Constituents Look to Fill Void in District

By Andrea Stone

SUGAR LAND, Texas — Like him or not — and voters in Tom DeLay’s suburban Houston district do both — there seemed to be a shared feeling here Tuesday that it’s just as well the troubled 11-term Republican congressman is moving on.

On the day DeLay announced he will leave Congress amid charges he laundered political money, his constituents seemed split about his guilt but resigned to his future.

At the America Buffet in nearby Stafford, onetime DeLay supporter Judy Karnika, 49, called his resignation “pretty close to an admission of guilt.”

Rabbi Stuart Federow, 53, of Clear Lake is an admirer of DeLay’s “morality and ethics” who said the former House majority leader may not be guilty of wrongdoing. But, he added, “it reaches a point where for the good of the people and the good of the party, you have to step aside, even if you’re innocent.”

DeLay maintains his innocence, even as a lobbying scandal has enveloped former staffers. As he leaves to devote himself to his defense and to what he says will be an attempt to bolster the conservative cause from outside Congress, it is unclear whether he will still be a factor in this fall’s pivotal battle for control of the House of Representatives.

Gov. Rick Perry is expected to call a special election to fill DeLay’s term, said Eric Thode, Republican chairman of Fort Bend County in DeLay’s 22nd Congressional District. That contest, which could include a dozen candidates, is likely to be “a circus act that’s totally irrelevant,” Thode said.

All eyes, instead, will be on whom a committee of local GOP leaders chooses to face former Democratic congressman Nick Lampson on the November ballot.

Thode said DeLay’s departure — after polls showed only a narrow lead over his Democratic challenger — makes the race “100% easier” for a Republican successor in a “hard-core” Republican district. “The bogeyman is gone,” Thode said. “This is Nick Lampson’s worst nightmare.”

Lampson disagreed, insisting his campaign has never been about just DeLay.

“The names will change, but the issues are going to remain the same,” he said.

Republican redistricting might benefit Lampson. To help other Texas Republicans, DeLay diluted the Republican Party’s grip on his own district. An influx of minorities also has altered the district’s makeup, making it friendlier to Democrats. Add Lampson’s $2.5 million campaign war chest advantage over any late-starting Republican, and Democrats have a chance to pick up the seat, said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

“The fact is, Republicans in that district are chagrined and embarrassed by DeLay and all of his ethical problems,” Jillson said. “Whoever they put up will have an uphill fight.”

Among Republican contenders are Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace and lawyer Tom Campbell, who came in second to DeLay in last month’s GOP primary.

Jillson said Wallace is the favorite of party leaders, but he doubts Wallace can make the leap from mayor of a small suburb to running “in a very closely watched race where you’re going to have to come up with several million dollars” to win. Wallace could not be reached for comment.

Most callers Tuesday on DJ Sam Malone’s show on Houston’s KTRH-AM radio were “dancing” over DeLay’s fall, Malone said.

Not everyone was celebrating. “He was too powerful in Congress, and there needed to be a scapegoat,” Sandra Voughal, 47, a Sugar Land homemaker, said as she sat at a bookstore cafe. “He’s a very savvy person, but I think he recognized his day was over.”

(c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.