Democrat Nick Lampson "beaming victory grins" in bizarre race to succeed Tom DeLay

[DeepModem Mom]

A Tangle of a Race to Fill DeLay’s Old Seat
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: October 30, 2006

HOUSTON, Oct. 29 — Hoping against the odds to keep a prize Republican Congressional seat from falling to the Democrats next week, President Bush travels to his home state on Monday for a rally in the district long led by his Texas ally Tom DeLay.

But in a topsy-turvy race with more than its share of bizarre twists, the rally in Sugar Land is not for Mr. DeLay, the former House majority leader. Mr. DeLay, who is facing legal and ethical questions, capped a primary victory in March with the announcement that he was abandoning his run for a 12th term....Instead, Mr. Bush is the headliner for a Houston councilwoman, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who emerged only in August as the Republican choice for the 22nd Congressional District and who is running in two elections: the general election on Nov. 7 and a special election the same day to fill Mr. DeLay’s unexpired term. Her main opponent to fill the House seat for the next two years is Nick Lampson, a Democrat and former congressman who has been campaigning for more than a year and is favored to win....

***

Mr. Lampson, 61, who lost his House seat in a neighboring district after the 2003 redistricting engineered by Mr. DeLay, has shored up his moderate credentials with endorsements from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Rifle Association and has been beaming victory grins at campaign stops.

***

....discord broke out Friday after Ms. Sekula-Gibbs showed up inside a Sugar Land polling place where voters were casting early ballots, setting off charges by Texas Democrats and the Lampson camp that she had willfully broken the law by campaigning inside a polling place. Ms. Sekula-Gibbs said she had been campaigning outside and briefly went in to use the restroom and inquire about voter turnout.

In one of the many oddities of the race, Ms. Sekula-Gibbs, 53, is running twice, as her campaign jingle, “Vote Twice for Shelley,” to the tune of “Roll Out the Barrel,” reminds voters. She is on the ballot with three other Republicans and a Libertarian in the special election that Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, waited until the last minute to call to fill Mr. DeLay’s unexpired term until January. And she is a write-in candidate against Mr. Lampson as well as a Libertarian and two other write-ins in the general election to the 2007-8 Congress....Ms. Sekula-Gibbs...has been trying to educate voters in how to use the new computerized voting machines to spell out her name.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/us/politics/30delay.html