No special election

Not too surprisingly, Governor Perry decided that he won't call a special election before the regular November election once DeLay resigns. That means that the November ballot in CD22 will feature two elections: the special election and the regular election.

Here's an interesting scenario: assuming the Republican nominee wins the November election, but the special election goes into a runoff. Will the state have to spend a few million holding a special election runoff even though only it would only be weeks or days left in the unexpired term. Even if the state doesn't have to hold a special runoff**, mightn't it be a good idea to hold a special election? Whoever wins the special election will be ahead in seniority of the entire 2006 freshman class. That extra seniority could easily be worth a few million to Texas and CD22 over a congressional tenure.

**My guess is that the state is required to hold a runoff for the special election, even if it means rushing the runoff. However, it's not important enough for me to spend time researching the law.