Houston Is Largest City to Elect Openly Gay Mayor
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/us/politics/13houston.html?_r=1
HOUSTON — Houston became the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor on Saturday night, as voters gave a solid victory to the city controller, Annise Parker.
Cheers and dancing erupted at Ms. Parker’s campaign party as her opponent, Gene Locke, a former city attorney, conceded defeat just after 10 p.m. when it became clear he could not overcome her lead.
Twenty minutes later, Ms. Parker appeared before ecstatic supporters at the city’s convention center and then joked that she was the first graduate of Rice University to be elected mayor. (She is, by the way.) Then she grew serious.
“Tonight the voters of Houston have opened the door to history,” she said, standing by her partner of 19 years, Kathy Hubbard, and their three adopted children. “I acknowledge that. I embrace that. I know what this win means to many of us who never thought we could achieve high office.”
With all precincts reporting, Ms. Parker, the city controller, had defeated Mr. Locke 53 percent to 47 percent.
Throughout the campaign, Ms. Parker tried to avoid making an issue of her sexual orientation and emphasized her experience in overseeing the city’s finances. But she began her career as an advocate for gay rights in the 1980s, and it was lost on no one in Houston, a city of 2.2 million people, that her election marked a milestone for gay men and lesbians around the country.
Several smaller cities in other regions have chosen openly gay mayors, among them Providence, R.I., Portland, Ore., and Cambridge, Mass. But Ms. Parker’s success came in a conservative state where voters have outlawed gay marriage and a city where a referendum on granting benefits to same-sex partners of city employees was soundly defeated.
Turnout was light across the city on a rainy, foggy day, with only about 16 percent of registered voters going to the polls.
Ms. Parker’s sexual orientation did not become an issue in the race until after the general election produced no winner and led to a run-off between her and Mr. Locke, who is black and enjoys strong support among African-American voters.
The two candidates differed very little on the issues. Mr. Locke, who is 61, promised to crack down on crime and expand the police department. Ms. Parker, 53, said her experience as controller made her a better candidate to steer the city through the tough financial times it now faces.
The candidates also started slinging stones at one another in final weeks as it became clear neither had a huge advantage in the few polls conducted here. Mr. Locke bashed Ms. Parker as “soft on crime” and suggested she favors tax increases. She portrayed him as nothing more than a lobbyist for developers.
But the ugliest attacks came from a group of black pastors who spoke out against Ms. Parker for what they called her gay agenda and two separate anti-gay advocates who sent out fliers in the mail calling attention to her support from gay groups and to her relationship with her partner. Mr. Locke denied having anything to do with the attacks, but two members of his finance committee gave $40,000 to help finance one of the mailings.
Some national gay-rights groups, meanwhile, came to the aid of Ms. Parker’s campaign with money and volunteers to man telephone banks in a get-out-the-vote effort and to urge her likely supporters to vote.
Political strategists said that to win, Mr. Locke needed to carry a large majority of the black vote, which is usually around a third of the turnout, and to attract significant support from conservative whites, many of them Republicans, who are also about a third of the voting mix here.
Ms. Parker appeared to have cobbled together a winning coalition of white liberals and gay people, who were expected to turn out in large numbers.
Rachel Marcus contributed reporting from Houston.
Houston elects first openly gay mayor
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-houston-mayor13-2009dec13,0,3442511.story
Annise Parker claims victory with 53% of the vote in Saturday’s mayoral runoff.
Houston – Annise Parker, a lesbian who has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation, on Saturday was elected mayor of Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city.
With the victory, Parker, 53, will become the first openly gay mayor of such a large American city. The population of the Texas city is about 2.2 million.
Her victory comes two days after Democrats in California’s Assembly unanimously tapped John A. Perez of Los Angeles to be their speaker. He will be the first openly gay lawmaker to hold the powerful post.
With almost all of Houston’s 738 precincts reporting, Parker had 53% of the vote and Gene Locke 47%, according to the Harris County website.
The fiercely contested election battle leading up to Saturday’s balloting was marked by anti-gay rhetoric. Locke, 61, condemned such tactics.
Meanwhile, gay and lesbian political organizations nationwide rallied to support Parker, the city controller.
Parker and Locke, both Democrats in the nonpartisan race, made it to the runoff after garnering more votes than two other candidates on Nov. 3.
Several smaller U.S. cities have openly gay mayors, including Portland, Ore., Providence, R.I., and Cambridge, Mass.
Only problem at the polls? Lack of voters
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6767408.html
For most election workers it was an uneventful day, but some got lucky
Was it the rainy weather? Apathy? Dislike for the candidates?
Whatever the reason, Houston voters shied away from the polls Saturday, leaving bored election workers reading magazines and hoping for a last-minute rush that didn’t seem to materialize. The good news: most of the people who turned out were able to vote quickly and easily, officials said.
“No major issues,” said Hector de Leon, a spokesman for the Harris County Clerk’s Office. The few problems reported had to do with people going to the wrong voting location or trying to vote when they don’t live inside the city.
Despite the slow pace, the final day of the highly contested runoff between Annise Parker and Gene Locke had its interesting moments across the city.
• • • •
7 a.m., Precinct 541 at Fiesta Mart in the 8100 Block of Kirby
Among the voters waiting for the polls to open were some dog-tired medical students who never sleep anyway.
Chirag Patel, a 30-year-old student at University of Texas Medical School at Houston, picked up some friends at 6:45 a.m. for the short drive to the polls, continuing the tradition the buddies have had since the last election.
The goal: To be first in line on Election Day.
“This guy is weird, man,” said Rene Colorado, who Patel dragged along with him.
Though the friends were, indeed, among the first to arrive at Fiesta on Saturday morning, none of their names were on the voter rolls. They had gone to the wrong precinct.
They wouldn’t be the first to vote after all.
“Too bad,” said a slightly forlorn Patel.
• • • •
8 a.m., Annise Parker’s headquarters in the Heights
Annise Parker started her day with a breakfast taco, cracking jokes and cringing when her photo was snapped as she chewed.
“I wasn’t expecting pictures of me shoving food into my mouth,” Parker said.
A few minutes later, a satisfied Parker expressed her optimism about the day.
“I know what races feel like and this one feels good,” Parker said.
• • • •
Noon, Precinct 439 at Bendwood Elementary
Looking slightly bored, Carolyn Tarleton passed time reading a magazine at the precinct where she worked as an election judge. She perked up when asked how voting had been that day.
Not so busy, she said. Five hours after opening she had welcomed only 150 voters.
Why so few?
“Maybe the weather,” she volunteered, also mentioning a lack of interest from voters as a possibility.
She said she hoped things would pick up later in the day. In the meantime though, there wasn’t much to do. So she went back to the magazine.
• • • •
1 p.m., Community Center in east Houston
Gene Locke was ostensibly here to chat with some of Houston’s older residents, but his family seemed to have come along for a little fun. They enjoyed their final day on the campaign trail in a chartered bus a staffer nicknamed the “Locke and Roll.”
The whole family barreled out, including Locke’s mother, who had a campaign sticker stuck to her forehead and a Hawaiian lei around her neck.
Behind her, Locke’s children excitedly shot pictures and videos with their cameras.
A confident Locke answered a few questions about the campaign, saying he was “proud.”
“I’ve had a lot of high fives and words of encouragement and words of support,” he said.
6:15 p.m., Precinct 483 at Thornwood Elementary
Chris Boyd finished up his first term as a poll worker at Precinct 483, where about 300 people voted.
Rather than spending his Saturday sleeping or playing on the computer, the 18-year-old woke up bright and early to help folks vote.
“I thought this would be boring, but it was kind of fun,” he said.
Next Saturday, however, the college student is voting to sleep late.
