Texas: Houston Chronicle

Good for Locke for denouncing the hatefest about to be unleashed by Steven Hotze and a bunch of so called "religious" figures.
“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.”
That was pretty good, but there is a little problem.

It is ridiculous to think that Peter Brown is buying votes from the Black community. Not only is it hard to come up with a price for a vote, it is extremely illegal. EXTREMELY, I tell you! It just isn't happening. But something else is.

According to Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle, Peter Brown has spent $3.2 million of his wife's money to become Mayor of Houston. With $3.2 Million Brown can flood the airwaves with TV commercials and mailers that contain false or extremely misleading information and his opponents would not have the time or money to counter the flood. There ought to be a law.

Team Locke is desperate. Gene Locke's second TV ad skirts the edges of dishonesty claiming to be the only candidate endorsed by the Houston Chronicle and now he has a radio spot, by former City Councilman Jew Don Boney, claiming Peter Brown is buying the black vote. From the Houston Chronicle:

Mayoral candidate Gene Locke took direct aim at City Councilman Peter Brown's support in the black community Thursday, releasing a radio advertisement that accuses Brown of trying to buy the support of black voters.OK, call me color blind, but just how does a candidate spend his own money to buy the votes of a specific race of people? Is it like promising to build a Hispanic Museum for the Hispanic Community at a Hispanic forum? Or promising the Tejano Democrats to renew the black/brown coalition of the 1980s? Or promising the right wingers of KSEV to go after the very brown people he has promised so much to?

Well this is disappointing. According to numbers provided by Off the Kuff, only 9% of those voting in the Houston elections as of today are Hispanic voters.
8,295 in-person votes cast in Harris County 6,054 (73%) of them were in the City of Houston Municipal. (This does not include mail ballots).

Ethnic
9% Hispanic
27% African American
7% Asian
1% Jewish
54% Other
It's also sad that only 8,295 people have taken the time to go vote in a city of approximately one million eligible voters. But, they have time to redeem themselves.