Right Here, Right Now

I woke up this morning to Van Halen’s Right Now. It put me in a good mood, and I figure you can hit play below, then read the rest of the post. It’s got my brain working, maybe sooner than I would have liked, and makes for good background music to this post.

Another mayoral election, another runoff. It’s November in Houston, TX.

When the dust settled, two candidates remain. Annise Parker and Gene Locke. There is irony here because I am sure if you asked someone anywhere in the United States to pick the two runoff candidates in a mayoral election in Houston that featured a white guy, black guy, a lesbian or Hispanic guy, they’d probably pick the white and Hispanic guys.

I have a few thoughts about the election going forward.

1. Will he, won’t he, will he, won’t he, will he endorse a Mayor?
While this was surely a bitter defeat for Peter Brown, he does find himself in the position to choose the next mayor of Houston. Part of me would be disappointed to see him come to endorse either candidate. Frankly, I don’t want to see it be that easy for Parker or Locke at this point. Still, I have a hard time seeing Brown endorse Locke after the way the election unfolded down the stretch. It would seem evident Parker would get an endorsement from Brown, if one is to be given.

2. Black voters?
There was a lot of talk about the power of the black voters in Houston. If we are to believe the candidates, there was apparently a divide amongst the community between Locke and Brown. Now that Brown is out of the race, where do his voters go? There was indignation amongst Brown’s voters when it was suggested by the Locke campaign their votes were bought. Will that ill will prevent them from supporting Locke in the runoff?

3. Somewhere over the rainbow?
Annise Parker stands to become the first  gay mayor of a major U.S. city. While a lot will be made of the political impact of this event, I am more interested in the cultural impact. Electing a gay mayor to be a major step for Houston to be recognized as a major cosmopolitan city.

But let’s not pull the rainbow bus up to the steps of City Hall just yet.

Annise isn’t the first gay candidate to get to this point. Dallas was in the same situation in 2007. Their mayoral election even netted them a glowing article in TIME magazine. Ultimately, Ed Oakley lost to Tom Leppert to the tune of 58% to 42%. I couldn’t find the numbers of the general election that brought the runoff, but it is important to point out a different campaign quickly emerged that included anti-gay robocalls and general crazy conservative rhetoric.

The gay card has remained in the deck thus far in this election. While I do not expect Locke’s campaign to play it now, I am VERY concerned about the possibility of an anti-gay campaign to emerge from the shadows. In the end, Annise Parker being gay in irrelevant; it has no bearing whatsoever on her abilities to be mayor of a major metropolitan city. If she loses the runoff because of her sexuality, it will be a sad day for us all.

4. The other White guy?
While I mentioned Peter having the ability to decide the election with an endorsement, there there is another endorsement that could have a bigger impact. Will Bill White throw his support behind one of the candidates now? A White endorsement would certainly add a bit of flavor to what has generally been regarded as a pretty vanilla campaign.