The contrast could not be sharper. Tom DeLay's spacious campaign headquarters sits in a perfectly manicured subdivision of suburbia, just down the street from the local golf club. His Democratic opponent, Nick Lampson, can muster only a cramped two-room office in a nondescript shopping centre a few blocks away from NASA's sprawling space centre. In 2004, Mr DeLay, then the House majority leader, coasted home with 55% of the vote. But this year's battle looks a nail-biter. Mr DeLay is mired in ethical swamps in both Austin, where he faces charges of campaign-finance wrongdoing, and Washington, DC, where his associates are embroiled in the Abramoff scandal. A recent poll by the Houston Chronicle gives him a woeful 28% approval rating in his own district. If the election were held today, just 22% of registered voters would cast their ballot for the Hammer against 30% for Mr Lampson, according to the poll.
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