SUGAR LAND, Texas, March 8, 2006
DeLay Defeats Three In Primary Race
Embattled Texan Says Win Is Rejection Of Politics Of Destruction
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Tom DeLay votes 'yes': the embattled Texan and former House Majority Leader (left) casts his vote in Tuesday's primary election, at Clements High School in Houston. (Carlos Antonio Rios) (AP/HoustonChronicle)
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Always fun to win, even without an opponent: Nick Lampson (right), the Democrat who'll face Tom DeLay in the November election, celebrates on primary night in Sugar Land, Texas, March 7, 2006. (AP)
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No hand left unshaken: Rep. Tom DeLay, seen here chatting up voters on their way to a polling station in Houston, kept on campaigning right through Election Day. (Carlos Antonio Rios) (AP/HoustonChronicle)
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Interactive DeLay's Dilemma Here's a look at the career and the woes of the former House majority leader.
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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:
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.
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