Houston Is Largest City to Elect Openly Gay Mayor

[cal04]

Source: New York Times

Houston became the largest city in the country to elect an openly gay mayor Saturday night, as voters gave a solid victory to the city controller, Annise Parker.

Cheers erupted at Ms. Parker’s campaign party as her opponent, Gene Locke, a former city attorney, conceded defeat after it became clear he could not overcome her lead of 53 percent to 47 percent.

Throughout the campaign, Ms. Parker tried to avoid making an issue of her sexual orientation and emphasized her experience in overseeing the city’s finances. But she began her career as an advocate for gay rights in the 1980s, and it was lost on no one in Houston, a city of 2.2 million people, that her election would mark a milestone for gay men and lesbians around the country.

Several smaller cities in other regions have chosen openly gay mayors, among them Providence, R.I., Portland, Ore., and Cambridge, Mass. But Ms. Parker’s success came in a conservative state where voters have outlawed gay marriage and a city where a referendum on granting benefits to same-sex partners of city employees was soundly defeated.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/us/politics/13houston.html?hp

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Congrats to Ms. Parker!

A truly watershed victory!

K&R

[Divine Discontent]

30. Quick Draw CP McGraw - you are the fastest poster known to DU kind! lol

and yes, a GREAT way to describe this victory - a watershed moment!

Amen!

KICK & RECOMMEND!!

:kick: :thumbsup:

[kentauros]

53. I voted for her - twice!

This was the runoff election :D

Also, though the population of Houston is roughly 2 million, we have the "Greater Houston Area" that takes it up to something like 5.5 million. Much of that comprises the "white flight" suburbs and exurbs, and predominantly Republican. I'll bet they're just "loving" tonight's results

[Name removed]

54. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tbredbeck]

90. voted for her twice too!

And my vote had nothing to do with her being gay. Well, maybe a little, but mostly Locke seemed like a Weasel and Parker has had quite a nice run in city offices with a good record.

And yes, I'm sure the Woodlanders and Sugar Landers were choking on their cereal this morning. hehe.

[tXr]

92. I voted for her twice three!

Well, not 6 times, but twice was nice. :D

[sasquuatch55]

75. OK so she's gay; hope she's a good Mayor.

nt

[X_Digger]

2. Go Texas!

We'll flip Texas back to blue eventually. This is just a taste of what's to come :)

[tXr]

3. I'm proud to have voted for her!

Congratulations Mayor-elect Parker!

[seeinfweggos]

21. i wish i could have

i'm from houston but don't live or vote in the city anymore. i'm very proud of my home town.

[ananda]

82. Me too.

I'm in Austin now. A few years ago I worked on
Bill White's first campaign for mayor and voted
for Parker who became the comptroller.

I would have voted for Parker for mayor too!
Instead I voted for Leffingwell here in Austin.

[seeinfweggos]

83. i lived in austin for for a few years, too

i loved it there. my partner and i are in redneckville, east texas temporarily.

[Justitia]

4. Proud to be a Houstonian that supported our new mayor. -eom

[Reeta77]

37. Ditto - very proud to be a (new) Houstonian!

:kick:

[Justitia]

39. Welcome to the Big H! Houston is a great city. I've lived in SA & Dallas too. Love it here. -nt

[Reeta77]

46. Thank you! I moved here from SAT last August, just in time

to help turn Houston a little bit bluer (and for Ike!) :)

[Justitia]

48. Ike - egads! Trial by fire (er, water). You'll love Houston & SA is close by.

Majority of my family is in SA - close enough to see whenever I want to drive over, just far enough away the rest of the time - LOL!

[MadMaddie]

117. I grew up in San Antonio

dad is retired Air Force! I do miss the food....

[tXr]

91. Welcome to Houston!

:hi:

[midnight]

5. Good job Ms. Parker and Texas...

[struggle4progress]

6. As a former Texan, I will now jump up and down with glee as I imagine sanctimonious heads exploding

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[truthisfreedom]

7. Oh, god, it's got to be a conservative head-explosion bloodbath down there.

Cripes, I can hear the popping from up here in Minnesota.

[merci_me]

16. Not really, right now there's celebrating in the streets!!.

So many here, at DU have a very unreal vision of Houston. We are BLUE!!!

When I came here 25 years ago, Houston had a Democratic female mayor. Read that again............TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Further, during that 25 years, everyone of our next three mayors have also been Democrats and this November, we had three Democrats and one Republican running for mayor. The Democrats came in one, two and three.

