AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he won'’t call an emergency special election to replace resigning Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, meaning candidates for the suburban Houston congressional seat will have to wait for the November election.
Rep. DeLay, who is under indictment in Texas on charges of criminal conspiracy and money laundering, announced this week that he will resign sometime before mid-June.
"“If I don'’t get [DeLay'’s letter of resignation] by close of business tomorrow, the election will be in November," Perry said Thursday.
Gov. Perry has the authority to call an emergency special election anytime or wait for the next uniform election date, which is May 13. Rep. DeLay would have to resign this week for a May election. After that, the next election date is Nov. 7.
So it is up to Tom DeLay to submit his resignation to Gov. Perry before the end of business day Friday. Which brings up an interesting point--Will DeLay submit his resignation to allow Perry to call for the special election? If DeLay does submit his resignation, this certainly allows Perry to call the special election, and it allows the Republicans to choose a replacement candidate for the November elections. There are plenty of Republicans that have expressed an interest in DeLay's seat, as I've posted here. A second option would be to allow a committee of select precinct chairmen from the four counties in the 22nd District to replace DeLay. And anyone these chairmen would select is certainly going to work at getting re-elected.
So there is some strategizing going on here. The question I have is what is DeLay going to do about his congressional seat? How does he plan on maintaining the control of his seat within the Republican Party, and perhaps within his own influence?
It is going to be an interesting Friday.
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