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Thursday, June 29, 2006

TX-22: Will Lampson Face ANY Opposition in November?

Posted by James L.

That's the question on our minds after hearing that former Republican Representative and Independent candidate Steve Stockman apparently failed to submit the 500 valid signatures required by Texas law to have his name placed on the November ballot:

Former GOP Congressman Steve Stockman (Independent) failed to qualify for the ballot in the CD-22 race. The Secretary of State determined petitions submitted by Stockman failed to produce the 500 valid signatures required by state law. "Someone who couldn't find 500 people in a [in a district of 600,000 residents] probably wasn't going to have much of an impact," joked a spokesman for former Congressman Nick Lampson (D). In related news, US District Court Judge Sam Sparks has yet to rule whether or not the Republicans will be allowed to replace resigned Congressman Tom DeLay on the ballot. If the court finds DeLay intentionally "withdrew" from the contest, the GOP will not be allowed to replace him -- and then only Lampson and the Libertarian nominee will appear on the November ballot. If DeLay, however, was found to have been "disqualified" because of his move to Virginia, the GOP will be allowed to name a new replacement nominee. Although the Judge did not yet rule, during this week's hearing he openly remarked that DeLay apparently "withdrew" from the race. Stay tuned.

Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming.

However, Stockman's disqualification raises the risks considerably for Lampson--if the GOP is able to field a replacement candidate for DeLay, the conservative vote won't be as fractured without a Stockman candidacy. Depending on Judge Sparks' decision, this could either be a dream come true for Lampson, or a nightmare. We'll find out next week. (Hat tip to Christopher Walker.)

Update: Oh, right; I neglected to mention that Lampson could be facing DeLay again. The way I see it, there are three possibilities here: Lampson could face DeLay again, Lampson could face no serious opposition, or Lampson could face the TX GOP's replacement candidate. Obviously, either of the first two options are vastly preferable.

Posted at 03:00 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Texas | Technorati

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Comments

My guess is that if the GOP ultimately winds up fucking up their ballot situation in TX-22, they might "pull a Gallegly" (hey, that sounds a lot like "pulling a Gillooly") and run Tom DeLay again.

Of course, if the choice is Tom DeLay vs. no one, it might still be better to just concede the seat to the Dems rather than give us such a radioactive name to run against (the very thing they were hoping to deprive us of in the first place). What a crazy thing!

Posted by: DavidNYC at June 29, 2006 06:55 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I'm writing this as a volunteer for Lampson and TX-22 resident.

While running against DeLay we were gathering a warchest.
Once DeLay said he was out we started blockwalking and phone banking. There are now around 12 unpaid interns in 2 offices going 5 hours a day 4 days a week (and blockwalking on Sundays). Lampson has his first tv commercial shot and in the can, it should be premiering soon. If Lampson is unopposed on the ballot I believe Sugarland mayor David Wallace will mount a write in campaign. He launched his first radio commercial Monday which did nothing but bash Lampson and talk national GOP talking points. It feels like Vernon Robinson. The fact that his ad starts by bashing Lampson shows his inexperience as a campaigner.

Lampson is the stronger candidate, easily. Also, something you will not hear anywhere else except from someone in the district (me), NASA will be an issue and the only other people who have as much NASA knowledge as Lampson in the congress is Sen. Bill Nelson (FL) and Rep Dennis Kucinich (OH). Nick wrote the 2001 Space Exploration Act that passed both houses. NASA (Houston) is in TX-22 and is a major job factor like many airforce bases are for other districts. This is the unsung blackhorse issue.

I hope for no republican candidate to be placed on the ballot. I want to run away with this election. Hopefully the Rpeublicans will be so stunned they can't get that "$1 million in PLEDGES" that Mayor Wallace says he has (he really has $200,000 cash on hand).

Also, as Nick begins to run away with this it means all the local focus can go to TX-14 where A GREAT candidate named Shane Sklar is taking on Ron Paul. The district is 45% Dem.

Judge Sparks can take his time though, longer he takes, it just means the more phone banking we cna do and the more the republicans can sit down with their hands tied. :-D

Posted by: Joseph Vogas at June 29, 2006 08:26 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Many thanks for the posts. Joseph, it's always best to learn information from those on the scene. Please keep it up. And thatnks for the hard work.

