Gordon Quan studies his odds in a DeLay challenge for Congress

• Democrats are wooing term-limited Houston City Councilman Gordon Quan as a possible 2006 challenger to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Quan recently met with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee officials in Washington and admits he finds the idea intriguing. But he also has family and business considerations. "I'm trying to decide whether it's an ego trip or a real calling," he said. Quan, who says he already was eyeing a congressional seat, now lives in the west Houston district represented by Republican John Culberson. Though congressional candidates aren't required to reside in the area they represent, it is a political liability not to. Part of Quan's analysis will be demographic studies of the district — especially of its Asian population. Quan, 56, is of Chinese ancestry. In the 2000 Census, the district was 60 percent Anglo, 20 percent Hispanic, 10 percent black and 10 percent other ethnic groups, including Asian, according to the Texas Legislative Council. DeLay's district encompasses his hometown of Sugar Land, Clear Lake, and parts of Pasadena, League City and Galveston County. DeLay engineered Texas' congressional redistricting that helped some new GOP candidates get elected to Congress by margins of more than 10 percentage points. But it didn't work that way in his newly drawn district, where Democrat Richard Morrison and two other candidates held DeLay to 55 percent. [more]