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Loading ...Houston mayor’s race going to runoff
11.04.2009 9:01am EST
(Houston) Houston won’t know who its new mayor will be until next month.
City controller Annise Parker and former city attorney Gene Locke are headed to a runoff to become mayor of America’s fourth-biggest city.
Parker, who would be the first openly gay mayor of Houston, collected nearly 31 percent of the vote Tuesday.Locke, with 25 percent, topped architect and urban planner Peter Brown, who had nearly 23 percent.
A runoff is needed because no one received 50 percent of the vote. A specific date has not yet been set for the election, but it will be in December.
A victory for Parker would make Houston the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor.
Can’t say I even really care anymore. We already lost Newsom. They could put a Nazi in Houston and it wouldn’t make a difference. That’s life. It’s crap. We are second class citizens. End of story. Bullshit, but true.
Annise Parker–I am so proud of you and salute you!! Good luck and God Bless in the runoff.
HERE from Chuck Wolfe of the VICTORY FUND: “It was tough to watch what happened in Maine, but that painful loss is not the whole story of last night. We’re winning right now in Washington state, and voters in Kalamazoo overwhelmingly embraced equality in their city. And of the 79 openly LGBT candidates the Victory Fund endorsed for 2009, 50 are winning as of this morning and another six have advanced to runoff elections.
This was a year when LGBT candidates broke through in places they had never won before. Now Detroit, Akron and St. Petersburg will have their first openly gay city councilmembers. Chapel Hill, North Carolina elected an openly gay mayor. And in Houston one of CNN’s “Top 10 Races to Watch” went our way.
Last year the Victory Fund set a goal of helping Annise Parker become the next mayor of Houston, and the first openly LGBT mayor of one of America’s largest cities. Last night she took a huge step toward victory, finishing first in a crowded field of candidates and heading to a final runoff election in mid-December.
I’m so proud Victory Fund supporters like you were a big part of this victory. But we’re not done, so I can’t celebrate for long.
With less than six weeks until final voting in this historic election, Annise faces one last opponent, a corporate lawyer with deep ties to Houston developers.
Annise’s campaign is different. It’s always been about the rest of us – people who need our elected leaders to be our voice in government. She’s asked us to support her groundbreaking campaign so she can be that voice. And what a voice it will be.
But mark my words-the national attention this campaign received in recent days will generate another kind of attention. Now that Annise is this close to becoming the first-ever openly gay mayor of one of America’s largest cities, the anti-gay industry is on alert and scheming to block this progress. So I’m asking you to join us in the home stretch to defend Annise and drown out the lies they’ll try to spread.
Annise recorded a special video message just for Victory Fund supporters who’ve had such an amazing impact in this race. Watch it. Get involved. Help her achieve this historic victory and don’t let extremists derail our progress.
This has been an extraordinary year. We’re going to end it celebrating if you’ll stand with us, with Annise, and on the right side of history.
Yours in Victory,
Chuck Wolfe
Victory Fund President and CEO “
Go Annise… where do we send $$? Will look.
As to what help are they? They are VISIBLE, community members who work hard to help others. Others who have never known a ‘gay person’ before and say…
Oh they’re just like me! ….
…and as my husband was converted to saying by David Mixner’s speech at NEM… What do you mean they don’t have EQUAL RIGHTS here in America. He had never looked at it that way before, was a instant convert.
Thats great.. other than visibility which makes a statement on its own.. what else are these Gay mayors and gay politicians doing to advance civil rights for us?