---

AP, via the New York Times, USA
Apr. 9, 2008
www.nytimes.com

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 21105 • Posted: Wednesday April 9, 2008  

---

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Jackie Speier, who as a Congressional aide nearly 30 years ago was shot and left for dead on a Guyana airstrip, won a special election Tuesday for the House seat once held by her former boss.

A former California state lawmaker, Ms. Speier had nearly 78 percent of the vote with 71 percent of the precincts reporting in a five-way race.

The district had been represented for the last 27 years by Representative Tom Lantos, a Democrat who died in February.

Ms. Speier’s former boss, Representative Leo J. Ryan, was killed in on Nov. 18, 1978, on a fact-finding trip looking into the cult led by Jim Jones. Ms. Speier was seriously wounded. More than 900 cult members committed suicide or were slain.

She lost a special election to succeed Mr. Ryan but has represented much of the area as a San Mateo County supervisor, assemblywoman and state senator.

In a runoff in the Houston area for the Republican nomination for Tom DeLay’s old Congressional seat, Pete Olson, a former Senate aide defeated a former city councilwoman, Shelley Sekula Gibbs. Mr. Olson, a favorite of Republicans like his former boss Senator John Cornyn, had 68 percent of the vote to Ms. Sekula Gibbs’s 31 percent in complete but unofficial returns.

He will run against Representative Nick Lampson, a Democrat in his first term, in the traditionally Republican district.

In the race to replace the Harris County district attorney, who resigned amid controversy, Pat Lykos, a former police officer and judge defeated Kelly Siegler, a flamboyant prosecutor, for the Republican nomination. Mr. Lykos had 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Ms. Siegler.

The Democratic nominee is Clarence Bradford, a former Houston police chief.

The former district attorney, Charles A. Rosenthal Jr., quit after he admitted in federal court that he had deleted up to 3,500 personal e-mail messages in violation of two subpoenas and a court order and that in sworn testimony he had given false information on how he came to delete some of them. Hundreds of Mr. Rosenthal’s other e-mail messages included endearments to his executive secretary, sexual and racist jokes and pornographic videos.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Peoples Temple Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Peoples Temple Read Another Article Previous entry: Canada: Top court must decide polygamy issue, government told Next entry: Suburban Santeria priest appealing animal slaughter ban RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Peoples Temple Most Popular Today I know the dark side of Scientology…I almost lost my friend when she became obsessed with it Church of Scientology told to drop Churchill images

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.