Taking a different tack than Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace did Wednesday, Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs says she wants to be a write-in candidate for Congress - if the GOP wants her to.

Left with no other avenues if they want any chance at all of hanging on to the seat in Congressional District 22, Republican Party officials said Wednesday they are considering the logistics of rallying around a single write-in candidate.

While Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser met with resigned congressman Tom DeLay and several local State Republican Executive Committee members on Wednesday to consider their options, Wallace announced he is mounting a write-in campaign.

Thursday morning, Sekula-Gibbs said she is prepared to run a write-in campaign, but “I’m supporting the process the Republicans are embarking on.”

She said she thinks “the party has to be given the full opportunity to select at candidate. I am willing to wait for that process to be completed”

Benkiser said Wednesday it’s important for the “whole Republican family” to promote one candidate if a write-in candidacy is going to work. She and other Republican officials have indicated that once the party decides on a candidate, other potential GOP candidates for Congress should step aside rather than running as write-ins.

To do otherwise, Benkiser said, “would be political suicide.”

In a reference to Wallace, Sekula-Gibbs said, “The party doesn’t want any lone rangers who are out not really to represent the district. We have to stick together.”

Sekula-Gibbs said she believes the precinct chairs within CD-22 - which includes part of Fort Bend, Harris, Galveston and Brazoria counties - will “come together” to select a write-in candidate to represent the Republican Party.

“In my mind that’s the only fair way to conclude the process,” she said.

On Wednesday Benkiser indicated she was unsure whether that would happen, but called it “certainly an option.”

DeLay announced Tuesday he is withdrawing his name from the general election ballot in the race against Democrat Nick Lampson and Independent Bob Smither, for CD-22.

A day earlier, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had turned down an application by Benkiser’s attorneys, who had hoped to overturn an appeals court ruling that DeLay cannot be declared ineligible for the ballot.

Echoing a federal judge’s July ruling, a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that if DeLay’s name does not appear on the ballot, no GOP candidate’s name may appear.

Thus, state and local GOP officials have pinned their last hopes on uniting behind a write-in.

Sekula-Gibbs said she has until Aug. 29 to either hand in 500 signatures on a petition or pay a $3,100 filing fee if the party decides it wants her to represent them in a write-in campaign.