BTW, in 2000 Houston went to Al Gore over W, in 2004 to John Kerry over W and in 2008, Obama over McCain.

Oh and you may have heard of our current term-limited mayor, Bill White, who was nothing less than a hero, when he stepped up to provide shelter for 200,000 Katrina evacuees, while W did a friggin fly-over.

[AnneD]

28. Twenty five years ago....

Not only did we have a Democratic female mayor, we had a Governor you might remember...ANN RICHARDS.

Frankly I am laughing at these Johnny-come-iatelies in the media that are suddenly making a big deal of this. Annise Parker had been a tireless public servant. She was the city comptroller and saved the city millions of dollars with her pro active audits. When she had to give it up due to term limits-she ran for city council and she built large consensus groups.

I think she has probably met and shook hands with every one in Houston. There was minimal dirt flung in this campaign. Everyone knows Annise is gay-she has never made it a secret. She was polite and charming and frankly most folk here in Houston, while having strong feeling, have a live and let live attitude. She worked hard and earned every vote.

We are sad that Bill White has to go but he will be running against Gov Good-hair Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Bill is not very charismatic but he is a damn good manager. He might not be a person that you would have a beer with, but hell I DON'T WANT A DRUNK RUNNING THE CITY ANYWAY. I am sure he will carry the south east portion of Texas.

[pinto]

8. Houston voters elect first openly gay mayor (AP)

By Monica Rhor, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON – Annise Parker made history Saturday by becoming Houston's first openly gay mayor, seizing 53.6 percent of the vote in the city's hotly contested election.

Conceding defeat, former city attorney Gene Locke thanked Parker.

"I am proud she is now the winner. I congratulate her," Locke said.

Of the more than 152,000 residents who turned out to cast ballots in the fourth largest U.S. city Saturday, 81,652 chose Parker — some 11,000 votes more than were placed for Locke.

The election battle leading up to Saturday's balloting was marked by fierce campaigning and anti-gay rhetoric.

Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation. But that orientation became focus of the race after anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups endorsed the 61-year-old Locke and sent out mailers condemning Parker's "homosexual behavior."

Meanwhile, gay and lesbian political organizations nationwide rallied to support the 53-year-old Parker by raising money for her campaign and making calls urging people to vote.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_el_st_lo/us_houston_mayor

[bitchkitty]

9. Go Houston! Way to set a precedent! n/t

[krispos42]

10. Progress!

And, um, don't the Bushies now live in Houston?

:evilgrin:

[Justitia]

18. Bush Sr. lives here. Junior lives in Dallas. Houston has been solidly Democratic forever.

So, Bush Sr. has to be used to being surrounded by liberals (at least when he is here).

Dallas is also majority Democratic - and they have a lesbian sheriff, so neither Bush can escape the power of the Leading Lesbians - LOL!

:7

[marshall]

68. The last time Houston didn't have a Democrat as Mayor was the Carter Admin

It is solidly one party.

[Libertas1776]

11. Wow!

way to go Houston:woohoo:

[merci_me]

12. Annise deserves this win and we're so very proud of her.

I've known Annise since she headed up Houston Women for Dukakis in 1988. She's never been anything but humble, humorous and a policy wonk like you wouldn't believe. We're in good hands to guide us through the economic slump.

Thanks for running such a wonderfully coordinated campaign, for our future.

[boppers]

13. Fourth largest city in the US!

I'm happy our fair city of Portland, OR can pass the title on!

[the hawk]

14. houston mayer

Hell Ya!

[Faygo Kid]

15. Great stuff. Texas?!? There is hope yet.

The backlash will be great. To that backlash, I say, Bah. Humbug.

[Justitia]

19. Nah, we're a solidly Dem city. Our new mayor has been on the City Council for 12 yrs.

We still have our share of assholes, but we are a very diverse, blue city.

Yay for my hometown and our new mayor!

[girl gone mad]

23. Backlash?

Dallas elected a lesbian sheriff and we almost elected a gay mayor. It was never a campaign issue is either case. The big cities in Texas are all fairly progressive.

