The AP headline: “Houston Mayor Annise Parker rips Rick Perry”.
“Houston Mayor Annise Parker says Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s attacks on her predecessor, Democrat Bill White, unfairly smeared the nation’s fourth largest city as a financial mess. She says Perry’s ads and statements mischaracterized White’s stewardship of the city and the financial shape it’s in now. Parker, the first openly gay mayor of Houston, told reporters she would remain officially neutral in the governor’s race but said she was going to vote for White,” reported the AP.
I’ve been wondering how big-lib Parker was going to handle this situation. Since she has become Houston’s mayor, she’s had to deal with one financial crisis after another. And because the previous Houston mayor, her hometown liberal-democrat friend White, happens to be running for governor, Mayor Parker has been doing an interesting dance. She’s been pointing out to the Houston media how bad a shape one program after another is in but, doing so without directly putting blame on White.
Now this is what we get: Parker attacks Perry, very expected; claims that Perry is wrong in telling what everyone knows, namely that White left some very big messes in the city, and; then says she’ll vote for White but, is not making an endorsement and is officially neutral.
If Parker’s intention was to help her predecessor White in the race for governor, she’d have said nothing. All she’s done by talking is to again mention the issue of White leaving the city in a mess while withholding an official endorsement. That’s not exactly a helpful communication for the Bill White campaign.
Robert Pratt is host of the top-rated Pratt on Texas radio program which can be heard at www.PrattonTexas.com
P.S. I saw this, from Burka, after posting this column: https://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=7998
