Stepping aside from Speaker Politics and the Texas Lege for just a minute, we'd like to bring forward an update on what may soon be the next subject to consume the Texas blogosphere- the Texas Senate race to defeat John Cornyn.
There had been much rumor and speculation that Congressman Nick Lampson was eyeing a bid for the office. He's settled those rumors with a definitive answer that he will not be a candidate and is instead running for re-election to Congress in TX-22.
Mustafa Tameez of Houston, a political consultant to Lampson, said this morning that Lampson, the Democrat who last year captured the U.S. House seat vacated by Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, intends to seek re-election instead—fully knowing that his district historically leans Republican.
A Senate bid is “not going to happen,” Tameez said. “It sounds goofy, but he feels like he made a commitment to the people of Congressional District 22.” Tameez said Lampson feels a Senate try would be “disingenuous.”
Tameez aired Lampson’s decision to stamp out speculation regarding a Senate bid. “We just want it to stop,” he said (unwittingly the desire of some observers of this legislative session).
We're happy to see the Congressman recovered from his surgery and continuing the fight for the good people of TX-22. The announcement has come to the joy of many local activists who worked hard to get him into office. They are looking forward to working with his campaign to help county level Democrats in their challenges for local office.
This news removes one of the larger names from the field of prospective candidates which include Rep. Rick Noriega and attorney Mikal Watts.
Note: The following is a general overview of a new blog I am working on called Progressive Wave. It is a re-post from Daily Kos. Simply put, we are looking for a large number of bloggers to cover our new representatives and senators in Congress. For Texas, we'd appreciate any bloggers who would be interested in covering Nick Lampson or Ciro Rodriguez. If you're interested, please post here or email me at my address in my profile. Thanks!
It's great to see citizen journalism in action. A project here at Daily Kos is picking up steam - where we 'adopt' a congressional committee and keep tabs on their progress. It's a great idea, and by all means one that we should encourage; after all, a democracy thrives when its citizens participate actively within it.
Before the election I was thinking of taking a similar principle and applying it to our newly-elected Congresspersons and Senators in the U.S. Congress. Many of our newly-elected representatives come from extremely close races (such as Patrick Murphy in PA-08 or Joe Courtney in CT-02), or they are in areas that will make it a challenge for them to be re-elected every time they are up (Nick Lampson in TX-22 or Nancy Boyda in KS-02). While the Netroots-endorsed list has only included challengers, it's inevitable that we will have to begin defending our incumbents, beginning in 2008.
Burka goes through a rundown of the latest CW on the Governor's race. He also dives into Perry and Granny's new TV spots.
Joe Farias, candidate running to keep the South San Antonio seat opened up by Carlos Uresti in his run for State Senator, has a new website up and it looks good.
I echo Kuff in pleading that the DCCC not spend extra money in TX-22 on TV ads.
Only in Texas would it make sense to appoint someone to lead voter registration efforts that hasn't voted since he moved to Texas.
Paul Burka has some background info on Lukin Gilliland who filed as a Democrat in TX-23 against Bonilla. He has since written his campaign a half-million dollar check, hired a well known Austin consultant, and brought on board one Travis County candidate's campaign manager. I know I'll be keeping an eye on him as he seems to be the only Democrat with a real chance at actually eating into Bonilla's white voters which is needed to force that race into a run-off.
Capitol Annex goes into what's interesting about all the re-re-redistricting filers and who didn't decide to run too.
Kuff reminds us that Gov. Goodhair still has one more day to decide if he wants to call a 'special election' in TX-22. That would be just to fulfill the remainder of DeLay's lame 2-month term. Can we repeat how lame that would be?
Rick Pery v. The World informs us that Chet Edwards has picked up two endorsements from traditionally Republican leaning groups- U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. Both groups had endorsed Chet's Republican opponent in 2004 (Arlene Wohlgemonster).
