Politics

DeLay Defeats Three In Primary Race

March 7, 2006 / 8:50 AM EST / CBS/AP

Rep. Tom DeLay won the GOP nomination to the House on Tuesday, beating three challengers in his first election since he was indicted and forced to step aside as majority leader.

With 88 percent of precincts reporting, the former House Majority Leader had 19,765 votes, or 62 percent. His closest challenger, environmental attorney Tom Campbell, had 9,637 votes, or 30 percent.

"I have always placed my faith in the voters, and today's vote shows they have placed their full faith in me," DeLay said in a statement. "Not only did they reject the politics of personal destruction, but they strongly rejected the candidates who used those Democrat tactics as their platform."

And while victory was sweet, the celebration was strictly a Washington affair, as DeLay voted in Texas and then flew back to D.C. for a campaign fundraiser hosted by Bill Paxon and Susan Molinari, lobbyists who used to be members of Congress.

DeLay, 58, was indicted last year and is awaiting trial on charges he illegally funneled corporate donations to GOP candidates for the Texas House in 2002. The Republicans won a majority in the Legislature that year, and then pushed through a congressional redistricting plan engineered by DeLay that sent more Republicans to Washington in 2004.

DeLay has also come under scrutiny over his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud in January and is cooperating in an investigation of influence-peddling on Capitol Hill. DeLay traveled with Abramoff and other lobbyists to Scotland in 2000. He also used the lobbyist's skybox for a donor appreciation event and has accepted contributions from Abramoff and his clients.

DeLay has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has labeled the Texas investigation a political witch hunt.

Tuesday's contest was DeLay's first serious primary challenge in the 22 years since he took office.

Campbell, a lawyer who was general counsel for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration during the first Bush administration, was considered the front-runner among DeLay's Republican challengers, who also included Mike Fjetland and Pat Baig. Campbell portrayed himself as a man of integrity and branded DeLay "unelectable."

The Democratic nominee in the fall will be Nick Lampson, a well-financed former congressman ousted from office in 2004 under the new congressional map engineered by DeLay. Lampson had no primary opponent Tuesday.

DeLay "gets headlines for all the wrong reasons," Lampson said Tuesday. "I'm looking forward to that headline on November 8th: 'No Further DeLay."'

In other Texas races:

At least two veterans of the Iraq war are running for Congress from Texas. David T. Harris, a Democrat, is expected to take on Rep. Joe Barton in November, and Van Taylor, a Republican, won the nomination Tuesday to go up against Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards in the Crawford-area district that includes the Bush ranch.

In another congressional contest, freshman Rep. Henry Cuellar won a rematch with Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, who served seven years on Capitol Hill before losing to Cuellar in 2004. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Cuellar had 23,546 votes, or 53 percent, to Rodriguez's 18,217 votes, or 41 percent. With no Republican running in the district, the winner will take the seat. Texas law mandates a runoff if no candidate gets 50.

A former Democratic congressman from Houston won the right to challenge Republican Gov. Rick Perry - in a state in which the GOP holds every statewide office. Chris Bell prevailed over Bob Gammage, a former Texas Supreme Court justice who jumped into the race in December after a decade out of politics. Perry meanwhile won his primary easily, collecting 85 percent of the vote against three little-known opponents.

Bell and Perry both face potential competition from independent candidates: wisecracking singer Kinky Friedman and Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is the mother of White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

Strayhorn, who calls herself "one tough grandma," got elected comptroller as a Republican but is running for governor as an independent, avoiding a primary against the popular Perry. She is the mother of White House press secretary Scott McClellan. Friedman is a cigar-chomping cowboy musician whose backup group on the road was called the Texas Jewboys.