FortBendNow.com

After an entire week of political episodes worthy of the season-end highlight reel, everyone involved with the always-on Congressional District 22 Minus Tom DeLay saga seems to have spoken – with the exception of the GOP precinct chairs.

Look for them to have their say this coming week, possibly at First Baptist Church in Pearland or somewhere in that vacinity, which is about as central a location as CD-22 has.

Texas Republican Party leaders are trying now to set up an appropriate meeting time and location specifically for the precinct chairs to come together and, so they hope, walk away with one name they can support as a write-in candidate to run against the only two guys officially on the ballot: Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither.

The wildcard in this whole mad affair is Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, who is running flat-out as a write-in candidate, either with the GOP cognoscenti’s blessing, or with their curses ringing in his ears.

Before we digest what this may all mean, let’s review what we know for sure so far, as a result the past week’s whirlwind of political events:

Monday:
→ Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser loses a final court round in her attempt to declare DeLay ineligible for the ballot, so that the party can run a replacement in the congressional general election. Arguing against rulings saying either DeLay runs on the GOP ballot or no one does, Benkiser’s effort fails for good when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia presses the stop button.

Tuesday:
→ DeLay announces he’s withdrawing his name from the ballot, saying that as a Virginia resident, “to do anything else would be hypocrisy.”

→ Within a couple of hours of DeLay’s announced withdrawal, Wallace announces he’s considering a write-in candidacy for CD-22.

Wednesday:
→ Chairman Benkiser, local members of the state GOP executive committee and DeLay himself meet privately to discuss how the party might rally around a single write-in candidate. Once that single candidate is chosen, it’s made clear that other write-in hopefuls from the Republican Party will be asked to shut down their campaigns.

→ While the meeting is in progress, Wallace announces he’s moving ahead with his write-in campaign, in a move that appears to surprise and annoy some in the local party leadership.

Thursday:
→ Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs says she wants to be a write-in candidate for CD-22, too, but only if the GOP selects her for the job.

→ Breaking ranks with GOP Chair Benkiser and local party executive committee members, Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert endorses Wallace’s write-in campaign.

→ Harris County Tax Collector Paul Bettencourt acknowledges getting calls from GOP leaders gauging his interest in running as a write-in. He says he’d consider it, but only if the GOP says they want to draft him.

Friday:
→ Making good on his Tuesday announcement, DeLay sends a letter to Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams asking that his name be taken off the Nov. 7 general election ballot.

Other than that, it was a pretty quiet week.

So where are we now?
Now we have a scenario where the precicnt chairs within CD-22 may have a chance to cast a vote for a write-in candidate to unofficially represent the Republican Party against Lampson et al.

“Unofficial,” because there will be no listed GOP candidate on the ballot. That means, for instance, that if people vote a straight Republican ticket, they won’t be casting a ballot for any write-in candidate, since there is no GOP candidate on the ballot. That fact alone may help explain how long the odds are that anyone can win this race as a write-in.

From some of the reaction we’ve gotten here over the past few days, I think a few readers believe local State Republican Executive Committee members such as Kathy Haigler favor having party leadership name an annointed write-in candidate to whom everyone else in the party would be expected to bow down.

That would be incorrect. In fact, Haigler has been pushing the idea that if any GOP candidate is annointed, it is the precinct chairs who would have to do the annointing.

Unofficial or not, Benkiser has strongly suggested that the annointing likely won’t be done the old-fashioned way – with olive oil – but with a truckload of Republican campaign cash.

Who is the Chosen One?
It probably doesn’t matter. Because if the “Republican family” gets together and chooses one candidate to represent its last hope to keep CD-22 out of the clutches of the Dreaded Democrats, it looks increasingly likely that candidate won’t be David Wallace.

If that candidate isn’t David Wallace, David Wallace is going to remain in the race anyway, threats of being politically blackballed by party bigwigs notwithstanding.

And if two known Republicans run simultaneous write-in campaigns for CD-22, a known Democrat named Nick Lampson is going to waltz away with a big win in November.

In an interview Saturday, campaign spokesman Mac McCall said Wallace officially filed the paperwork Friday for his write-in candidacy.

“We hope they support David. We welcome state, local and national support,” McCall said of GOP officials. “At this point, there aren’t any more Republican primaries or Democratic primaries. David saw it as his responsibility and his duty to use the advance lead he had…and go ahead and take it to Nick Lampson.”

And, just like Tom Petty, Wallace won’t back down.

Irresistable Force, Meet Immovable Object
Whether Wallace opponents within the Republican Party represent a small but well-connected faction or a broader cross-section within the district remains to be seen. We’ll probably have a real good indication in the coming week, if the precinct chairs do get their vote.

In the meantime, his opponents insist things such as, “I’m telling you, the other three counties (outside Fort Bend) will not support Dave Wallace.”

or

“He may think that by jumping out in front, he’s painting everyone else into a corner.” But “it’s political suicide to go against what the precinict chairs want.”

So we’re back to that. What do the precinct chairs want?

Mathematics leads me to say again, it really doesn’t matter. If they don’t want Wallace, they can’t win.

If they do want Wallace, chances are very remote that they can win anyway.

Stalemate, not checkmate.

Look for them to have their say this coming week, possibly at First Baptist Church in Pearland or somewhere in that vacinity, which is about as central a location as CD-22 has.

Texas Republican Party leaders are trying now to set up an appropriate meeting time and location specifically for the precinct chairs to come together and, so they hope, walk away with one name they can support as a write-in candidate to run against the only two guys officially on the ballot: Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither.

The wildcard in this whole mad affair is Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, who is running flat-out as a write-in candidate, either with the GOP cognoscenti’s blessing, or with their curses ringing in his ears.

Before we digest what this may all mean, let’s review what we know for sure so far, as a result the past week’s whirlwind of political events:

Monday:
→ Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser loses a final court round in her attempt to declare DeLay ineligible for the ballot, so that the party can run a replacement in the congressional general election. Arguing against rulings saying either DeLay runs on the GOP ballot or no one does, Benkiser’s effort fails for good when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia presses the stop button.

Tuesday:
→ DeLay announces he’s withdrawing his name from the ballot, saying that as a Virginia resident, “to do anything else would be hypocrisy.”

→ Within a couple of hours of DeLay’s announced withdrawal, Wallace announces he’s considering a write-in candidacy for CD-22.