It could be argued that the Democrat vs. Democrat mayoral runoff in Houston was always going to be negative, and was likely to revolve around identity politics. This seemed a given, since one of the leading candidates (City Controller Annise Parker) was trying to become the highest-ranking homosexual civic official in the nation by being elected mayor of the nation's fourth largest city.
It is nonetheless dispiriting to see the depths of the attacks, as exemplified by one mailer received by DK diarist ChezML, who received this in a Houston-area mailbox on the eve of the election:
The reverse side of the mailer depicts a man’s hand and a woman’s hand with wedding rings along with a wedding bouquet and the headline reads as follows:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." – Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
It continues:
In our hope as being seen as tolerant and loving, we have chosen to accept the homosexual lifestyle rather than confront it. We have backed away from the spiritual battle for the hearts and souls of men. We have failed to speak the truth both in love and with love. We must differentiate between condemning the sin of homosexual behavior (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) and condemning the individual. Only God judges the heart.
Nothing is as important to the future of Houston and our country as the protection of the Traditional Family and marriage (one man one woman) or allow the radical homosexual activists (with their out of state money) elect a lesbian for Mayor.
I have received dozens of pieces of hate mail and threats on my life for taking a stand. I am asking you to take a stand and vote for the Traditional Family.
VOTE FOR GENE LOCKE FOR MAYOR.
As mentioned here earlier in the week, Gene Locke has had difficulty reconciling his apparent vocal support for several GLBT causes (at one point, he was actively seeking the endorsement of the community) with the array of anti-gay activists who have rushed to his defense.
Locke's ability to reconcile the two became infinitely more complicated this week. As reported by the team at Burnt Orange Report and elsewhere, allies of his campaign have been acting in concert with those same anti-gay activists:
According to financial documents, Hotze’s political action committee received a $20,000 donation about a week before the mail pieces [attacking Parker] went out from Ned Holmes, finance chairman of Locke’s campaign, and $20,000 from James Dannenbaum, who is on Locke’s finance committee.
Hotze’s PAC, Conservative Republicans of Harris County, lists $56,000 in donations between Oct. 25 and Dec. 2. Only two other donors, who contributed a total of $16,000, are listed.
Texas blogger Charles Kuffner notes that the timing is, to say the least, suspect:
Surely no one thinks the timing of the donations is a coincidence, right? Maybe Hotze could have found some other sugar daddies to help him peddle his bigotry, but he didn’t. It’s now clear why Locke never denounced Hotze.
Locke has countercharged that Parker might have bought the endorsement of one of the runners-up in the November general election (Roy Morales). Even if true (and it's not an airtight charge), it is not quite the same thing as coordinating with people like Dave Wilson and Stephen Hotze, whose PAC clearly is based on the principle of electing Republicans to office.
The runoff election is tomorrow--polls in the race have given Parker a lead, but have kept her under the 50% threshold.