SInce the beginning of the CD22 saga last April, when Ton Delay announced his impending resignation, there has been one candidate who I have considered a joke. His name is Donald Richardson, and he is a retired Major who made a career in the Air Force. He'll tell you that at every opportunity, like he believes it makes him somehow superior to the rest of the candidates who sought the GOP nomination. He spend a lot of time talking about honor and honesty and integrity. He also admitted that he had not voted Republican in years. Frankly, most of us involved in the process considered the man to be a joke.

I finally began to gain some respect for Richardson when he came to the August 17 GOP meeting that selected Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. He spoke well and sincerely. Most importantly, he agreed to withdraw his write-in candidacy in favor of the choice of the precinct chairs if he was not chosen.

Well, guess what -- DON RICHARDSON IS A LIAR.

In yet another surprise in the race for Congressional District 22, there will be two Republican write-in candidates running against Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither.

On Tuesday – the deadline for withdrawing or registering as a write-in – Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs traveled to Austin to file her papers, as expected.

But unexpectedly, by the end of the day former Republican congressional candidate and Houston businessman Don Richardson did not ask the Texas Secretary of StateÂ’s office to remove his name as a write-in candidate.

The move threatens to further confuse voters in what has already been an extremely complicated congressional campaign. And having two GOP write-in candidates in the race may jeopardize funding from national Republican Party sources.

Contacted at his home Tuesday night, Richardson said he is still in the race despite telling GOP officials and precinct chairs at an Aug. 17 gathering in Pearland that he would drop out.

At that meeting, some 83 precicnt chairs in CD-22 voted to support Sekula-Gibbs as an unofficial Republican write-in candidate, and party officials urged other GOP candidates – including Richardson and Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace – to withdraw from the race.

At the Pearland gathering, Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser “got up and said the Republican National Committee would put up $4 million if and only if” there were a single write-in candidate in the race, Richardson said.

In that case, he said, he would withdraw and allow Sekula-GibbsÂ’ campaign to benefit from the funding.

But the next morning, he called an official at the RNC in Washington, D.C. “I said put it in writing” that $4 million would be available to the single GOP candidate running as a write-in against Lampson, Richardson said.

He didnÂ’t hear back. On Friday, Richardson said, he sent a fax to RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, to the RNC official to whom heÂ’d originally spoken, and to Benkiser.

“I said look, if you’ll put it in writing about the $4 million and refund my campaign expenses…I will withdraw,” Richardson said. “I haven’t heard from anybody. So my name is still on the ballot.”

In other words, after telling the precinct chairs he would withdraw, he decided to add conditions and ultimatums to his promise. That is the sign of a man who is dishonest, dishonorable, and a disgrace to the uniform in which he served. Indeed, is character has significantly more in common with that of Tom DeLay than he would care to admit -- he has placed his own ego above the good of the voters of CD22 and the Republican Party. I'd argue that he has proven what many of us have suspected from the beginning of this process -- that he is a political opportunist whose record shows that he is not now a epublican and has not been one for years.

To borrow a phrase from an earlier era, Don Richardson is a miserable poltroon.

Posted by: Greg at 02:25 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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