Hammer to Get Nailed

From CQ Today (subscription required).

Rep. Tom DeLay, the embattled former House majority leader, has drawn three opponents in the March 7 primary election in Texas’ 22nd District.

According to an unofficial list of candidates the Texas Republican Party said met Monday’s deadline to file for office, DeLay will be challenged for renomination by Pat
Baig, a retired credit manager and teacher; Tom Campbell, a lawyer; and Mike Fjetland, a lawyer who took 17 percent and 20 percent in underfunded primary challenges to DeLay in 2000 and 2002.

DeLay is heavily favored to win renomination for a 12th term. But the primary vote will be an important barometer of any GOP discontent with the incumbent, who relinquished his leadership post Sept. 28, 2005, after he was indicted on conspiracy to violate Texas election law and campaign money laundering charges. DeLay and other Republican officials have portrayed the investigation as politically motivated.

DeLay also faces his most serious Democratic challenge to date in former Rep. Nick Lampson (1997-2005), who was a victim of the 2003 redistricting map that DeLay helped draw to boost GOP representation in Texas and the House after the 2004 elections. The Supreme Court agreed Dec. 12, 2005, to review that map.