House Majority Leader Tom DeLay shouldn’t be a vulnerable incumbent. He’s a powerful (though criminally corrupt) lawmaker in a conservative state, who’s never faced a tough election in his career. Consider his winning percentage of the vote totals in his 10 elections to the House: 63%, 60%, 65%, 68%, 74%, 69%, 71%, 67%, 72%, 65%. His closest race ever was one in which he won by 24 points.
And yet, here we are, less than a week before Election Day, and DeLay is worried.
“I did 95 doors yesterday in a little over two hours,” said Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who has traded his hard-soled dress shoes for white running sneakers since Congress recessed for the election.
“I love knocking on doors,” DeLay said Sunday, after giving a pep talk to nearly 20 precinct-walking volunteers in his campaign headquarters, tucked near a golf course in the Greatwoods planned community on the outskirts of Houston.
When DeLay addresses his volunteers, mostly a crowd of youths in their 20s, gone is his customary tone of unflinching comfort, which colleagues and reporters usually hear, replaced instead with a slightly hesitant paternal tone, conjuring a father speaking to a rarely seen teenage son.
As the House majority leader, DeLay is more accustomed to lawmakers and lobbyists knocking on his door asking for support. But as a result of redistricting and a barrage of liberal attacks questioning DeLay’s ethics, DeLay is having to hustle votes more in the manner of a freshman member of Congress than as the most powerful member of Congress, which many political observers argue he is, despite officially ranking behind Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
DeLay no doubt expected to be away from his district at this point, campaigning and raising money for other more vulnerable conservative incumbents. Now there’s plenty of evidence that he’s the vulnerable incumbent.
To be sure, DeLay is having to fight, but that doesn’t mean he’s likely to lose. He personally has helped shape his district to ensure his own safety. Nevertheless, even the far-right Republican voters who make up Texas’ 22nd CD have their limits on how much corruption they’re willing to tolerate — and four rebukes from the House Ethics Committee later, DeLay is pushing them towards that limit.
A poll released last month showed DeLay with a significant lead over his opponent, attorney Richard Morrison (D), 47% to 33%. Still, the fact that DeLay finds himself well below the 50% threshold has pushed him to do things he’d ordinarily never do.
DeLay’s reelection campaign committee has organized precinct walks in the past, but not to the extent it is now — at least, not in years. His campaign is also airing an estimated $250,000 in television advertisements, after buying virtually no TV time during the past several elections.
And, personally, DeLay is throwing himself into his reelection effort, an effort that in the past required little of his time and attention. This past weekend, the solemn business suit, the standard uniform in Washington’s corridors of power, was gone, dropped in favor of collared shirt sleeves embossed with the American flag, all the better for navigating precincts in the heat and humidity of southeast Texas, still sweltering in late October.
DeLay decided unexpectedly last week to participate in a debate against Democrat Richard Morrison and two third-party candidates organized by a local high school’s debating team. It was the first time in political observers’ memory that DeLay had exposed himself to the barbs of political pygmies in a campaign debate.
DeLay’s right-wing buddies at groups like the Club for Growth are even stepping up their efforts, running ads in the district on DeLay’s behalf.
This is unheard of.
I have to admit, when I received a recent email from Democracy for America about its “Retire Tom DeLay.com” campaign, I thought it was a waste of time. It appears, however, that there’s a real opportunity here. DeLay assumed he’d keep this seat for life without lifting a finger. Now he’s scrambling. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.