Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace wants to go to Washington D.C. and he is betting that he can win a write-in campaign to reach that goal. A write-in campaign is difficult at best, and odds are not in his favor, but he is hell-bent on making it happen, and stranger things have occurred in politics, so I’m not counting him out until the political smoke has cleared. By that I mean not only is Wallace up against some serious odds in getting people to the polls and taking the time to “dial a candidate” on the new e-slate voting machines, he is up against the Republican leaders in the Brazoria, Harris and Galveston County sections of District 22.

If he prevails, Republican leaders might want to encourage absentee voting for a write-in candidate. Then the voter can just write in their chosen candidate, whether it is Wallace or the ever popular Mickey Mouse, who always garners some votes in all elections. If voters go to the polls to vote, they will have to set aside time in their already busy schedules to dial each letter of the candidate’s name. What a pain!

Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert kind of set the tone of the District 22 race last week when he endorsed Wallace. Some folks in the other portions of District 22 think Fort Bend County may have developed a Fort Bend vs. the universe stance. After all we had Tom DeLay for nearly 20 years and some in Fort Bend County are determined to keep a home town boy in that position.

Others say Hebert cut off his nose to spite his face by making the endorsement before the Party has spoken. They think his support of Wallace will be his downfall the next time he seeks re-election and has a strong opponent. I personally think he will be OK unless his “one-time” salary boost of nearly 18 percent, which is on the drawing board, turns into a yearly thing. That would be the kind of thing the general population would be adverse to.

The sad thing about this situation is that Republican voters will apparently be completely robbed of their freedom of choice. Since Tom decided to cut and run after he was elected in the primary, the time to resolve all of the legal issues has taken up the better part of the summer that normally would have been used for running an effective campaign, and now the Republican Party is jockeying to pick the “chosen” candidate, voters are pretty much out of the picture until all is finally said and done. It is clear that Fort Bend County is basically up against three other counties in determining who the chosen candidate will be.

There are two candidates that have made it clear they want the job. But now the Republican Party is talking about “recruiting” a third person to be the “official” candidate.