in Beaumont, but rather move to challenge Delay then. Turnout across the state is expected to be low Tuesday, this will help Delay as his machine is already in place and has more experiance cranking out the voters on election day.

    Re: Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Mar 04, 2006 at 08:03:18 PM EST
    Yeah, nothing has changed for delay in the last two years. All things are equal. What was true then is true now. OK. Fine.

    Re: Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week (none / 0) (#3)
    by Steven Sanderson on Sun Mar 05, 2006 at 01:45:18 AM EST
    I agree that it'd be nice to see DeLay lose the primary. If that happens, perhaps the contributions to his defense fund will dry-up and we can watch him sweat and squirm and bawl like a child while turning state's evidence against his fellow hoodlums.

    Re: Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week (none / 0) (#4)
    by Edger on Sun Mar 05, 2006 at 04:39:43 AM EST
    The karma fairy has voted.

    Re: Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Mar 05, 2006 at 06:44:45 AM EST
    Either way there can be a real benefit for the Dems . The results will give a much more accurate picture of how they will fare in the 06 elections locally and Nationally. If Delay goes down the Repigs are in BIG trouble.

    Re: Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week (none / 0) (#6)
    by Johnny on Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    If the Texans re-elect Delay, it will reaffirm my belief that they hold party loyalty above individual responsibility.

    Tom Delay Faces Primary This Week | 6 comments (6 topical)