Well, the national media have a taken a minor interest on the outcome of the Houston Mayor’s race. The headline is easy. Houston is largest city in the US to elect an openly gay mayor.
For anyone who read my posts on this race (here, here, here, and here), you know that the gay angle on this was not the main thread. The main issues were typical city government topics of crime and fiscal health. And, in spite of the non-partisan race being dominated by Democrats, the debate was almost entirely held on conservative ground.
Gene Locke ran as the law and order candidate and, as described in my first post, provided a clear and logical argument against zoning regulations that liberals on the two coasts routinely implement, to the detriment of anyone seeking affordable real estate.
Annise Parker ran as the fiscal responsibility candidate, emphasizing the need to control spending to manage slowing revenues from the recession. As City Controller, she had criticized the current Bill White administration for running an expense to current revenue deficit every year, only balancing the budget by spending cash reserves in the “rainy day” fund.
Parker has now won by almost six points, more than my prediction of three points. Why did she win? I actually think it helped that she was a lesbian. As mentioned in my first post, she had high name recognition from having already been elected to city-wide office. But, it was also easy for people to remember, “Oh, she’s the lesbian.”
She basically ran a boring campaign focused on her experience and competence. She really had no reason to bring up her sexual orientation because there were no real pressing issues there that a city mayor could address. Houston has long had a large gay community and while there have been moments of political controversy in the past, most Houstonians simply have better things to focus on.
So, I think it was easy for many voters to make uninformed but rational choices. They could vote for Gene Locke, a guy they had never heard of because he has been a behind the scenes wheeler-dealer lawyer. Or, they could vote for Parker, a person who had been around for 12 years and was well-known for being a lesbian but also being boring and not part of any major controversy. All Parker had to do was play a good defense and run out the clock. Which she did and resulted in an easy victory.
Now, as a conservative, I wish the Republicans had put forward a strong candidate. I believe that a true conservative would have won pretty easily this year.
P.S. Outgoing Mayor Bill White has finally made up his mind and is running for Governor rather than the Senate. I have posted once already on the Governor's race and will do so again as this heats up.
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E. Magill
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Thanks, I hadn't gotten around to reading anything local on the race. Am now going to check out your other posts on the race.
I appreciate if you do read the other posts. The first one is the most thorough. The rest are more just news updates.
From Business Week:
Oct. 3--After months of rising unemployment and sinking profits, recession-weary businesses in South Florida may have forgotten what a confident consumer looks like.
They might want to take a look at the area's gay community.
Gay and lesbian consumers are more optimistic about the economy and about their financial futures than their heterosexual counterparts, according to a national survey conducted in August by Witeck-Combs/Harris Interactive.
"We've seen that here as well," said Steve Adkins, president of the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (MDGLCC). "The [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, or] GLBT market is still strong in South Florida."
At the chamber's Expo South Florida at the Miami Beach Convention Center this Saturday, companies will try to woo GLBT consumers who, though not immune to the downturn, have remained relatively upbeat, thanks to fewer long-term financial obligations like children or college tuition funds and a lower unemployment rate than the overall population.
In Miami-Dade, the 123,000 adults who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender are responsible for an estimated $5.6 billion in consumer spending each year, roughly 6.8 percent of the county's overall purchasing power, Adkins said.
Best BUY, among those retailers exhibiting at the Expo, recently started doing focus studies of gay and lesbian customers at its Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach locations to get a better sense of how to court the market, said Carlos Serrano, a customer solutions manager for the company.
"We found that the gay and lesbian community has a lot of expendable income," he said. "And they're willing to spend the money on the right technology that fits their needs."
With consumers across all sectors shying away from spending, the GLBT community may be one of the first groups to come out of its shell, said Wes Combs, president of Witeck-Combs, a public relations and marketing firm specializing in the gay market.
POLL'S FINDINGS
The Witeck-Combs/Harris Interactive poll found that 57 percent of gay and lesbian respondents said they expect the U.S. economy to get better in the next year, compared to 45 percent of heterosexuals. And 31 percent of GLBT adults said they expect their own household's financial situation to improve in the next six months, compared to 24 percent of heterosexuals. Only 16 percent of gay adults expected their finances to decline, compared with 32 percent of heterosexual adults.
One possible explanation for the positive outlook among gays is their unemployment picture isn't as gloomy as the general population's, Combs said. Compared to heterosexuals, gay and lesbian workers were twice as likely to say the job market in their region was "pretty good." They are more likely to be concentrated in fields like education and healthcare, which have been less affected by the recession than manufacturing and construction, he said.
Since only about a quarter of GLBT households have children, gay job seekers tend to be freer to leave a weak job market or pursue an opportunity in another city.
And, with diapers, school supplies and college savings funds absent from most GLBT households' budgets, gay consumers usually have more discretionary income to spend on themselves, said Julian Cavazos, business development director for the Gay and Lesbian Business Exchange (GLBX), part of Fort Lauderdale's Chamber of Commerce.
GLBX's membership has grown steadily this year, with increased participation from non-gay business owners looking to access a vibrant market, Cavazos said. At the Miami-Dade organization, 44 percent of members don't identify as gay or lesbian. Nationwide, gay and lesbian spending has been estimated at $690 billion and it's expected to reach as much as $835 billion in 2011, a 2007 Witeck-Combs/Packaged Facts survey found.