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Friday, August 18, 2006

TX-22: Riddle Me This

Posted by James L.

Say you're the Texas GOP, and you want to clear the field for just one candidate in the open seat race created by Tom DeLay's slow crawl back into the bowels of the earth. Your only option is a write-in campaign, which is always incredibly exhausting and expensive to pull off. Among other things, your best bet would be to coalesce around someone with deep and broad name recognition--someone whose name voters won't be likely to forget how to spell in November. So, tell me, why would you pick a city councillor with a hyphen in her name, instead of someone with a high profile and an easy name to remember (like, say, Sugar Land mayor David Wallace)? Yeah, that's right; the TX GOP has decided to close ranks around Houston city councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as their candidate of choice.

I can just see the scene now: cranky 70 year-old Republican die-hards trying to figure out if they're supposed to vote for Shellie or Shelly or Sekulagibs or Gibbs-Sekula or God knows what permutation pops up into their mind... before they decide to screw it all and vote for the Libertarian, Bob Smither, instead.

Oh, hey, speaking of that Libertarian: as the TX GOP, you're going to have to deal with fringe elements of your own party endorsing Smither as the only obvious choice on the ballot for rigid conservatives. On top of that, you'll also have to deal with the fallout from your behind-closed-gates endorsement decision with key elements of your local party's machinery in open revolt, mucking up your efforts to push Secula-Gibs (or however they want you to spell it):

However, in a letter to candidates Wednesday, Gary Gillen, chairman of the Fort Bend County GOP, was critical of the state party’s calling for a “gathering” of precinct chairs.
[...]
“In my opinion, the Republican Party leadership in Austin has chosen to organize local Republicans into a secret, exclusionary process that only reinforces the perception of a backroom deal and the perception we have something to hide,” Gillen wrote. “Anyone wanting to run should pay the fee and get your running shoes on."

In short, at this stage in the game, I'd say you're screwed.

Update: Swing State Project reader Patrick writes in to share that Sek-Ulagibz's hyphenated name is not her only disadvantage:

Her name sounds like...like...SECULAR!!!!!!

(*gasp*)

Update II:: Commenter "Rhymes With Right" chimes in with some pretty crucial info that renders much of this post moot:

Mind a little input from a GOP precinct chair/election judge who has been involved in the process ever since The Virginian screwed, blued, and tattooed CD22 this spring?

1) Under Texas law, every booth will have a list of write-in candidates hanging in it showing all write-in candidates for all offices. That was done with Nader in 2004.

2) The Texas standard for write-in votes is intent of the voter. It isn't a spelling test. Indeed, all the verious permutations of her name you proposed above would be sufficient to get a vote counted for Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, barring the possibility that they find a Texan named Sheldon Secular-Godd to run against her. Indeed, based upon past practice, SSG would be sufficient to to get a vote counted in the good doctor's favor if such a hypothetical candidate does not exist.

This clearly makes the task for Secular Ribs a lot easier than I assumed. Still, this race is totally advantage: Lampson. With a Libertarian fracturing the Republican vote and even a sliver of Republicans voting for Wallace (assuming he stays on), Lampson is looking good. Of course, finding someone named Sheldon Secular-Godd to run on the ballot wouldn't hurt, either.

Posted at 12:33 AM in 2006 Elections - House, Texas | Technorati

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Comments

Totally hilarious. The upgrade to Lean-Dem was clearly deserved, based on this piece of information alone!

Posted by: DavidNYC at August 18, 2006 01:05 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Mind a little input from a GOP precinct chair/election judge who has been involved in the process ever since The Virginian screwed, blued, and tattooed CD22 this spring?

1) Under Texas law, every booth will have a list of write-in candidates hanging in it showing all write-in candidates for all offices. That was done with Nader in 2004.

2) The Texas standard for write-in votes is intent of the voter. It isn't a spelling test. Indeed, all the verious permutations of her name you proposed above would be sufficient to get a vote counted for Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, barring the possibility that they find a Texan named Sheldon Secular-Godd to run against her. Indeed, based upon past practice, SSG would be sufficient to to get a vote counted in the good doctor's favor if such a hypothetical candidate does not exist.

As for Gillen, he was all for the process of selecting a candidate in a closed-door four-person meeting as prescribed by state election law, back when he though he and his patron, David Wallace, might be able to secure the nomination for Wallace. Unfortunately, Wallace is not universally popular in Fort Bend County, and is despised in Harris County where the largest number of voters live (including Dr. Sekula Gibbs). Since there was no way to guarantee Wallace the support of the meeting in advance, Gillen and Wallace chose to make a preemptive strike by declaring that the same people they claimed to trust to select a replacement two months ago are not trustworthy or representative enough to do so now.

Is this a long-shot race? You bet -- and while the candidate I have supported since April now has the endorsement of party regulars, I recognize the difficulties involved.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at August 19, 2006 11:13 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

And why not Wallace as a candidate?

http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/192637.html

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at August 19, 2006 11:22 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment