Perry calls special election for DeLay's unexpired term

[Longhorn]

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_DeLays_Replacement.html

AUSTIN — Republican Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday called a Nov. 7 special election to temporarily fill the seat left vacant when former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay resigned.

DeLay, a Republican whose term would have expired in January, resigned in June. The winner of the special election will fill the Houston-area seat until January. Anyone can still file for candidacy in the special election, which happens the same day as the general election.

In the general election, Democrat Nick Lampson is the Democrat candidate, and Republicans have thrown their support behind Houston city councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as a write-in candidate after the courts refused DeLay's efforts to remove his name from the ballot.

Because both elections are on the same day, there's a chance Lampson and Sekula-Gibbs could appear on both ballots. That means one of them could win both elections, taking over after the election and remaining in office for a two-year term starting in January.

[merci_me]

1. I commented on this in another topic,

but will copy it here, with one added comment....SekulaGibbs will not appear on both ballots. In the regular general election, only Lampson and the Libertarian will appear on the ballot. SekulaGibbs is a write-in in the regular election.


The upside could be that several people file, including David Wallace, the mayor of Sugar Land. He and Ft.Bend county were shut out in the cold by the party, who went with SekulaGibbs, councilmember from Harris County. A special election with him on the ballot, would give Ft.Bend a chance to make a little noise and maybe to the point of voting for him and letting the write-in slide....skipping SekulaGibbs.


It could also lead to mass confusion if people vote for her name, where it does appear on the ballot, for the unexpired term and think they've done it all and not do the write-in portion. If anything, her name appearing on the ballot and also needing to be written in can only lead to her losing some votes, when people fail to grasp the idea. Might not be a lot, but I don't see anything for her to gain in this.

If Lampson files (which I assume he will), it also allows him to go back to his high-roller donors, who gave the max $2,100 and get another $2,100.

Personally, I'm just waiting for Juanita's take on the whole thing. Should be fun.