[readmoreoften]

25. And Dallas has Monica--very popular transwoman who ran for mayor in 2000, I believe

[lonestarnot]

17. Don't the bushitty families live there?

[rasputin1952]

57. They don't vote...

:D

[lonestarnot]

77. Heh!

:D

[Union Yes]

20. Congrats Mayor Parker! knr nt

[TexasObserver]

22. Recommend

[Stumbler]

24. Great to hear

Sorry to rain on the gay parade, but it won't mean shit until we can start electing atheists into office again. Again, this is great news, coming from an openly anti-gay state and region, with the exception of Austin. What I mean to say is that until the religious strangle-hold on politics and public opinion is overcome, We the People will continue applauding even the smallest gains while 'the God-fearing' continue to hold control of policy.

Kudos to Annise Parker. May her tern as mayor be productive and her constituency become more tolerant... of all views.

[boppers]

27. Atheists are getting into office, too.

http://www.michaelnugent.com/2008/06/02/americas-top-two-elected-atheists/

Maybe on both fronts it's still token amounts, but it's better than none.

[rurallib]

65. Oh My God!

but seriously - how soon before we have a black, female gay atheist in office. Talk about terrorism to the republicans.

[Phoonzang]

26. She beat my parents next-door neighbor Gene Locke, but

I was rooting for her. It would be better for me personally if Locke won (more security) but I want people to realize my hometown isn't a bunch of cowboys herding cattle through downtown.

[Divine Discontent]

32. glad to see it's not!

[AnneD]

34. I know Gene and his family too....

and really like them but I came down on the side of Annise Parker because of all her experience with the city management. I hope to see him involved more. He ran a decent campaign and always took the high road. I respect him for that.

[BolivarianHero]

67. He sounds like a DINO asshole...

He was accepting help from far-right anti-gay groups.

[AnneD]

108. Spoken by someone not of this country.....

and only a member of DU since May of this year.....Gene Locke was fighting for civil rights while you were probably still dragging on the tit.

To win an election, you have to build coalitions. Gene needed their help but he is not an asshole. We have plenty of real GOP asshole that make Gene look like Mother Theresa. I'll kindly ask you to keep your inflametory remarks to yourself. Gene and Annise's plans to run our city were for the most part identical. She won based on much experience in city management.

We do things a tad different in Texas-it is a marathon not a sprint. That is how we Dem's have managed to survive here with the likes of Bush and Rove et al. Any one of our real Dems has a tougher hide, stronger spine, and bigger set of cajones than those clowns in Washington. Hell even our female dems are issued a set of cajones.

They sell cans of whoop ass by the gallon.

A friend of mine commented once that people were so nice here when driving and never honked their horns, I told him folks were polite 'cause you never knew who had a concealed weapon.

So if you ever make down to this part of the woods-I recommend you watch your mouth and keep your temper in check.

[WriteDown]

29. The usual comment is missing. WHAT IS WRONG WITH TEXAS?!

:sarcasm:

[sonias]

33. I was feeling that too

Happy to be a Texan not getting pissed on tonight! And damned proud of those Houstonians too!

One day this state will turn blue too.

:bounce:


Sonia

[WolverineDG]

88. That's my favorite part

Poor widdle whiners can't say crap about this....We Texans are taking back our state bit by bit & we're doing it ON OUR OWN.

dg

[Catherine Vincent]

31. Cool!

I live in Houston and didn't know, not that it's my business anyway. I hope she is a Democrat.

[Justitia]

35. She is a Democrat. The top 3 candidates were all Dems. -eom

[AnneD]

36. Catherine......

LOL LOL LOL ....that sums up the typical Houston attitude.

[Nikki Stone1]

38. AWESOME!!!

:)

[cleverusername]

40. Woohoo!

Yea, baby! I'm proud of my city! :woohoo:

[David Zephyr]

41. Home of the George Bush International Airport, too.

Those fuckers, the Bush clan living high on the public tit over in Tanglewood in Houston must be figuring out how to put a good spin on this.

Congratulations to Mayor Parker and to the good people of Houston.

And thanks, cal04, for breaking the story here at the DU.

[Justitia]

42. Bite your tongue David - it's Intercontinental Airport! Airport code = IAH = Intercontinental

IAH = Intercontinental Airport Houston

We never refer to it under that other godforsaken moniker!


:evilgrin:

[iamjoy]

69. Just Like The Airport in Washington

I still call it "National." I refuse to attach the name of the man who fired the air traffic controllers to it.

[David Zephyr]

96. Hey. I was born in Houston. Whenever I'm there I always call it IAH..

And what a thrill.

How Shakespearean can this be?

