Tom DeLay will drop out of race

According to Time magazine, Tom Delay will not seek reelection and plans on dropping out of congress in May and changing his place of residency to Virginia? Wow, this guy knows how to quit cold turkey.

The money quote:

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."

What does this mean for District 22? It seems like he's going to drop out in May, which would trigger a special election. Lampson will be the only Democrat, but there isn't any word on whether or not Tom Campbell will try again.

Our guess is that there'll be a free-for-all with the Republicans and Independents and just Lampson. Whoever gets the most Republican support will likely be the only one standing to run in the Republican primary against Lampson in November. Boy, this changes things.

It also has an effect on the statewide races. Higher turnout in District 22 could have helped Gov. Rick Perry down the line. Will we have as competitive a race in TX-22 in the fall? Too much speculation right now.

You can get exhaustive coverage from the guys and girls at Burnt Orange Report.

Also, the Astros won tonight. So some of you out there are 1 for 1 and some are 1 for 2.

Update: It seems as though we have some new possibilities. DeLay will run off to Virginia in order to have himself declared unable to run. This allows the Republicans to name a successor (Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace? Campbell?). However, it is also possible that Perry doesn't name anyone and we wait until November. More to come ...