Richard “Kinky” Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn are on the ballot as independents in the Texas Governor’s race, but Steve Stockman won’t be running as an independent in the race for retired former congressman Tom DeLay’s District 22 seat.

Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams ruled Thursday that although Stockman had gathered more than 600 signatures in petitions aimed at putting him on the ballot, fewer than the required 500 signatures were valid.

Stockman is a one-term Republican congressman narrowly defeated by Democrat Nick Lampson in 1996. Lampson went on to serve three terms in Congress, then was defeated by Republican Ted Poe, a former judge from Harris County, after Lampson’s district was dramatically altered in a 2004 redistricting.

Ironically, the redistricting is largely credited to DeLay, against whom Lampson was running. But despite winning the Republican CD-22 primary with about 62% of the vote, DeLay announced in April that he intended to retire.

Some political observers believed Stockman, as a former Republican, would have split the GOP vote and thus make a Lampson victory more likely. But while Stockman’s exit could be seen as a boost for Republicans, they still have no declared candidate in the race against Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither.

DeLay officially resigned from Congress on June 9, a day after being declared ineligible to run on the general election ballot for CD-22 by Texas GOP Chairwoman Tina Benkiser.

But no sooner had Benkiser made her declaration then the Texas Democratic Party filed suit against her, winning a temporary restraining order to put that declaration of ineligibility on hold.

Because the Democrats argued the U.S. Constitution governs questions of congressional eligibility, Benkiser and the state GOP successfully had the lawsuit moved to federal court. A hearing on the status of the temporary restraining order is scheduled for June 26.

With DeLay’s eligibility question before the courts, Republican parties in Fort Bend, Harris, Galveston and Brazoria counties have had to halt proceedings to select DeLay’s replacement on the November ballot.