Thursday, March 09, 2006

DeLay's Primary Victory

Several news organizations have described Tom DeLay's victory with 62 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Republican primary as some sort of triumph or vindication. But no one really expected DeLay to lose a Republican primary. In addition, how does DeLay's performance stack up against other Republican incumbents? Most Texas Republican House members faced no primary opposition. In addition to DeLay, only two other Republican incumbents, Sam Johnson and Ron Paul, managed to draw primary challengers. But both of them did significantly better than DeLay. Johnson got 85 percent of the vote and Paul got 78 percent. I also went back to the 2004 results. In that year, twelve of sixteen Republican faced no primary opposition, including Tom DeLay. Of those facing primaries, the lowest percentage of the vote was 70 percent. That DeLay only managed 62 percent of the vote in a Republican primary is hardly a sign of electoral strength.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Prof. Klinker,

Hindsight is 20/20. There was great glee down here in D.C. on the part of admirers of Ronnie Earle that Delay might be upset in the primary (and some hope by certain Republicans). Here's the test, in this heavily Republican district where he got sub-60% last time, will Delay be ousted by a Democrat in 2006. As John Mcglaphlin says-"Predictions!" I say Delay wins at 52%. He then leaves the House on his own terms.

jjv

Anonymous said...

With stuff like this Delay and Co. will not survive

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joefo said...

I don't care whose terms DeLay leaves on. He just needs to go. His pride in hairsplitting of legal technicalities is nothing less than Clintonian. To have a prayer of maintaining the majority, the Republican members of the House need to turn their backs on this guy's embarrassing legacy.

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