Appeals court keeps DeLay on Texas ballot

AUSTIN, Texas – The court fight to take Tom DeLay, the indicted former House majority leader, off the November ballot in Texas will be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, Republican officials said Thursday.

The announcement came hours after a federal appeals court panel refused to allow the Texas Republican Party to replace DeLay, who won the GOP nomination to run for re-election in the March primary election and then changed his mind. His about-face, some political observers believe, was influenced by polls showing he might lose his suburban Houston congressional district to a Democrat.

DeLay is under indictment in Austin on charges of money laundering and conspiracy relating to illegal corporate donations allegedly being funneled to Texas legislative campaigns in 2002. DeLay resigned from Congress in June and declared his condominium in Arlington, Va., his primary residence so the Texas Republican Party could declare him ineligible to run for the 22nd Congressional District seat. His wife, Christine, still lives in their home in Sugar Land, Texas.

The state Republican Party’s subsequent attempt to replace DeLay on the ballot was challenged by the Texas Democratic Party, whose lawyers claim the action violated state law and the Constitution and was an attempt to remove a weakened GOP candidate from the field.

The Texas Democratic Party won its case in U.S. District Court in Austin and Republican officials appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans.

On Thursday, a panel of three 5th Circuit judges affirmed the lower court ruling, saying that the Texas ineligibility statute was unconstitutionally applied by the state GOP, and that state Republican chairwoman Tina Benkiser failed to meet the standards of the statute “because the public records did not conclusively establish DeLay’s ineligibility” to run for re-election.

James Bopp, attorney for the Texas Republican Party, said he would file an expedited appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, which is in recess until Oct. 1 but which does review emergency applications during this period.

Cris Feldman, an attorney representing the Texas Democratic Party, said that the only question regarding DeLay’s eligibility to run for office is where he will be living on Nov. 7, Election Day.

Former congressman Nick Lampson is the Democratic nominee for the 22nd Congressional District.