Please help shut down the GOP spin that the DeLay case was about keeping

[Czolgosz]

Tom DeLay on the ballot, as is often misreported.

Neither the Democratic Party's petition, nor Judge Sam Sparks's opinion (http://www.lonestarproject.net/files/sparks.pdf ), nor the Fifth Circuit opinion (http://www.lonestarproject.net/files/delayopinion.pdf ) sought or required Tom DeLay to stay on the ballot.

The suit was to prevent the Republican Party of Texas from violating the Constitution and the Texas Election Code by taking the candidate selection process away from the primary voters and giving the voters' right and authority to a far-right-wing insider group within the Republican Party of Texas.

This fight is about the Republican Party of Texas trying to steal the voters' right to select the candidate through the party primary process. No one (not even the Republicans or even Tom Delay himself) wants Tom DeLay on the ballot. We merely want to stop Tom DeLay and the Republican Party of Texas from assuming that the Constitution and laws of Texas don't apply to them. We merely want them to follow to Constitution and Texas law, which forbids a party from hand-picking a ballot replacement when the candidate waits until after the parties' primaries to withdraw.

Please correct people who repeat Republican talking points by erroneously claiming that our fight against the illegal Republican ballot scheme was a fight to keep Tom DeLay on the ballot. We have never objected to his withdrawal, just his illegal and unconstitutional replacement.