I mean...it's friggin' Biblical it's so cosmic.

Congratulations to all Houstonians today.

:applause:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

119. Actually, I prefer the term "Intergalactic".

"Poppy Evil Spawn-of-Nazi Lover Prescott Bush Airport" just doesn't roll off the tongue.

[Justitia]

123. LOL! When I head out there this week, I will think of it as "Intergalactic" - ha! -eom

[tXr]

45. It will always be Intercontinental Airport to me and the vast majority of Houstonians.

I don't know anyone who refers to that airport using the B* word, and I live for the day that it is stripped from every highway, byway, school, and facility upon which it has been smeared in one of the world's most obscene displays of egomania.

[David Zephyr]

97. Congratulations to you, tXr.

What a glorious day.

[texanwitch]

118. I lot of us call it the big airport and call Hobby Airport "Hobby."

We have two airports.

[NYC Liberal]

43. Awesome! I am jealous!

We're stuck with this dolt for another 4 years

[tXr]

49. All I see is a weenie and a person dressed up in a hot dog suit!

:P

Please accept my condolences.

[pettypace]

44. Turnout was 16.5 percent

and she received 53% of that - being elected by <10% of the city's population is what it is.

Houston, its surrounding areas, and the entire state are on the whole conservative as the day is long.

[Justitia]

47. spoken like someone who knows nothing of Houston

Houston is the 4th largest city in the US.

This was the runoff - between 2 Democrats.

Turnout may have been low for the runoff because Houstonians would have been pleased w/either outcome.
Both of these candidates already had proven public service records in Houston.

The general election had 4 candidates, of which, the top 3 were Dems.

If you think Houston is conservative, you obviously don't know my city.

[pettypace]

51. I knew it

Resident from 1995-1999, and I definitely recall a non-liberal aura. My high school Nimitz had a constant feeling of racial strife from what I remember.

Now I recognize the party affiliations of the candidates, but there are conservative Democrats (see John Spratt, Heath Shuler).

Reading the Chronicle's story on the results, both candidates had a consortium of conservative backers, be they Dems or GOPers.

Another factor involved in Houston politics is simply demographics. When I lived there it was fairly non-white in most sectors outside of the ultra-ritzy parts; diversity on the level of NYC seemingly. The Census Bureau had the white population down to 29 percent back in 2000, hardly a cauldron for any candidate with an R next to him name to succeed in anyway.

Even with that, Obama only got 50.4 percent of Harris County. By comparison 57.2 went for Obama in Dallas County, which we can agree is not thought of as liberal. How do you explain that?


Anyway I'm certainly glad history was made there tonight, Rice graduate not withstanding.

[MrBig]

50. Are you from Houston???

It really doesn't sound like you know Houston all that well. I mean, we have conservative, religious Republicans here of course, but really take a look at the political makeup of Houston before saying it's a conservative city. Some of the surrounding areas (Sugar Land, etc.) are pretty conservative, but Houston itself is quite liberal.

Like other posters have pointed out, the top 3 candidates for mayor were all Democrats. The last mayor was a Democrat who is moving on to run against Rick Perry for Governor. The mayor before that was a Democrat. The mayor before that was a Democrat. Should I continue?

[MrBig]

52. Proud of H-Town!

Man, I'm really happy to call myself a Houstonian. I'm so happy for Annise Parker, who like other posters have stated, has been a tireless public servant for a LONG time.

I'm also happy that the choice was between her and another great public servant in Gene Locke, long a champion for civil rights. I was a little troubled by the revelation of his campaign's connections with anti-gay activist Hotze, but I think beside that, he ran a good campaign and kept it about the important issues.

The only thing now that will have me jumping on cloud nine is if current Houston mayor Bill White can beat Governor Good-Hair next year. Man I'm gonna do some major campaigning for White. He really did a ton for Houston these past 6 years and I know he'll clean up Texas. Hopefully he'll start with the State Board of Education, the biggest embarrassment in Texas.

[BolivarianHero]

70. Bigger than Rick Perry?

Bigger than the freedom-hating Texas GOP platform?

[MrBig]

94. Judge for Yourself

"TX Board Of Ed Member: Minorities Must Be Thankful To 'The Majority' For Giving Them Rights!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9vJ5XTFBFU&feature=sub

"What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book?" he said. "You learn all these Chinese words, OK. That's not going to help you master ... English. So you really don't want Chinese books with a bunch of crazy Chinese words in them. Why should you take a child's time trying to learn a word that they'll never ever use again?" He added that some words — such as chow mein — might be useful.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA032208_01A_curriculum_387c08a_html23885.html

"Someone has to stand up to experts!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzrUt9CHtpY


And that's just one member. Some of them are good, but people like Don McLeroy, well, you see.

