"The Only Certainty is Infighting"

The Hill has a great big article on outgoing Fort Bend GOP Eric Thode's mailout ballot effort to get opinions of Republican voters in the district on who should be on the ballot to replace DeLay in November. The article focuses on the chaos among Republicans in TX-22 as they all work counter productive to one another with no consensus as to process or candidate.

From the article:

"It is very clearly not a representative sampling of Republicans," said Eric Thode, the chairman of the Fort Bend County GOP. "It's horribly undemocratic, but it's the process we're stuck with."

Fearing that the committee could pick a candidate who doesn't appeal to GOP voters, Thode said he would mail the poll this week to 18,000 Republicans who have cast ballots in the past three GOP primaries in his county.

He said the mailing would cost between $10,000 and $12,000

[---]

Several candidates for DeLay's seat criticized Thode's proposal.

"It strikes me as someone who does not have a lot of faith in the precinct chairs [to communicate] what voters are thinking," said state Rep. Robert Talton (R). "I don't quite understand what he's doing, other than it will favor a candidate from that area."

State Rep. Charlie Howard (R-Texas) said that the poll is not fair to candidates representing areas outside of Fort Bend County and that the scenario is ripe for fraud.

"There are a lot of things that don't make sense," Howard said. "Who is going to count the votes? What's to prevent fraud? What happens if after this goes out and then" another candidate's name comes up?

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a Houston City Council member, also raised concerns.

Others expressed confidence that the precinct chairmen, whom Texas election law has made kingmakers under the current scenario, best reflect the will of the people.

James Woodfill, chairman of the Harris County GOP, said that his precinct chairmen are writing a questionnaire for prospective candidates to answer and that the chairmen will meet next week to interview the candidates.

"The precinct chairs are probably more educated than 99 percent of the voters," Woodfill said.

David Wallace, the mayor of Sugar Land, Texas, in Fort Bend County, disagreed, saying the poll "is a wonderful idea" that ensures voters' voices are heard.

[---]

Meanwhile, it's unclear what role, if any, DeLay is playing to tap his successor and cement a legacy. How DeLay's input, positive or negative, would affect the race is not clear.

"[DeLay] did not encourage or discourage me," Howard said. "He said to me, 'I don't know if my support would hurt or harm you.'"

Each of the five GOP candidates and two party chairmen contacted by The Hill said that DeLay has remained on the sidelines, as he said publicly that he would do. There are 11 Republican candidates in the field.

Shannon Flaherty, DeLay's spokeswoman, said, "He wasn't involved in the race to replace him as majority leader. His legacy, just like his service, will be based on his 20-year record of accomplishments for the district and for the conservative movement."

"I don't think he's going to be endorsing or not endorsing anyone in this first step of the process. My belief he is going to let this process run its course," Wallace said.

But whichever candidate wins the poll, the only certainty is infighting "within and between the counties over who is going to be the one representative and who's going to prevail," said Mike Fjetland, who has run several times against DeLay.

Actually, there were several certainties revealed in the article:

1. Infighting is definitely one.

2. Also, that voters are too dumb to be trusted to pick their candidate. Woodfill comes right out and says the precinct chairs are more educated than 99% of the voters (and good grief, he's talking about Republican voters. Imagine what he would say about Democratic voters? 99.9%?). My goodness, those poor, idiotic primary voters in TX-22 proved that voters can't be allowed to select their GOP congressional candidate. They can't be trusted and we can't trust these people mailing in Thode's ballots either.

3. As always, Shannon Flaherty is the voice of reason AND maturity. (She appears to be all of 18 years old in photos I've seen of her.) DeLay has a legacy. He has accomplishments. The problem is his legacy has to do with running our constitution into the ground and his accomplishments veer towards embarrassing his country and the constituents in his district.