December 07, 2003
A Mandate for Bill White
By Byron LaMasters
This post is mostly to just annoy Owen, but you can't really look at this any other way. Bill White won with 63% of the vote. He has a mandate to lead Houston. Also, Annise Parker won with 62% of the vote for Controller. While our own lesbian Sheriff (Margo Fraiser) may be retiring (and it's a bragging right. I always love to tell people that our sheriff in Travis County is a lesbian), it's good to see a lesbian get elected to the #2 position in Houston. Who would have thought 10 or 20 years ago that a gay person could win 62% of the vote in a city race in the largest city in Texas? It says a lot. Good news also in the At-Large 4 race where Ronald Green beat incumbent Republican Bert Keller with 53% of the vote. The only bad news is that Democrat Peter Brown lost to Republican Shelley Sekula-Gibbs (52%) in the At-Large 3 race. Regardless, Democrats took 3 of the 4 big races, so I'll take that as a victory.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at December 7, 2003 12:17 AM
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Who would have thought 10 or 20 years ago that a gay person could win 62% of the vote in a city race in the largest city in Texas? It says a lot.
It does indeed... in her terms on Council, Parker was at least once nearly ousted by a concerted right-wing effort against her. That such things no longer happen is in part evidence that Houstonians are now looking at her record, not her orientation.
In fairness, you have to admit that Parker has everything to recommend her: bright, knowledgeable, diligent, concerned, analytical and a good businessperson, she is in many ways the ideal public servant. I had the privilege of interviewing her as part of an endorsement committee; in person, she is unassuming and reflective, very much aware of the limitations and responsibilities of the office she sought and will now hold.
I suppose if I went on, my praise could sound too good to be true. But it is true. Houston is very, very fortunate that Parker is returning to City Hall, especially in this capacity.
I pushed cards for Peter Brown today. Of course I was disappointed, but Brown was philosophical about it: the loss was expected, especially as he was a newcomer running against a well-funded incumbent, and the amazing thing to most of us is that Brown came close enough to give Sekula-Gibbs a good scare. My sense... my hope... is that we haven't seen the last of Brown.
All in all, this was a good runoff. On days like this, I'm glad I live in Houston!
Bah! (Waves hand dismissively).
