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You’d never know it from reading the RNC talking points at Politico or the Washington Post, but guess what: Houston, Texas — a historically-conservative city in a historically-conservative state — is on the verge of getting its first openly-gay mayor. What’s more is that she was by no means the only progressive or trailblazing major candidate in the race:
The unpredictable and unorthodox race for Houston mayor narrowed Tuesday to a choice between a veteran City Hall insider trying to become Houston’s first openly gay leader and a former civil rights activist hoping to become only the second African-American to run the nation’s fourth-largest city.
City Controller Annise Parker and former City Attorney Gene Locke, the two candidates originally predicted by many to prevail at the race’s outset, face each other in a Dec. 12 runoff.
The upshot: Houston will get to choose between two very good candidates five weeks from now.
Meanwhile, pro-gay-rights measures passed in both Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Washington state. So while Maine may have been a disappointment, it’s not the only thing that happened last night.
30 Comments
ANNISE’S FIRST PLACE SHOWING IS INDEED EXCITING, I VOTED FOR HER AND WILL DO SO AGAIN IN THE RUNOFF. I JUST WANTED TO CORRECT SOMETHING THAT WAS SAID THOUGH, HOUSTON IS A DEMOCRATIC STRONGHOLD, AS ARE THE MAJORITY OF LARGE METRO AREAS IN TEXAS. IT’S THE NON-METRO AREAS THAT ARE KEEPING TEXAS IN THE “R” COLUMN FOR THE TIME BEING, BUT THEIR GRIP IS LOOSENING WITH EVERY ELECTION CYCLE.
ERIC IN HOUSTON
Thanks Eric. Good news, indeed.
For future reference, caps here are regarded as shouting.
Does that mean shrub won’t be able to travel to his state’s second city? Will Perry have to call for Houston’s secession from the rest of his state?
Austin’s already blackballed.
I have a good friend in Houston who does a lot of volunteer work for the Ds. As jericd sez, the metro areas are increasingly going D.
Thanks PW. I was wondering what had happened in this race, but had forgotten to search it out.
Wonderful news!
Congrats, Eric, of course it has a higher ed’n and income level, but Houston is reaching to make it up to Austin level, I guess. Here in flyover N.TX., we’re working on it. Every bit of enlightenment helps. thanks.
Tea Baggers don’t like Carly! Eating their own.
It is ridiculous how DeMint and others treat “conservative” like it was a religion. “Rock soid” conservative…”True” conservative…Please! You people all supported Decider Bush, who was just pretending to be a Conservative.
Bush was the biggest liberal we have had since LBJ.
Big Government, Big deficits, Invading foreign lands,
Huge drug program for the richest segment of the population. No conservative would every claim him.
That is how ‘conservatives’ govern.
Where’s Bill Clinton when you need him?
You cannot apply logic to the teabagger phenomenom; logic doesn’t apply & will give you a headache.
Yes, these self-same people voted twice for W, and then also for Palin/McCain (and in teabagger-land, they were definitely voting for Palin for Pres, not vice versa).
To be fair, some teabagger types got off the W bus some years ago and would also agree that he spent recklessly, grew the gov’t, etc. So, when they got mad at him, they then labeled W a “liberal.” What’s annoying is that W is NOT a liberal by any means, and no, he was nothing like LBJ. This is a fallacy, but teabaggers love their little false comparisions, and when someone displeases the teabaggers, then they label them as liberals – the most damning thing ever. It’s sort of like when a Republican is caught in a sex scandal, then Fake “News” runs something about them with a “D” in front of their name (if you get my drift).
Teabaggers are committed to some kind of “moral” purity, and now Repugs across the land are racing to dance to their tune. That it is sheer lunacy is beside the point.
I have less than zero sympathy for corporate-disaster Fiorina. Couldn’t have happened to a better person. She’s just looking for a new hobby, and like W, would only run everything she touches into the ground.
My main concern, as I’ve bleated out several times today, is that teabaggers do seem to be getting what they want from their elected reps (pushing them to dump moderate Republicans, etc). I find this of some concern, even if it results in them losing elections, such as NY-23.
I have to ask, what did they expect? They just spent several decades and amazing fortunes to produce organized packs of willingly ignorant, rabid zealots, and now they have the nerve to be shocked that these folks are too irrational for polite company?
Isn’t that what we spent the last forty years telling them?
On the other hand, you gotta love having Bible verses so well illustrated in real time-
Gay Mayor of a Mexican town. Big Whoop!
This is why it is important that we never write off whole states or regions of the country. Even in the most (seemingly) conservative places there are progressive folks working hard for change.
Also, as Eric pointed out Houston is a Democratic stronghold, something many of us probably did not know. The current mayor Bill White is a Democrat. He is serving his third term and cannot run again, which is why the office is up for grabs.
True.
This is interesting. In 2003 White won in a runoff with 63 percent of the votes. In 2005 he ran unopposed. In 2007 he won his third term with 86 percent.
What are you implying?
Way to go, Houston! And Austin just expanded COBRA like benefits to domestic partners!
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/cityhall/entries/2009/11/02/city_of_austin_expands_samesex.html
Raised outside Houston…Worked for the Democrats in rural Texas ’08. Oxymorons everywhere you look. Houston can elect a gay mayor but we had to put the Obama banners too high for a redneck on a truck cab to reach. Strange that.
In other good news, Chapel Hill NC elected its first openly gay mayor, Mark Kleinschmidt.
Which apparently is the third time Chapel Hill has elected an openly gay mayoral candidate. Gay candidates also won council seats in St. Petersburg, FL and Detroit.
Third time a NC city has elected an openly gay mayor. The other two were Mike Nelson in Carrboro and Elic Senter in Frankinton.
First time for Chapel Hill.
Here in San Antonio the same is true. I can’t remember the last time we had a Repug as mayor and SA did go overwhelmingly for Obama. Demographics for the last election showed south Tx as almost completely blue. Austin being a strong liberal city and being only 65mi away and SA having a large Hispanic population probably has something to do with it also. Unbelievably, SA has no Liberal radio shows and is dominated by all the major bloviators. SA is the home of Clear Channel by the way and yes they are the same idiots that gave Rush his 400 million dollar contract. .
And the marriage equality battleground moves to New Jersey….
Sorry about my caps in my original post, I didn’t mean to do it, cats like to walk on my keyboard while they talk to me….
Eric in Houston
Houston is actually a moderate city, not a conservative city. Democrats have long had success here, including the current mayor, Bill White.
Annise Parker is well-regarded here. She has won city-wide in multiple races for city council and city controller. She is universally recognized as smart, hard-working, and detail-oriented.
For that matter, Gene Locke, her opponent in the run-off, is also a good choice. He was once upon a time the City Attorney, and has had a long career in public law representing the Port of Houston and METRO.
Quite so…It’s not accurate at all to say Houston is a “conservative city.”
Houston is a large, diverse city with a stubborn streak of progressivism. Last time I checked it was the fourth-largest metro area in the country, with significant African-American, Hispanic, and LGBT communities. It is one of a handful of Democratic Party strongholds in Texas.
I did some work down in Houston a couple of years ago and was very impressed by Rep. Gene Green and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, two Congressional Democrats with impressive progressive credentials. The Houston Central Labor Council was well organized and an active player in politics and public affairs.