In Texas’ 22nd District, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) routinely faces token opposition in Republican primaries. The challengers are never taken seriously; DeLay never deigns to even pretend they exist; and local Republican voters always dispatch the primary opposition at the polls easily.
But this year’s different. DeLay’s constituents may be conservative, but they are getting sick of him and his ethical scandals. Moreover, DeLay has a real primary opponent, Tom Campbell, whose campaign is generating serious attention.
Campbell, a lawyer in DeLay’s home town of Sugar Land, worked on Bob Dole’s and the elder George Bush’s presidential campaigns. Moreover, Campbell gained valuable federal experience serving as general counsel to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Bush. Far from facing derision from Texas Republicans for taking on DeLay, Campbell’s campaign manager is a former Harris County Republican Party official.
How nervous is this making DeLay? Consider this: for the first time in his life, DeLay is not only acknowledging a primary opponent, he’s lashing out against him publicly.
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s campaign attacked the credentials of his main primary opponent Tuesday, claiming that Tom Campbell lied about his role in local politics, disagrees with the state Republican platform and hasn’t voted regularly.
The attack marks the first time that DeLay, R-Sugar Land, has gone on the offensive for the seat he has held comfortably for more than 20 years. It also follows television ads by Campbell’s campaign suggesting that DeLay is distracted by his legal troubles.
DeLay’s campaign alleged that Campbell, a Houston attorney, “tried to hide the fact” that he’s voted in only two Republican primaries since registering to vote in Fort Bend County a dozen years ago. The campaign also alleged that Campbell lied about his activities with the Fort Bend Republican Party, that he is raising money outside the district and that his campaign commercial contains footage from Michigan.
Are the charges against Campbell legitimate? I don’t know, and frankly, it doesn’t matter. The point is that DeLay is a powerful, 11-term incumbent in a district whose lines were literally drawn by DeLay’s lawyers. And right now, he’s so worried about losing a Republican primary that he’s on the attack against a guy no one ever heard of up until a few months ago.
The Texas primary is March 7. I don’t seriously think DeLay will lose, but it’s oddly entertaining to see him sweat it out.