[Tx4obama]

101. Wrong! Houston is BLUE

In 2008 Obama won the cities/counties of Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, etc.
In 2012 TEXAS will be BLUE :)

p.s. The only large city McCain won was Ft. Worth

[Enthusiast]

55. Amazing! Rec. nt

[rasputin1952]

56. Congratulations Ms. Parker...

[myrna minx]

58. Excellent. K&R n/t

[TexasProgresive]

59. I betcha Steve Hotze's head exploded

From RabbiWeiss's page at the Houston Chronicle's blog site. (I don't know how to do tiny urls and this one needs it)

Some Views From a Jew
A local woman rabbi offers unique perspectives on all things Jewish

Sometimes, those bullies grow up and hide behind fancy titles and even worse, behind the name of God.

Steven Hotze and his friends come to mind when I think of bullies who hide behind the name of God, who use words that most people identify with, like “family” and “values”, and lie to scare decent human beings into being afraid of another decent human being.

http://www.chron.com/channel/houstonbelief/commons/persona.html?newspaperUserId=rabbiweiss&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3ArabbiweissPost%3Ab2de16fc-f232-481c-bc3d-b76ac7bc223f

[redwitch]

60. Way to go Houston!

This is wonderful! :bounce:

[DuaneBidoux]

61. No good choice for a conservative between a black man and gay woman?

Repubicans I am sure didn't even bother. That may have helped.

[HouLib]

62. Proud she is my new mayor!

[lavenderdiva]

63. proud to have voted for her

as Comptroller and now twice for Mayor. Mr. ld did too. We think she will be a great Mayor for Houston. Now, if we can only get Bill White elected Governor-

[Pisces]

64. This former Houstonian is celebrating the victory with everyone!!

[Loki]

66. Proud to be a Houston resident right now!

Now let's go to work and rid ourselves of Mrs. Kay Bailey and that worthless POS and John Cornyn and let's elect Bill White for Governor http://www.billwhitefortexas.com/

[iamjoy]

71. How Very Sad

I think it's very sad that the newly elected mayor of Houston can't cover the person she loves - the person with whom she has been in a stable relationship for almost 20 years - on her employee benefits. They can't get married either. It's all because it just so happens that both are female. Almost 20 years is longer than a lot of opposite sex marriages last.

ah heck, why do I have to go spoil a good moment? Kudos to Ms. Parker for being smart, savvy and tough. A tip of the hat to the voters of Houston who realize that who Ms. Parker loves has nothing to do with her management skills - and that a good manager is want you want in a mayor.

[Skinner]

72. Very cool!

And in Texas!

[kentauros]

106. A lot of people don't know just how large the gay population is in Houston

;)

At one time, I had heard it was the second-largest in the country, but a google search is bringing up Dallas and Minneapolis for that designation, so there's no telling their "ranking" now. It's sill big and influential here, and I support them all the way :D

[Politicub]

73. Fantastic! Go Houston :)

[Paladin]

74. Take THAT, You Sanctimonious DU Texas-Haters!

In your fucking FACES! We DU Texans have been telling you for some time that the state was going Blue; maybe it's about time for you to start preparing yourselves for it. Find some other target for your small-minded prejudices, because individuals like Rick Perry are already looking a little shop-worn, and the Texas branch of the Bush clan is ancient history.

And congrats to the new mayor of Houston, who---in addition to being gay---is a very adept, experienced, Democratic politician. I'm already looking forward to her speech at the 2012 convention......

[Name removed]

76. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Paladin]

80. The DU Texas-Bashers Need To Catch A Clue From All This.

Annise Parker is no new-comer, she's been an openly gay city official for years. And Houston's gay community has been a very real force in city politics for decades......

[JonQ]

85. No no, you got it all wrong

this is a single anecdote that proves nothing, an anomaly. However a single instance of a hate crime in houston would prove that all houstonians, indeed all texans, are bigots.

It's pretty simple: good things about texas = irrelevant and unrepresentative. Bad things about texas = a worrying trend that indicts all Texans past and present.

Just wait and see.

