October 3, 2007

Cornyn and Gramm Rally Behind Ex-Aide
as GOP Field Swells in U.S. House Contest

Republican Uses Marquee Names to Counter Primary
Foes' Experience as Elected Officials in CD 22 Race

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

The competition for the seat that Tom DeLay used to represent has intensified with a growing cast of Republicans including a state legislator, two former mayors, an ex-U.S. House member and a sitting state judge vying for a shot at Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson next fall.

But in a field that features a half-dozen candidates who've held public offices at the state, federal and local levels, Pete Olson is relying on star power support to make up for the fact that he's one of the few Congressional District 22 contenders who've never had any of the voters as constituents.

Olson has U.S. Senator John Cornyn and predecessor Phil Gramm in his corner as two former employers who've endorsed him for Congress and will help him raise money in his fight for the Republican nomination in a district that the GOP is confident of taking back at the polls next year. Olson said he raised $210,000 during his first 45 days in the race while spending only $30,000 - and he expects to beef up his war chest considerably at an October 28 fundraiser that Gramm plans to attend.

Olson worked in Gramm's Senate office after a nine-year stint as a Navy pilot who flew combat missions over the Persian Gulf - and he served as Cornyn's chief of staff after his election to the upper house of Congress in 2002. Olson's supporters for his CD 22 bid include ex-Houston Congressman Bill Archer, who chaired the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and former state GOP leader George Strake. Olson might be able to expect more active help from Gramm than he gets from Cornyn as the state's junior U.S. senator focuses on a re-election bid in the face of potentially stiff opposition from Democrats.

While the marquee endorsements should give Olson a boost, they're no guarantees of success in a contest as competitive as the GOP field that's shaping up in CD 22. Republicans contend that Lampson won the seat by default when a federal judge refused to let the state GOP replace DeLay on the general election ballot in the wake of his early exit from Congress last summer.

The southeast Texas congressional district had been DeLay's domain for 21 years before he lost his job as majority leader in early 2006 and resigned a few months later under a cloud of criminal charges that he still faces. Without an official Republican nominee, Lampson defeated former Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula Gibbs, who ran as a write-in candidate in the general election at the same time she was winning a special election to fill the final two months of DeLay's term. Lampson took a pass on the special election.

The most recent addition to the list of Republican contenders in CD 22 is John Manlove, who stepped down this week from his job as Pasadena mayor to pursue a congressional bid. Former Sugar Land Mayor Dean Hrbacek is competing in the GOP primary in the U.S. House race as well.

State Rep. Robert Talton, a Pasadena Republican who's been preparing to forego a re-election bid so he can run for Congress instead, will be a formidable force in the crowded primary field as a lawmaker who'd been a hero in the eyes of conservatives for the aggressive leadership he's displayed on issues such as same-sex marriages and gay foster home placements. Talton, who bolted from Speaker Tom Craddick's leadership team at the start of the regular session, can tout his opposition to the House leader as a sign that he'll answer to no one but constituents if elected to Congress next year.

Sekula Gibbs, a physician, is running again after winning and losing the CD 22 seat on the same day less than a year ago. Sekula Gibbs won the special election with 62 percent of the vote in a field that included former Congressman Steve Stockman, two other Republicans and a Libertarian candidate. But she placed second with 42 percent of the vote as a write-in choice on the general election ballot in a race that Lampson won with 52 percent. Lampson had represented a U.S. House district that was dismantled during the 2003 redistricting process that DeLay engineered - after losing a re-election bid in a new district in 2004 - he exacted revenge with the victory in CD 22 last year.

The scramble for the GOP nomination in CD 22 in 2008 also includes State District Judge James Squier, who presides over a family court in Harris County, and Alan Steinberg, a Sugar land resident whose resume includes research positions at the Department of Defense and the Center for Advanced Defense Studies and stints as a reserve sheriff's deputy and emergency planner in Fairfax, Virginia.

While Lampson defied partisan voting trends in the congressional race, Republicans in other races claimed 61 percent of the CD 22 vote in 2006 and higher percentages in previous election cycles when DeLay held the seat.