Kos asks if there will be a special election to fill DeLay’s seat. In my earlier post, I explained in detail that if DeLay moves out of state and becomes ineligible for office now, the governor can call a special election. But the winner of that election would only serve out the rest of DeLay’s remaining term. If the winner of the special election (which is subject to a majority vote rule with a runoff if necessary) is a Republican, presumably the Republican party will name that special election winner to fill the vacancy in the November general election. If a Democrat runs and wins the special election, the Democrat would serve only until the end of DeLay’s current term. Whether or not that Democrat is Nick Lampson, Lampson is the one who already has the Democratic nomination to run in the general election in November. If Lampson won the special, Republicans would name someone else to run against him in the general.
Given these complications, why doesn’t DeLay simply serve out the rest of his term and not run for reelection? I suspect the reason is that Republicans think they have an advantage in producing a winner from the special election, which is subject to a majority vote requirement (meaning there will be a runoff if no candidate in the first round gets 50% of the vote).