White guy wins after leading voters to believe he’s black

[Courtesy Flush]

HOUSTON -- Dave Wilson chuckles as he talks about his unorthodox political campaign.
"I'd always said it was a long shot," Wilson says. "No, I didn't expect to win."
Still, he figured he'd have fun running, because he was fed up with what he called "all the shenanigans" at the Houston Community College System. As a conservative white Republican running in a district whose voters are overwhelmingly black Democrats, the odds seemed overwhelmingly against him.
Then he came up with an idea, an advertising strategy that his opponent found "disgusting." If a white guy didn't have a chance in a mostly African-American district, Wilson would lead voters to think he's black.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/White-guy-wins-after-leading-voters-to-believe-hes-black-231222981.html

[BlueToTheBone]

1. That is dispicable. A true republican

liar cheat thief and thinks it's all fine because the ends justify the means.

[Fuddnik]

2. Kind of like Republicans convincing people they're Democrats.

Hello Third-Way.

[baldguy]

3. Or libertarians trying to convince people thery're liberals.

Hello Glenn Greenwald & Ed Snowden.

[RC]

5. No, they didn't.

You just want people think that they did.
But, whatever. What Edward Snowden did do, needed to be done and he did it for the correct reasons. The NSA represents major corruption in our government and it is a good thing it is being exposed to the world. Otherwise how would we know how bad we are being screwed over?

[dsc]

11. put up or shut up

do you have any link from any where at any time in which Snowden claims to be a liberal? If you do, fine, then I apologize for the tone of this post. But if you don't, then I think my point is made.

[baldguy]

13. Show me a link where Third-Way Democrats like Bill Clinton & Obama show themselves to be Republicans

Put up or shut up.

[dsc]

14. I never, as in not one single solitary time, said they did

so no I won't be doing that. In point of fact I worked for and voted for both of them twice. But the fact is you said, and I quote, that Snowden claimed to be a liberal. I would like a link or a retraction.

[baldguy]

17. The post I was replying to did.

And the fact that you attacked me instead of that poster implies you agree with that post saying Third-way Democrats are really Republicans.

Now are you going to apologize to me, or are you going to accept the delusional RW libertarian meme that the people you voted for - and that the majority of Democrats voted for - are really Republicans in disguise?

[dsc]

18. Were the words Obama or Clinton in there?

or are you just making crap up? Inquiring minds want to know.

[baldguy]

19. The "Hello Third-Way" comment made it clear.

The poster is saying you voted for Republicans. Why are you attacking me? I'm not the one insulting nearly everyone on DU.

[Mojorabbit]

27. +100 nt

[Gothmog]

4. I saw this on the local news

This guy is a jerk

[Historic NY]

6. They made a movie about this........

with Eddie Murphy.

[IronLionZion]

7. For lots of local elections, folks don't know jack about the candidates

I sure as hell don't. So I don't want to judge the voters who should have googled him before voting. But damn, that is quite a story.

[warrior1]

8. can he be recalled?

[JRLeft]

9. The voters deserve to get screwed voting without information.

[aaaaaa5a]

10. Agreed. At some point voters have to take

More responsibility in their community.


To me, this is no different than poor white rural people who work at Walmart and vote GOP because they believe the ACA is evil.


I think with some voters we have reached a point where if they are not going to bother to care enough to research issues before voting..... SO BE IT!

[LittleBlue]

15. Yep

That's why I leave blank the races I know nothing about.

How does someone vote for a candidate about whom he/she knows nothing? Shows what a joke "our democracy" is.

[hughee99]

16. A good example here of the "low-information voter". n/t

[Nine]

12. He lied, plain and simple.

He claimed to have been endorsed by a known figure, but it was just someone else with the same name. Putting in fine print that so-and-so is your cousin is not the same as disclosing that so-and-so is not the famous person that the vast majority of recipients will assume is being referenced. I believe what he did is illegal.

One of his mailers said he was "Endorsed by Ron Wilson," which longtime Houston voters might easily interpret as a statement of support from a former state representative of the same name who's also African-American. Fine print beneath the headline says "Ron Wilson and Dave Wilson are cousins," a reference to one of Wilson's relatives living in Iowa.

"He's a nice cousin," Wilson says, suppressing a laugh. "We played baseball in high school together. And he's endorsed me."

[JRLeft]

20. You have to check for yourself.

[Nine]

21. This attempt to blame the victims is sickening and racist.

When I get a political mailer about a candidate "endorsed by Sherrod Brown" I expect that endorsement to have come from the senator, not from your mailman who happens to share a name. If the mailer says "endorsed by Democratic Party," I should be able to assume it's not your cousin who has changed her name to "Democratic Party" in order to fool people.

There was nothing clever about what this guy did, it's just the usual Republican dirty tricks like when they go into mostly black neighborhoods and spread misinformation about voting procedures.

The fact that this guy put "he's my cousin" in small print under the endorsement shows that he knew the endorsement was misleading and he was trying to cover himself. But that fine print did not accomplish that because people could have simply assumed the candidate was related to the well-known political figure.

[kcr]

22. Agreed. Sickening and racist.

Awful to see it here on DU. Shameful.

[Nine]

25. Next thing we'll be seeing suggestions to make voters take literacy tests. (nt)

[hrmjustin]

23. The shame is there is nothing they can do about it until the next election.

[onethatcares]

24. Oh, they can do something

about it before the next election.

The constituents should show up at Dave Wilsons office, every day, in numbers. They should march around outside of said office with signs saying, "Dave Wilson is the best thing that ever happened to people of color" &"I LUV DAVE WILSON"

Everytime a bill or resolution that comes up affecting them, they should write letters to the editor saying how Dave Wilson holds their beliefs near to his heart.

give him some of that deep Texas love, ya know?

[Novel style]

26. It's possible that he won because he posed as a Democrat, too

His logic is flawed. African Americans often support white liberals overwhelmingly, too, not just other African Americans. It's been like that since FDR times. This person is pretending to have caught African Americans voting blindly for a person of their own race. This is not the case.

If Clarence Thomas runs for anything, African Americans will reject him.

[Nine]

28. +1 (nt)

[hfojvt]

29. I bet some of them won't

certainly Republicans were hoping that Colin Powell, if he ran, was gonna take a lot of the black vote away from Bill Clinton, and they would probably be right, if he had run.

[Catherine Vincent]

30. Yes

The voters thought they were voting for a Democrat that was endorsed by Ron Wilson. But read some of the comments at the link...idiot republicans on there couldn't wait to say blacks only voted for him because they thought he was black.