Help! Mystery in TX-22 (DeLay's old seat) election results--? Election smarties, check in!

[elehhhhna]

Shelly Sekula-Gibbs got more votes in the special election than Lampson got in the General (he kept himself off the Special Election race--it only covers the 2 months left in DeLay's term), and Shelly soundly lost the Gen'l election, in which she was a write-in candidate.

The Vote totals

Special Election, SSG: 76,940.
General Election: Nick Lampson: 76,782 SSG: 61,949

http://207.200.23.22/06novspc.htm
http://207.200.23.22/06novgen.htm?x=0&y=4900&id=769

The explanation that's being floated here re: SSG's differential in vote totals in the Special vs. General election is that Houston Dems voted for her in the Special Election (and voted Lampson in General), thus forcing SSG to quit her term on the Houston City Council so she could serve (and entertain!) us for 7 weeks in Washington. Nifty idea, huh?

I was quick to buy into this idea but my husband's pointed out that persuading several thousand Dem voters to cast votes for Ms. Nutball in a "vast Dem Conspiracy" to boot her from the City Council just sounds & feels hinky.
I also doubt that 15,000 Reep voters "forgot" to write her in for the General Election.

Any experts care to weigh in? What do you make of this?
Thanks.

[OnTheOtherHand]

1. off the top of my head

Most of the folks I was talking with before the election expected Sekula-Gibbs to win the special but lose the general precisely because the write-in process is such a hassle. There were also lots of mordant jokes about the misspellings of her name that would be accepted as valid votes. (Not just that people are bad spellers, although of course they are, but an electronic write-in is a fairly miserable experience on every interface I've seen.)

There could be more to it, but that's why the people I know aren't surprised.

[Pab Sungenis]

2. Well, whatever the cause, she's off to a rip-roaring start.

Shooting her mouth off and alienating her staff. She isn't making any friends, and my guess is she'll be so unpopular in the end that she'd be kryptonite in the 2008 election anyhow.