DeLay will fight to get his name off ballot

WASHINGTON — Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay announced Tuesday that he will make whatever moves are necessary to remove his name from the ballot this November, leaving the Republican Party of Texas with no name on the ticket in his district but allowing GOP leaders to back a write-in candidate.

DeLay's decision leaves his party with a difficult write-in campaign to defend the retired politician's Houston-area district in a year when Democrats have a fighting chance to seize control of the House.

"It's a huge uphill battle to win against the circumstances that are in place," said Houston City Council member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a Republican who has been preparing to run for DeLay's seat. "It's difficult to get voters to take a write-in candidate seriously."

Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to take control of the House. On Monday, two Republican districts were thrown into havoc when Rep. Robert Ney of Ohio announced he would not stand for re-election and the Supreme Court refused to intervene on the GOP's behalf to allow Republicans to find a replacement for DeLay on the ballot.

For DeLay, there were no good options. Under indictment in Texas and facing a federal investigation in Washington, the former House Republican leader resigned from the House in June after winning his party's primary. He had hoped to help pick his successor. But successive federal- court rulings backed Texas Democrats, who contended the GOP could not pick a replacement once DeLay had won his primary campaign.

That left DeLay with two choices: Ask the voters to elect him to represent a district he hoped to leave, or force the party to mount a write-in campaign.

DeLay said Tuesday his decision to leave the House, move to suburban Alexandria, Va., and go into business "is irrevocable."

"As a Virginia resident, I will take the actions necessary to remove my name from the Texas ballot. To do anything else would be hypocrisy," he said.

At least two possible candidates, Sekula-Gibbs and Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, had been preparing to jump in if Republicans had prevailed in their efforts to replace DeLay's name on the ballot. Other possible candidates include state Reps. Charlie Howard and Robert Talton.

A Republican successor to DeLay will face significant hurdles, said Amy Walter, a House political analyst at the Cook Political Report. With less than 100 days to go, Republicans have not even begun trying to coalesce around a name to write in. And the Democrat on the ballot, Nick Lampson, is an experienced, former House member with millions of dollars to spend.

Republican efforts to retain Ney's seat in Ohio ran into complications Tuesday as well, when GOP officials said the leading Republican candidate may be ineligible to run. House Republican leaders successfully prevailed upon Ney to drop out of the race rather than hobble into the contest under federal investigation for his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

But their chosen candidate, state Sen. Joy Padgett, may be barred from running by a state law that prohibits politicians who lose one primary from entering another one during the same year. Padgett lost a primary contest earlier this year to stand as her party's nominee for lieutenant governor.

"The net result of all this is more uncertainty, not more clarity," said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report.