Word: districters
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...been a tempestuous few years for the voters of Texas' 22nd Congressional District, the once solid conservative home of the much loved/much reviled (take your pick) former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay. After years of bringing home the bacon for voters in bow tie-shaped district south of Houston, DeLay, under a cloud of ethics allegations and still-unresolved criminal charges, abandoned his seat mid-election in 2006, leading to a Republican succession battle that resembled a circular firing squad. Out from the smoke came Nick Lampson, a moderate Democrat who had been drawn out of his old neighboring congressional...
...current Texas Senator John Cornyn. Republican heavyweights including President George W. Bush, Gov. Mitt Romney and popular conservative Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have stood shoulder to shoulder with Olson at campaign appearances and fundraisers as he rails against Lampson as a closet liberal out of step with the district's conservative voters. Meanwhile, the Democrats have poured money into Lampson re-election efforts-the latest numbers from the Federal Election Commission showed him with about $900,000 on hand, roughly triple what Olson has left. A poll released this week by Zogby International gave the clear advantage to Olson...
Thanks to DeLay's machinations, the political ironies in the district rise as high as Ike's storm surge. In the former majority leader's redrawing of the Texas map, he pulled the Johnson Space Center and NASA, a pork-rich environment, into District 22. And after winning DeLay's old seat, the Democratic leadership restored Lampson seniority based on his four terms representing his old adjacent district, which had been dismantled by DeLay. That led to Lampson serving on three committees vital to the district-agriculture, science and technology, and transportation- which helped him win the endorsement...
...only debate of the campaign, Olson chided Lampson for talking conservative at home and voting like a liberal in Washington. It is a message Republicans have used with some success against blue dog Texas Democrats in the past, and it would seem likely to resonate in a district that is still around 55% Republican and voted 64% for President Bush in 2004. But DeLay sacrificed some conservatives to scoop up NASA and to boost Republican chances in other districts, leading some Texas observers to suggest those adjustments and a boom in the number of minority middle class voters...
...22nd's growing suburban areas southwest of Houston, around DeLay's old home base, Sugarland. Murray said. Asians, many of them professional and small businessowners with roots in India and Vietnam, are becoming an important force in local elections, particularly in Fort Bend County, the heart of the district where the sugar fields are giving way to suburban growth. Asian political participation has grown tenfold since 2006, and some 30,000 cast ballots in this year's Democratic primary, evidence of the appeal Barack Obama has among the district's ethnic minorities. Asians make up about 5% of the voting...