Vultures Flocking To Pick Over GOP’s Texas CD-22 Seat

Oh Thank you, Jesus! Now we truly have a feast on our hands. State Rep. Robert “Crazy Bob” Talton has just filed papers with the FEC informing the world of his intention to run for US Congress next year.

GOPers were really upset that they lost Tom DeLay’s seat to a Democrat last year, so much so that Karl Rove put Texas CD-22 at the top of his list of districts to target in the 2008 elections.

Oh, that’s right, Karl Who? The guy who shared Jack Abramoff’s assistant, I think.

One has to wonder which of the crowded field will CD-22 Republican stalwarts throw in for.

Will it be Crazy Bob? Here is his congressional campaign website. Of the bunch, I’d say he will be the personal and political favorite of the DeLay base here in CD-22.

Will it be Dean Hrbacek (pronounced Her-BAH-check as I found out yesterday). The guy who has established an exploratory committee, but apparently has spent some money on a telephone push poll.

What about Judge James “Reverend Jim” Squier? This Houston judge, I hear, is a real nutcase. A family court judge who counsels divorcing couples to make up and make nice because Jesus wants it.

Then we have Pasadena Mayor John Manlove. Manlove. Can you imagine DeLay’s Blue Hair Patrol matriarchs voting for a guy whose very own surname makes GLBT members smile?

Or how about Pete Olsen? John Cornyn’s former chief of staff? Yep, that’s what I thought. Pete Who?

And finally, what about the campaign fund front runner? Silly Shelley Sekula Dragonc—t Rodriguez Gibbs? What the heck, the woman has 180 large in her campaign coffers and has actually never stopped campaigning for the job that she won for a month before having to give it up to a Democrat.

Six candidates to choose from. Six. What a feast.

Hey, that reminds me of a little show that mother nature put on for me a couple of weeks back in my own neighborhood. There were six of them then, too, as I recall. Half Empty prediction: it’s going to look pretty much like this:

Field of GOP Candidates Who WON’T Run Against Nick Lampson Ever Widens

It’s getting to be a big club: the assemblage of possible Republican challengers to Nick Lampson’s Texas CD-22 House seat, who have decided NOT to do this, just gets bigger and bigger. John Zerwas is the latest to join the club.

It all started way back in January 2006 when Tom DeLay initiated what is coming to be a popular movement in his former district: deciding not to run against Nick Lampson. Recall the Burka story about how Fort Bend County Chairman Eric Thode received a phone call from one of DeLay’s staffers, revealing that Tom was having second thoughts on being the CD-22 GOP candidate in ’06.

What followed were GOP machinations that would have made Machiavelli envious, resulting in DeLay being declared ineligible to run for Congress by Texas state GOP chair Tina Benkiser.

In the circus act that followed, GOP office holders avalanched onto the political stage - all of them vying for the GOP CD-22 nomination. We had, in no particular order:

Paul Bettencourt
Robert Eckels
Andy Meyers
Bob Talton
David Wallace
Shelley Sekula-Gibbs
Charlie Howard
Mike Jackson
Tom Campbell

When the news came down from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, a ruling later upheld by Justice Scalia, that any Republican opposition to Nick Lampson would have to be as a write-in, most of these candidates scattered as ashes to the four winds.

So is it happening again? You be the judge. Of the eight names I have seen mentioned as likely to run against Nick, five are now joining the club started by Tom DeLay, which has been renamed the “I-Won’t-Run-Against-Lampson-Because-Apparently-He’s-Not-Nancy-Pelosi’s-Lapdog Republicans”:

David Wallace – won’t even run for re-election. Fork firmly stuck in him.
Paul Bettencourt – Has kids in school and needs a paycheck so he can’t quit his job.
John Zerwas – Also has a family that he doesn’t want to leave while he is in DC.
Charlie Howard – If Talton’s in Charlies’ out
Larry Taylor – If Talton’s in Larry’s out.

That leaves us with three. Which of the three is least likely to join this growing club? Shelley Sekula Gibbs. She’s in, oh yeah . . .