[Paladin]

87. Jesus, I Just THOUGHT I Was Twisted Up About Texas Hatred.

The nation's fourth largest city has a lesbian mayor, and that city and that mayor are in Texas. New York City can't say that. Neither can Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, or any of tens of thousands of cities from whence snotty DU Texas-trashers have been taking shots at our state. And there you are, managing to whine about it.

Rejoice in what's happened, revel in it, or just resign yourself to being no better than all the brain-dead Texas haters that hang out around here. Will they try to make light of this development? Sure. Will it resonate? Not like it used to. Because we see their George Goddamn W. Motherfucking Bush----and we raise them an Annise Parker. Deal with it.....

[WolverineDG]

89. Marry me

:patriot:

dg

[Paladin]

99. Best Offer I've Had All Day, WDG.

You know the image I can't get out of my head? Molly Ivins looking down on all this, just laughing her ass off......

[WolverineDG]

107. She & Ann are kicking up their heels, no doubt nt

[texanwitch]

116. I miss them both so much.

I can hear both of them now.

We did good.

[NikolaC]

78. Congratulations To Ms. Parker

and to Houston :toast: !

[La Lioness Priyanka]

79. Fuck, Yeah!

[varelse]

81. Great news

Maybe all of the shit-talking about Texas and Texans will drop off a bit - or at least, we will have something to toss back at "the usual suspects" when they start in again :(

[kestrel91316]

84. Congratulations are in order! Best wishes to Ms. Parker.

[Lucky Luciano]

86. Houston as in Houston, Texas? I'm impressed. nt

[pleah]

93. K&R

[mamaleah]

95. Congrats to all DU Texans and Houstonians! (if that is what you are called). And screw off to all

the nonstop TX bashers.

[Paladin]

100. Mazel Tov, Ma'am........ (n/t)

[mamaleah]

115. I also want to add that some the most sincere thoughtfulness and service

I have ever received in my life was in Texas. You guys actually still know what hospitality means.

[Paladin]

124. Sincere Thanks. (n/t)

[Tx4obama]

104. Thank you! n/t

[WolverineDG]

110. Thank you! nt

[Uncle Joe]

98. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cal.

[acsmith]

102. you mean US city

[Tx4obama]

103. Most people just don't have the right idea about Texas...

In 2008 OBAMA won the cities/counties of Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, etc.
In 2012 TEXAS will be BLUE :)

The only large city that McCain won was Ft. Worth

We need better education in our rural towns and then the GOP will lose their hold here in Texas forever :)

Obama 2012
Grayson 2016

[Starbucks Anarchist]

105. Excellent!

[texanwitch]

109. My precinct gave 190 votes to our new mayor.

I worked sick yesterday but it was worth it.

I knew she would win.

[Garam_Masala]

111. Why is her sex prefernce even an issue?

Is she running for mayor or sunday school teacher?

[sonias]

112. Shouldn't be an issue at all

She is more than qualified to serve as Mayor. She has lots of good public service experience. She's been the City Controller for Houston as well as a City Council member. She knows the job. She understands finance and she has a business background.

The reason it became any kind of issue at all, is that the conservatives around the Houston area tried to make it an issue. They were the ones bringing it up. She never tried to bring her private life into the campaign. She was running on her record.


Sonia

[David Zephyr]

113. I want to kick this story up again.

A political earthquake. Astounding.

The people of Houston are something else.

[donheld]

114. Congrats to her

[Manifestor_of_Light]

120. Native Houstonian checking in!

Proud of her!

I went to a Mensa party at her house some years ago.

I grew up in Stinkadena, which makes me a native Houstonian. We got over 4 million people in the metro area which makes it a huge town. Hell, in the 1970s, when I was growing up in the burbs, the burb (Pasadena) had 100,000 people. That's a pretty large burb.

I still live in Texas but unfortunately I'm in the part that went for McCain 2 to 1 over Obama, and our congresscritters are troglodytes. Even my State Rep jumped ship recently and became a Repuke (Chuck Hopson).

I hope the bigots like Steven Hotze (author of the Straight Slate of candidates, nicknamed the Hate Slate) will recede in popularity. They are only popular in the wealthy outlying burbs anyway (except for the wealthy near burbs like Hilshire Village, Spring Valley, Memorial, River Oaks and Tanglewood.)

[JonLP24]

121. Too late to recommend but........

:kick:

[Odin2005]

122. Wow, HOUSTON!?!

:wow: