Texas 22nd Congressional District and Republicans

The Texas 22nd Congressional District is one of the important races going for election in the coming year. Texas 22nd Congressional District covers a south-central portion of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. It includes the cities of Rosenberg and La Marque as well as portions of Missouri City and Pearland, in Fort Bend, Harris, Galveston, and Brazoria counties. The district is now represented by the Democrat Nick Lampson. The Democrat is running for a re-election and is expected to face a tough competition in a heavily Republican constituency. This constituency is known to have played a major role in voting George W. Bush over John Kerry by a 2 to 1 (66%-33%) margin, more than any other district that fell to the Democrats in 2006. Questions are also raised as to the possibility of Nick Lampson running for the next election. This is because the Democrat has had serious health problems, including recent quadruple heart bypass surgery, reinforcing his fitness to run again.
The district takes in several wealthy and conservative suburbs south of Houston, including Sugar Land, Pasadena, Pearland, and the Clear Lake area of Houston. Texas 22nd Congressional District also includes the NASA Johnson Space Center and Ellington Field. Along with Sekula-Gibbs, several other Republicans are running for the seat including former Sugar Land mayor Dean Hrbacek , former Pasadena mayor John Manlove, former John Cornyn Chief of Staff Pete Olson, Family District Judge Jim Squier, State Representative Bob Talton, and NASA contractor Ryan Rowley.
Conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote in May 2007 that he believes there are at least a few House seats that were won by Democrats in 2006 ‘solely because of GOP corruption,’ and that such seats would be ‘the most likely to return to the Republican column in 2008.’ He qualifies this by noting that in previous elections, major House gains by either party have always been followed by losses in the next election. But he says that the presence of the US troops continuing in Iraq can be bad news for the Republicans in Washington.