Nick Lampson announced a series of endorsements from law enforcement groups today. The National Association of Police Officers, the International Union of Police Associations, and the Texas State Police Coalition have all endorsed Nick Lampson for TX-22. From the press release:
“We should be supporting our police officers in their fight against crime instead of wasting money on bridges to nowhere in Alaska and the so-called Paper Industry Hall of Fame in Wisconsin. We need to drastically cut waste -- not only so we can reduce our debt and deficit -- but also so we can redirect resources to keep our communities safe and keep the officers who patrol them safe,” Lampson continued.
The announcements were accompanied by the release of a new television ad, which will be on their website tomorrow but which you may view today (click here to watch). The television ad features Galveston County Sheriff Gean Leonard.
One race that everyone is talking about is TX 22, where a great Democrat, Nick Lampson is running. If anyone wants to contribute to a successful campaign as an intern this is the place to be. Check out all the info below, and give Erin a call.
Job Description
Each intern will be actively exposed to the inner workings of a political campaign as well as gain valuable experience if they are looking to pursue a career in politics after graduation. Activities might include: message training, door knocking, calling voters to discuss issues, helping the press department by tracking news, administrative tasks, registering voters, attending festivals with Nick Lampson and staff, etc.
Requirements
· Able to work 20 hours per week.
· Sufficient transportation or the capability to work from home.
Skills
· Ability to write.
· Good interpersonal communication.
· Enthusiasm for our cause.
For more information please contact Erin Fyffe at erin@lampson.com or call
281-488-4922.
One thing I really like are campaign ads. So when I was told that Nick Lampson was now putting his online on YouTube so I can embed them in the blog, well, that's exactly what I was going to do. Watch them below the fold.
I encourage all campaigns to start doing this because I'll more than likely make posts about them and include a call to donate to the candidate. So, donate to Nick.
A Houston television station reporting today on a local luncheon speech given by private citizen Tom DeLay suggests he might actively run for CD22. If he were to win, he could then resign and Governor Perry could call a special election.
After the speech, DeLay said he had not formally announced anything, " “Well, I didn’t annouce that. We’re going to have to wait and see what the Fifth Circuit Court does with the appeal.”
Sure. In fact, I think he should resign, and then run in the special election as well, just to play with the voters' minds some more.
Major props to Right of Texas, which has uncovered for all of an actual recording of Tom DeLay's message to voters in a Virginia GOP Primary for the (losing) candidate to take on the Democrat who now represents DeLay in his new state of refuge. (BOR story with more background is here.)
In it, DeLay mentions how he "recently re-registered to vote in Northern California" (...he's in Virginia). All that evasion of, um, being a Congressman must take a toll on the mind.
The Republican Part of Texas has successfully moved the Temporary Restraining Order filed by the Texas Democratic Party into federal court according to Quorum Report.
Yesterday, the Republican Party of Texas filed a Notice to Remove in state court which automatically moved the issue of replacing former Congressman Tom DeLay on the November ballot into federal court.
Democrats had obtained a Temporary Restraining Order on June 9th preventing the convening of electors in the four counties in CD22. The TRO effectively prevented Republicans from choosing a replacement for DeLay on the November ballot.
According to RPT attorney James Bopp, the relocation into federal court was automatic and required no hearing.
The TDP responds.
"The issue here has nothing to do with State Court or Federal Court. The problem with DeLay’s parting scheme is more fundamental: it's illegal.
"Tom Delay and the Republican Party willfully and intentionally conspired to run a bogus primary to allow DeLay to raise funds for his legal defense, hoping to use state law to have a handful of party bosses hand pick their nominee instead of the voters.
"If the Republicans really cared about giving the voters a choice, they would have asked their Governor to call a special election instead of leaving DeLay's seat vacant for six months, and they would have never let Tom DeLay dictate this illegal scheme. As a matter of precedent, Texas voters cannot allow political parties to "move" congressional candidates out of Texas when they look like a loser so they can find a better candidate."
