Elections for Texas, Calif. House Seats

By KELLEY SHANNON

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An ex-Senate aide defeated a former city councilwoman in a runoff election Tuesday as Houston-area Republicans chose a nominee for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's old congressional seat.

Pete Olson overpowered Shelley Sekula Gibbs with 68 percent of the vote to her 31 percent in unofficial, complete returns. The winner will face first-term Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson. Sekula Gibbs got the most votes in March in the 10-candidate Republican field.

Sekula Gibbs, a former Houston City Council member, temporarily held the office after DeLay resigned his congressional seat in 2006 following his indictment in a Texas campaign finance case. Olson is a former aide to U.S. Sens. Phil Gramm and John Cornyn.

In the race for district attorney of Harris County, which includes Houston, Pat Lykos, a former police officer and judge, defeated Kelly Siegler, a flamboyant prosecutor, with 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent to gain the Republican nomination.

Chuck Rosenthal resigned as district attorney amid a contempt of court charge and a scandal involving racist, pornographic and political e-mails found on his county computer. Some were sent by Siegler's husband, physician Sam Siegler. Kelly Siegler attempted to distance herself from the e-mails but took heat for her unorthodox, rule-bending courtroom style.

Lykos, who says the office needs a leader who's not connected to the scandals, will face Democrat C.O. Bradford, a former Houston police chief whom Rosenthal once charged with perjury. Bradford was accused of lying under oath about the chastising of a subordinate, but a judge summarily acquitted him after prosecutors laid out their case.

In Austin, two Democrats competed to become the successor to longtime Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, whose office houses a public integrity unit that investigates alleged corruption in state government.

Candidate Rosemary Lehmberg defeated opponent Mindy Montford with 65 percent of the vote to 35 percent. Both are assistants to Earle. Earle's office brought the charges against DeLay, who maintains his innocence and claims the case against him is politically motivated.

"The people in Austin want their district attorney to have Austin values," Lehmberg said after her victory. She's expected to take office next year, becoming the first woman to hold the job, because there is no Republican running.

In a Democratic congressional runoff in Dallas, Eric Roberson defeated Steve Love in District 32 to become the nominee to run against incumbent Republican Rep. Pete Sessions.

In California, former legislator Jackie Speier was leading in early returns Tuesday to win a special election for the House seat once held by Rep. Tom Lantos before his death in February.

Speier had about 77 percent of the vote after early absentee ballots and 15 percent of precincts had been counted in San Mateo and San Francisco counties. She would win the seat outright and avoid a runoff election if she gets more than 50 percent of the vote.

Leo Ryan held the seat in 1978, when he was killed while on a fact-finding trip looking into the Jim Jones cult in Guyana. Speier, also on the trip as an aide to Ryan, was seriously wounded before Jones and 912 of his followers died in a mass murder-suicide.

Speier, a 57-year-old Democrat, has since represented much of the area within the 12th Congressional District as a San Mateo County supervisor, assemblywoman and state senator.

Democrat Michelle McMurry, Republicans Greg Conlon and Mike Moloney and Green Party candidate Barry Hermanson also are in the running to finish Lantos' term.

Associated Press writer Samantha Young in Sacramento, Calif., contributed to this report.

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