Which of the three is most likely to join? Bob Talton. He’s crazy but he’s not stupid. If he runs in the Republican primary in March, we have an OPEN SEAT for the state House. An open seat that can easily be changed from Red to Blue. He won by name recognition in ’06; his Democratic opponent needed only another 10% of the vote to win. With no name recognition on the ballot, the race is a toss-up.

All he has to realize is that he would not be running against a Pelosi-controlled marionette, as the other five have, and he’ll see that if he goes for it, he will be personally responsible for the loss of another state House seat with nothing to show for it.

Sweet!

Told Ya So: Bob Talton’s Gonna Run For Congress in TX-22

The Politico has it first, but I’ve been saying for some time now that State Rep Bob Talton wants to be the GOP hero that runs Nick Lampson out of Washington DC.

Here is his campaign website.

Where I had speculation, they have quotes:

"I'm leaning in that direction, but it's not official yet," Talton said.

Talton touted his right-leaning credentials, calling himself "as conservative, if not more" than DeLay. He represents parts of Harris County in the state legislature.

Which makes it really nice. Now we have a field of two who want the Republican candidacy, Crazy Bob Talton and Shelley “She’s So Mean” Sekula Gibbs. Talton is known for his ultra-conservative gay-bashing that rings just slightly gauche in this conservative, but properly conservative district.

Shelley cooked her own goose (or was it turkey?) by showing those 76,924 clueless Republican voters in CD-22, all of those that spun that little dial for her, what a nut case she is when she arrived on the scene, pitched a fit when DeLay’s former staff members didn’t jump when she barked, watched as they walked off, and then demanded a congressional investigation. Hey, we all knew about her and we tried to tell you. You guys just didn’t want to listen.

So who else is in? Well . . . no one so far. We only have people who want out: Paul Bettencourt and David Wallace. That’s not to say that the RNCC isn’t looking under every rock (well, that’s an unfortunate metaphor, isn’t it?) for a “Top Tier” candidate.

Names like Pete Olson (Pete who?), Dean Hrbacek (too many consonants) and state Rep. John “Gas Passer” Zerwas.

Hey RNCC, I keep telling you, you’re missing out on a great candidate. Giannibicego Hoa Tran!

Nuclear Bomb!

What About Bob?

Robert Talton has successfully marginalized himself in the Texas House by opposing Tom Craddick in his bid to a third term as Texas Speaker of the House, and by being the lone Republican to vote against HR 4, the Craddick-requested waiver of the 60-day rule so that bills could be considered on the House floor before March. He was so incensed at his committee assignments that he publicly declared that he would never attend a meeting of the Democrat-dominated Criminal Jurisprudence committee. That he later relented and attended a meeting was no surprise. He made his point, why marginalize himself any more than he already has?

There’s still time until March (or will it be February?) 2008, but I’ll bet that he has already drawn up plans to make a run at the Republican nomination for US Congress to oppose Nick Lampson in 2008. Word has it that he and Paul Bettencourt, the Harris County tax collector are circling around each other trying to figure out who has the longest legs, the prettier face, or can make the longest stream.

Nope, Talton is in. He’s become a thorn in the side of Tom Craddick and has worn out his welcome in the Republican-dominated Texas House. Republicans view Nick Lampson as vulnerable. And this is mainly because Democrats have the same view. Witness the fact that the DCCC already has Nick’s name on their short list to send additional money, men and material to his campaign in 2008 – a Democratic “surge” if you will.

What I like about Bob Talton opposing Nick Lampson in 2008 is that HD 144 is not like CD 22. In 2006 Talton won over his Democratic opponent by 16%, but the demographics of CD 22 are not anywhere near that of CD 22. Talton will have a much harder time convincing voters that he is a moderate. Moderates will be winning in CD 22 for some time to come.

But then stranger things have happened. Some of us remember the 1968 election season when America was presented with “The New Nixon”. A kinder, gentler Tricky Dick. Could it be that Bob Talton’s rift with Tom Craddick, the man he formerly supported, is just the beginning of a newer better version of Bob? “Temperate Talton”?