Houston Mayoral Candidate Gene Locke is between a rock and a hard place as he faces a competitive runoff race against Annise Parker, who would become the city’s first openly gay mayor if elected on December 12.
In order to win, Locke has to build a strong coalition, while promising to represent people of all backgrounds.
But, some of the people Locke has met with recently seem to have their own political agenda, which includes turning out the vote AGAINST Parker because of her sexual orientation.
Locke’s campaign released a statement today in response to a Houston Chronicle article that said many conservative and religious leaders oppose Parker because she is a lesbian.
STATEMENT BY GENE LOCKE
November 14, 2009
“As I have previously stated, I reject any association with the style of campaigning that was the subject of an article in the Houston Chronicle today. We have serious issues to deal with in our city that requires us to work together as one Houston and I trust that Houstonians will choose a new mayor based on the issues that effect our lives every day and not to be swayed by divisive rhetoric.”
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Locke has never made any comment, publicly or off the record, to this reporter about Parker’ s sexuality.
Meanwhile, 2 On The Beat has heard directly from many in the gay and lesbian community that they view the election as an opportunity to make history.
Parker’s side is passionate about the campaign, and her supporters will show up to vote in the runoff, and she is getting political contributions as a result.
2 on The Beat believes that Locke is right to denounce these negative anti-gay attacks perpetrated by third-party political machines.
Locke and Parker need to focus on the issues that are most important to the people of Houston.
For many people, Parker’s sexuality is not on the top of their list of concerns.
Mary Benton Media 
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Priscilla Villarreal, Benjamin Floyd, Benjamin Floyd, David Jennings, Gene Locke and others. Gene Locke said: @ErikVidor See @MaryBenton's report on @GeneLocke's statement at: http://ow.ly/CjLF. Please get the facts first before making accusations. […]
Where did Gene Locke denounce attacks on Annise Parker based solely on her sexuality? I don’t see that from Locke’s statement. I also don’t see any explaination of Locke’s meeting with Hotze and Patrick.
He rejects the association (undefined in the press statement), but does he reject the support of Hotze and Patrick and others who seek to help him by attacking Ms. Parker’s sexuality? Until he does forcefully and specifically, he will own their rhetoric and actions.
I think you read too much into his statement. Take it at face value. Which is IMHO, he doesn’t want to take the blame for the actions of Hotze and Patrick, but has not rejected their support
Mr. Locke says he “rejects any association with the style of campaigning” but yet he is the one that met with that creepy Hotze guy. Apparrently he is desperate enough to make some sort of deal with him. However, this deal will prove to be even worse than the $4M he left taxpayers with over his stadium deal. Does he really think we voters are that stupid? We all know that Hotze would not support help Mr. Locke and independtly attack Ms. Parker without yet another insider deal and promise from Mr. Locke. I have gay friends that support him-I can’t wait to hear what they think of this. I thought this kind of nonsense ended in the 80s.
previous responses are spot on, but i’d also like to point out –
ms. benton makes the statement: “Locke has never made any comment, publicly or off the record, to this reporter about Parker’ s sexuality.
Meanwhile, 2 On The Beat has heard directly from many in the gay and lesbian community that they view the election as an opportunity to make history.
Parker’s side is passionate about the campaign, and her supporters will show up to vote in the runoff, and she is getting political contributions as a result.”
it would *appear* that ms. benton is trying to make the statement that people are only voting for annise parker ~because she’s gay~ and thus ms. parker isn’t running ~on the issues~.
how quickly we forget the “historic election” of president obama… https://2onthebeat.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/an-historic-night-senator-obama-elected-president/
is ms. benton honestly going to say that people only voted for obama because he was black and not based on the issues? and if so, did she happen to receive that talking point from the rabid rightwingers that gene locke has been meeting with?
No where in this post did I state that I think people are only voting for Parker because she’s gay.
I think you are trying to read too much into the post, perhaps, based on your own support of Parker?
My point was, and still is, that her gay supporters are passionate and are contributing votes, manpower and money.
That’s a dream for any candidate.
Maybe I should take issue with the fact that you don’t capitalize President Obama’s name and you use lower case in describing him as black?
Nah, that would be petty and irrelevant.
The fact is, SOME people WILL vote for Parker because they are gay, like her. Just as SOME people WILL vote for Locke because he is African American.
Just as SOME people will vote AGAINST Parker because she is gay, and they don’t approve of the lifestyle, and SOME people will vote AGAINST Locke because they don’t like the color of his skin.
As for rabid rightwingers? Who are those people. I ask the same question when someone asks if I am taking my cues from the liberal left.
Isn’t there enough name calling in this campaign?
As part of my job, I spend a lot of time talking to/interviewing people of all beliefs, lifestyles and political points of view.
I don’t have the luxury or desire to spend my time talking to the choir.
Locke got caught. He is not denoucing the anti gay rhetoric, he is back tracking as fast as he can.
He got caught playing both sides. No one likes someone who is playing both sides except the winner at the end. This is not the end. Yet.
This is sad on Locke’s part. He simply got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It is embarrassing for his campaign.
It is embarrassing that the Annise Parker campaign has created and instigated this divisive and inflammatory situation and then tries to prove that she is what Houston deserves. I don’t want a hatemonger representing me.
Houston does not need a leader who incites anger and one-sided attacks. Gene Locke is above this incendiary rhetoric.
“Meanwhile, David has heard directly from many in the black community that they view the election as an opportunity to make history.
Locke’s side is passionate about the campaign, and his supporters will show up to vote in the runoff, and he is getting political contributions as a result.
Locke and Parker need to get back to the issues.”
(That’s the statement that will be released if Parker meets with the KKK or any group or person that has a long, well documented history of race-baiting. We’ll all clap hands, and tell all the good little voters to note that her opponent has been taking contributions from blacks after all, and that he has passionate black supporters, so that makes it OK for her to meet with black-hating groups.)
Shame on Annise Parker and her supporters for embarking on this smear campaign. Their attempts to paint Gene Locke as a bigot is just more of the same political mud-slinging typical that we’ve seen over the past months from Parker and her supporters.
Mr. Locke has always taken the high road and consistently disavowed these types of negative attacks. However, Ms. Parker continues to support them. Her supporters at Annie’s List sent out an that attempted to smear Mr. Locke’s character, alleging that he does not respect women. They used the same tactics that the wingnut groups employ, such as misleading people with items taken out of context, or attempting to tie him to negative third-party groups. There are many women who support Gene; and as one of them, I was personally offended that a women’s group would debase us with this type of negative attack method.
At no point has Annise Parker or her campaign ever disavowed those attacks. In fact, Gene Locke is the ONLY mayoral candidate so far who has had the courage and integrity to speak out against this type of mud-slinging. The question is, will Ms. Parker ever rise to the same ethical standards and disavow her supporters for making personal attacks?
I have to agree with some of the other posts. I don’t rat all ead Locke’s statement as rejecting Hotze and his Klan. Nor does he explain why he met with the hate mongers in the first place.
Like Dick Nixon, he’s just sorry he got caught.
[…] the debate to focus on the issues, the anti-Locke bullies are attempting to tie Gene to them. As KPRC reporter Mary Benton said: “Locke is between a rock and a hard place.” How do you hold an intelligent conversation with people, and try to bring them together to work on […]