And then there was one . . . er, two?

What a day in old Texas CD-22. Here we had a galaxy of candidates all set to replace Our Tom on the ballot, but like the old campfire song, “100 bottles of beer” they each seem to have been taken down and passed around in considering a write-in campaign.

Tom Campbell, as a primary candidate, is forbidden by law from participating. Imagine that, he won’t even be running against his foe on the primary ballot, but that’s the law.

Robert Talton and Charlie Howard would have to give up their state legislature seats to be write-in candidates, and that won’t happen anytime.

Andy Meyers doesn’t have any of the above to consider, but says he won’t run and doesn’t think anyone else should either as he was heard to say:

“There’s no way anybody can run a credible campaign as a write-in candidate. What are you going to say – ‘I’m a write-in candidate, send me money’? How are you going to do that?”

I’ll bet Our Tom could have figured out a way.

We haven’t heard from Mike Jackson or John Devine these past few months, but they are also in the same boat as Talton and Howard, so another two are off the table.

Let’s see, Eckels took his Stetson out of the ring ages ago, so that leaves . . .

David Wallace and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.

Well, now, just about anyone who has written about a Sekula-Gibbs write-in candidacy has made the comment about the length of her name and how hard (actually nigh to impossible with that there hyphen) it would be to dial her name in on an eSlate voting machine.

FortBendNow says that a meeting occurred today among state and local Republican Party officials, and the word is that they will lock themselves in a room – at an undisclosed location – until they come out with one name.

Prediction: If they come out with one name, and that is a reach, it will be She of the Pink Leggings and Hyphenated Name. Why? There is such a rabid dislike of David Wallace among them that it will be either Shelley or no one.

So the GOP officials' choice will be Shelley Sekula-Gibbs . . . or no one.

But wait, there’s more. David Wallace has already said that he will launch a campaign in the 2008 election, in this case now as it seems most certainly to be, to reclaim the seat from Congressman Nick Lampson D-Sugar Land. Wallace will most certainly run a write-in campaign this year, GOP endorsed write-in candidate or not. It’s inevitable. Not only inevitible, it just happened. Guess David read the same FortBendNow article that I did and moved up his announcement.

Now where do I go to sign his nomination petition? But alas, I voted in the primary. Juanita tells me that I only get to watch. Poop. That's my life in a nutshell.

So look for at least one and maybe two write-in candidates. Or maybe more. X Swami X might run if he hits on the Lotto. Or maybe . . . a dark horse.