07:12 PM CDT on Sunday, July 9, 2006

By Mike Zientek / 11 News

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Many people are wondering about Tom DeLay’s political future. Voters wonder how it’s possible to vote for someone who may not want to run.

KHOU-TV

Some younger Sugar Land residents said the issue with Tom DeLay's candidacy has soured them on politics.

On Sunday, Sugar Land residents visit the town square go to church and talk about politics. Specifically, they talk about Tom DeLay.   

A federal judge has ruled he must run as the House Republican candidate from their district even though he’d bowed out of the race.

“They know no one’s gonna vote for him after what happened,” said District 22 resident Holly Gindy.

“If he needs to take off, just take it off.  It shouldn’t be any problem. If he doesn’t want him to run, you can’t force him to run,” said resident Rico Abdalla.

Both parties are blaming the plague of partisanship with DeLay calling out Nick Lampson,  the Democratic candidate.

“This is about the people of the 22^nd District having a choice, and unfortunately a Democrat from Beaumont doesn’t want to open the ballot,” said DeLay.

“What we’ve been saying throughout this lawsuit, is that the primary race that was ran back in march needs to be honored. The will of the voters in that congressional district needs to be honored,” said  Chad Dunn, Democratic Party counsel.

But some in District 22 want to know where the honor is.

Younger voters in Sugar Land said the saga has soured them on the entire political process.

“Someone’s being forced to run, doesn’t want to run. If you’re not interested, you’re gonna lose even more interest,” said Gindy, “After that, to me it doesn’t really matter. Not any more at least.”

The head of Harris County’s Republican party summed it up this way,

“Well I think ultimately everybody knew this was gonna be decided by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals”, said Jared Woodfill.

The Republican party’s attorney in this case says he hopes the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals can act quickly.

He’d like to have its decision by the end of this month.