After having lost the legal battle at every level, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) appeared to be stuck: he simply couldn’t avoid facing former Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) in a head-to-head match-up in November. Or could he?
As I noted this morning at Midterm Madness, Time’s Mike Allen reported that DeLay was considering quitting (again) and making room for a write-in candidate. Apparently, that’s exactly what DeLay plans to do.
Dogged by scandal, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay intends to withdraw as a candidate for Congress, a Republican strategist said Tuesday, a step that would allow the party to field a write-in candidate in hopes of holding his seat.
The development came one day after Texas Republicans lost a court battle in their bid to name a replacement candidate for DeLay on the November ballot.
The strategist described DeLay’s intentions on condition of anonymity, saying the former majority leader intended to make his own announcement.
One conservative noted that this is “just about the dumbest idea I’ve heard in a long time,” and for Republicans who don’t want to lose this seat, it’s hardly an unreasonable assertion.
An official close to DeLay said, “Nick Lampson would lose this race to a write-in candidate who had any name ID at all.” And the GOP believes it can buy that name ID through a relatively inexpensive ad campaign.
It’s not much of a plan. Lampson has been campaigning hard in this race for over a year, has raised plenty of money, and led in early polls before DeLay’s career became a punch line to a bad joke. It is, to be sure, a Republican district, but Lampson used to represent part of it before DeLay tinkered with the district lines.
I wouldn’t call Lampson a shoo-in at this point, but if the best the GOP can come up with a write-in candidate, the odds have to favor the Dem. Heavily.
As for DeLay, we heard some sporadic bravado from the former exterminator over the last couple of weeks, including hints that he could come charging back and reclaim the seat that he held for over two decades. He wasn’t afraid of facing the voters, DeLay said, he simply didn’t want Dems to try and use the courts to manipulate the process.
Now that he’s lost every court battle, DeLay was supposed to step up and put his name on the line. Instead, he’s running away, leaving his party to rally behind a still-to-be-determined write-in candidate. It’s a shame — I really wanted to see the look on his face when the voters rejected him once and for all.
Update: Roll Call says it’s official; DeLay released a statement saying he will not run.