Frankly, the news kind of scares me. I was happy when Stockman decided to run, and always believed he would divide the Rep vote. This creates the potential of a worst-case scenario -- the R's get to replace DeLay and it's one on one. My fear is that either Sparks rules in favor of DeLay or he is overturned.

The write-in possibility is interesting. He would still have DeLay on the ballot though, so that would surely siphon off some R votes. And write-ins are always very hard to do.

Best of luck to Nick.

Posted by: hilltopper at June 29, 2006 09:14 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

There is a Libertarian candidate, who qualified for the November bállot. His name is Bob Smither.

So Nick will not be the only candidate.

Posted by: micha.1976 at June 30, 2006 08:05 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I had been assuming that it was useful to have Stockman qualify, splitting the vote with whoever appears next to the "R" on the November ballot. So I did not cheer when he failed to get the signatures (once I understood that his support was light, and there wasn't much chance he could win).

Interesting that Shane Sklar has been suggested as the logical place for energy and resources to go, if it becomes apparent that the evolving scenario in TX-22 works out in Lampson's favor (which I ardently hope it does). There are some other possibilities that I think enjoy more netroot support: Harris in TX-06 and Courage in TX-21, for sure. Other possibilities that some might rank beside Sklar are Harrell in TX-31; doing a bit more to protect Chet Edwards's seat in TX-17, and moving the focus out of Congress to back David vanOs with more than just cheers from the sidelines.

Myself, I hope we win all these races, and more. There are probably also some Texas state legislature seats that deserve attention, but I'm not knowledgeable about them.

Posted by: Christopher Walker at June 30, 2006 12:46 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Chris, tell me about TX-31. I'm not familiar with this race? Is this one even competitive?

Lampson is Texas' #1 priority for the U.S. House. As for the other races:
TX-14 - Sklar is awsome and has campaigned with Lampson and Lampson with him. His funding has been fair, jsut name ID is low. THe demographics however are good.
TX-21 - Tied with TX-14 on winnability, mostly due to Courage's AWSOME Non-stop GOTV since last summer. I've never met John (I missed my chance at TYD so I could go to the Austin Apple store. What? I have other nerdy interests) but I wish I could meet him.
TX-06 - I always thought this one had potential but Harris' fundraising never took off. Harris stands well but with this far to go until November we need to focus on folks who have at least started gaining traction like Sklar and Courage.

Statewide though I agree, Van Os is all that matters. Hopefully Hnk Gilbert will get some traction in his bid for agriculture commissioner. Bell MIGHT also have a chance for governor but I kinda doubt it and I would not exactly be ecstatic if he won as compared to Van Os. Heck I'm not happy about any Texas governor nominee. Kinky's a right wing hack, Strayhorn gave birth to Scotty, Perry is . . . Perry, and Bell has a poor enviro record, feels like a politican, and had that slip in his speach where he officially declared his bid for governor about wnating to regulate video games instead of enforcing the rating system. Fine for parents, not for the college student I am.

Anyways, go house races! Go Van Os! Go state house races that are no where near where I am.

Posted by: Joseph Vogas at July 1, 2006 03:02 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Well, I won't make you ask a third time [smile].
Actually no, I don't have a reason to think TX-31 is in hot contention; I just have seen some ripples of enthusiasm for Mary Beth Harrell, the 'soldiers' mom', in the blogosphere. Here's her website, if you're curious:

http://www.marybethharrellforcongress.com/html/

Unless there is a surprise when the 2nd quarter filings are posted, she is far behind on money.
However, it would be fair to point out that TX-22 is the *only* Texas district where the challenger has kept pace with the incumbent. All other incumbents, as of the close of the 1st quarter, had vastly larger warchests than their challengers. (Interestingly, in TX-10, the Libertarian candidate has raised signifiantly more money than the Democrats, though I doubt the GOP incumbent is in any danger.)

Bell has been the definition of disappointing. In a race with two independents and an incumbent who's not wildly popular, it's shameful to watch him playing tag with one of the independents for last place. A sign of the depths of disarray that the Texas party had fallen into - and to which David vanOs may be a key to flipping.

Posted by: Christopher Walker at July 1, 2006 04:10 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment