Parker wins Houston mayor's race
By Tom Baxter
Southern Political Report
December 11, 2009 — Houston city controller Annise Parker won a runoff battle with former city attorney Gene Locke Saturday, becoming the first openly gay mayor of a major US city. Parker won on themes of fiscal responsibility, in a race where her sexual preference didn't emerge as a major issue until the closing days of the campaign. She won about 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Locke. “Tonight the voters of Houston have opened the doors to history,” she told cheering supporters Saturday night. “I acknowledge that. I embrace that. I know what this win means to many of us who thought we could never achieve high office. I know what it means. I understand, because I feel it, too. But now, from this moment, let us join as one community." On Sunday, Parker said she would look within the Houston Police Department to find a new chief, and warned that she had a problem with some of the campaign rhetoric used against her in the runoff, noting that "some of that is going to have to be fixed by the people who put it out there." -- South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford filed for divorce from Gov. Mark Sanford Friday, on grounds of adultery for his affair with an Argentine girlfriend. The announcement came two days after Sanford survived a state House committee vote on impeachment, and a day after the governor said he hoped the marriage could be saved. "She impeached him when the Legislature wouldn't," University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said. -- US Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) has not been a fan of the administration's proposed cap-and-trade program, but in a conference call with reporters this week he said he might change his mind now that the Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that greenhouse gas emissions threaten the public health. The ruling means the EPA could move to regulate carbon emissions, even if the Senate rejects the cap-and-trade bill passed earlier this year in the House. Cap-and-trade sets a limit on emissions, but allows companies to buy and sell permits to increase emissions within the allowable overal limit. “These are big decisions, decisions that affect our entire economy. We’re probably better off having Congress look at this rather than the EPA,” he said. US Sen. Blanche Lincoln said this week she has concerns the EPA decision will lead to increased burdens on American industry. -- White House party crasher Tareq Salahi has resigned from Virginia's state tourism board, saying the "tabloid-type media" around the story could be a distraction to the work of the board. Although Gov. Tim Kaine appointed Salahi to a six-year term on the board, he has been pointed in his criticism of Salahi and his wife. "If you had said to me, 'Hey, some Virginians crashed the White House party, and there are 7.5 million Virginians. Guess who it might be?' I would have guessed them," Kaine said in an interview last week. -- Here's how touchy the gambling issue has become in Alabama: Gov. Bob Riley has informed Florida Gov. Charlie Crist he doesn't have to send the oranges Riley won in a friendly bet ovr the Alabama-Florida Southeastern Conference Championship game last weekend. Riley, locked in a battle with bingo parlor operators, was criticized for the friendly bet on some blogs and talk radio. Crist's office says it's sending the oranges anyway. Meanwhile, a state judge has upheld Riley's position on electronic bingo machines. Follow Tom Baxter on Twitter. |
