The Houston mayoral election has been pretty tame this year. We're in the midst of a runoff, and I have been surprised that none of the usual crazies have come out of the woodwork, but that all changed when I picked up my mail today. There it was, the first hate mailer I've received this year. I'm not sure why I was one of the lucky 35,000 but it definitely had an impact.
Cheetos and pizza boxes went flying, I plucked the cat off the keyboard and started my first diary.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that since Houston is in the south, we probably get a lot of this sort of thing, but the truth is we have had some very progressive mayors. Lee Brown was elected as the first black mayor of the city in 1998 and served three terms. Kathy Whitmire was our first female mayor way back in 1982 and served for five terms. It looks like our current Mayor is going to be running against hairdo mogul, Rick Perry.
And now it looks like we may actually have a chance to elect our first lesbian mayor. (Take that all you northeastern progressives!)
The most recent poll shows a statistical dead heat and as always, that brings out the whack jobs.
"Just because Annise Parker is a lesbian doesn't make her qualified to be Mayor of Houston."
I'm really confused because I thought that being a lesbian automatically entitled you to be mayor of the fourth largest city in the country, but Dave Wilson says no. Although he is full of God's Grace and has all sorts of compassion and empathy, he still feels the need to warn Houston's electorate of the evils and pitfalls of homosexual love.
Apparently, some of his best friends and family are homo's, but he loves them and hopes they aren't too inconvenienced by burning for eternity in the fires of Hell. Such compassion.
"Under her watch as City Controller, she has been as much as one year late in preparing the city's year-end financial reports."
Our current mayor, Bill White took the unusual step of entering the fray earlier in the campaign to debunk this lie, but here it is again, recycled and served up in a steaming pile for the consumption of the fundy clubbers.
I hate to admit it, but I haven't been paying as much attention to the runoff as I should, but this mailer woke me up. I promptly wrote to Mr. Wilson to let him know how appreciative I was for the wake up call and that I would be pulling out my old phone bank lists and making calls.
And I damn sure am going to vote.
I don't think that's exactly the reaction the little turd expected, but you get what you pray for, or at least I do...
"P.S. Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank is holding a fundraiser for Annise Parker in Washington, DC."
I still can't figure out if that's an official invitation. Maybe I'll just show up. I hear it's pretty easy to just waltz into those parties these days.