01:07 PM CST on Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Associated Press

HOUSTON -- A brawling three-way Republican primary is getting under way for the congressional seat held by embattled U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.

DeLay is already campaigning against former Democratic U.S. Rep.  Nick Lampson. But his campaign isn’t exactly ignoring the two opponents in the March primary, calling one a joke and questioning whether the other is even a Republican.

AP

Michael Fjetland, a lawyer with his own international practice, filed Friday to enter the GOP primary in his fourth try at unseating DeLay. Pat Baig, a former teacher and political newcomer, said she plans to file papers soon but has already begun campaigning.

DeLay, the former House Majority leader who is expected to stand trial next year on charges of money laundering in a campaign finance scheme, usually campaigns quietly without much concern for his re-election in a solidly Republican district.

But this year, with national Democrats backing Lampson, DeLay has made a bigger splash with his campaign, inviting Vice President Dick Cheney to headline a recent fund-raiser.

DeLay has been rocked not only by criminal charges, but the Supreme Court’s decision Monday to review the Texas congressional redistricting plan he engineered. And a recent poll showed that 53 percent of voters in his Houston-area 22^nd Congressional District would vote for someone other than DeLay if the general election were held today.

Fjetland was roundly defeated in the 2000 and 2002 GOP primaries. He ran as an independent in 2004 and earned 1.3 percent of the vote.

“I had decided against it (earlier this year) because he was doing his job and paying attention to his district, but the indictment changed everything,” said Fjetland, who has been a consultant for a local Fox television station on terrorism issues.

Fjetland, 55, said his previous losses were part of the process of increasing his name recognition and funding. Fjetland said he was already raising far more money than in his previous campaigns but he declined to say how much.

Baig, who has been involved in anti-DeLay protests in the district, she entered the race because “it’s time we had a good debate in this district. We’re ready for a change.”

Baig said she hasn’t voted in a Republican primary in about 30 years because her husband’s work in the oil business has kept them overseas, in remote areas where access to an absentee ballot was difficult.

The retired special education teacher said, however, that she considers herself a lifelong Republican who wants to focus on education and veterans issues.

The 3-day-old primary already is a brawl.

Fjetland charged that Baig “doesn’t have a snowball’s chance”

in the race because he said her husband was Muslim. “When people hear that, they’ll just cringe,” he said.

Baig declined to discuss her husband’s religion and said, “Michael has crossed the line. I don’t see what his religion has to do with anything.”

DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty dismissed Fjetland as “delusional” and a “joke.” Of Baig, Flaherty noted she was a newcomer to Republican politics.

“You can put elephant ears and a trunk on her, but it doesn’t make her a Republican,” she said.