Longtime Fort Bend County Republican Party activist Terese Raia will represent the county party in the four-person District Executive Committee expected to name a candidate later this month to replace retired congressman Tom DeLay on the November ballot.
But the process to replace DeLay on the ballot ground to a halt Thursday, as a federal judge ruled the retired congressman must either appear on the ballot, or the party can field no candidate.
Raia was elected to serve on the committee at a Wednesday night party meeting. She won a 37-19 vote against Pat Hebert, by fellow Fort Bend County precinct chairs within Congressional District 22. Fifty-six of the 64 precinct chairs in Fort Bend’s portion of CD-22 attended the meeting to cast their votes.
Immediately after the meeting was adjourned, Fort Bend County GOP Chairman Gary Gillen had party officials pass out informal ballots to the CD-22 precinct chairs present, and asked them to vote for the DeLay replacement candidate of their choice.
Gillen’s Harris County counterparts took a similar straw vote last week, but have yet to count the results for fear of influencing the other counties.
However, to the surprise of Raia and several party members in attendance at the meeting, Gillen immediately counted the results of Wednesday night’s straw poll and displayed them.
They showed Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace with 20 votes, state Rep. Charlie Howard with 13, Fort Bend County Commissioner Andy Meyers with 7, Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs with 2, and candidates Tim Turner and Tom Campbell with 1 vote apiece. Twelve precinct chairs did not cast votes.
After the votes were tallied, Wallace called on Raia to support him as the candidate favored by Fort Bend County’s CD-22 precinct chairs.
Wallace noted Raia said in her nomination speech she is committed to no particular candidate, but told CD-22 precinct chairs “I will do your wishes whatever they may be.” And, he added, “I’m looking forward to seeing her go out and support the will of this body.”
Gillen said after the meeting he’s been struck how “these informal polls continue to show strong support for David Wallace.”
Raia disagreed with Wallace’s interpretation of what Wednesday’s straw poll meant. Noting 12 precinct chairmen didn’t participate, she said their votes could have changed the outcome. She also handed out her own survey to precinct chairs.
Labeled “Congressional District 22 Nominee Preferences Survey,” it asks precinct chairs to consider five candidate characteristics and choose whether each is “critical,” “important,” “less important” or “not important.”
The characteristics defined in Raia’s survey include:
1. “The nominee must be a conservative proven by their vote or by membership/leadership in conservative causes, or by public support for conservative candidates and/or issues. They must have put the conservative agenda above their own interests.”
2. “The nominee must have proven that they have stood up for conservative causes unmindful of the media, liberals, Democrats or moderates and indicating they will do so as CD-22 congressman.”
3. “The nominee must have a clean record in his personal and business dealings so the opposition is unable to exploit ethical lapses – no personal or business bankruptcies, no non-payment of obligations, no unpaid judgments or liens, no current or past close ties to questionable individuals, no involvement in unethical self-dealing while in a position of public trust.”
4. “The nominee must be a leader who has demonstrated leadership in positions in government, or business, or community services. They must be able to show specific accomplishments in these positions.”
5. “The nominee must prove they are a winner, either by having won hard fought campaigns against well-funded, qualified, credible opponents in contested races or by outstanding success in their chosen field.”
Raia also asks in the survey that precinct chairs rank eight acknowledged replacement candidates for DeLay’s seat three times, once in terms of their “conservative philosophy,” once on their “Republican track record,” and once on their “electibility over Democrat opponent.”
Raia joins Harris County GOP activist Kathy Haigler as the first two of the District Executive Committee’s four members. Galveston and Brazoria counties have scheduled meetings Thursday to elect their respective members to the committee.
Of Gillen’s decision to conduct a straw poll and then immediately make the results public, Haigler said, “obviously I think it was a bad idea.”
DeLay announced in April he would leave Congress, and said he intended to move to Virginia and would thus be ineligible to run on the ballot in Texas.
A legal cloud hangs over the DeLay replacement process. A lawsuit filed in Travis County District Court by the Texas Democratic Party, and later moved into federal court, says DeLay is not ineligibile to be on the ballot. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks is expected to rule within a matter of days on DeLay’s eligibility.
Among the possibilities, if Judge Sparks rules DeLay is not ineligible but has in fact withdrawn from the ballot, it’s conceivable the Republicans would not be permitted to field a candidate to run against Democrat challenger Nick Lampson or Libertarian challenger Bob Smither.
