Texas GOP activist: Don't vote all-Republican

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/politics/1622160

 

Republicans urged not to vote straight

Activist targets gay candidate

By JOHN WILLIAMS

Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Political Writer

GOP political activist Dave Wilson has a message for fellow Republicans -- If you vote straight, you vote gay.

 

Wilson is sending Republican voters an automated telephone message telling them not to vote a straight Republican ticket because it includes a gay candidate.

 

The target of Wilson's attack is Alex Wathen, a Republican candidate for justice of the peace, who is president of the Houston chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans -- the party's leading gay and lesbian advocacy group.

 

"I'm asking you to vote principles over party politics," Wilson said in his message to Republican voters in JP Precinct 1.

 

Wilson's campaign surprised Harris County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill, who wasn't happy about the effort to split the party's ticket.

 

Woodfill said he worries that without straight Republican voting, the party could lose its local dominance because voters often don't vote in down-ballot races unless they cast a straight ticket.

 

Republicans now hold all countywide elected offices.

 

"Why would Dave do this?" Woodfill said. "I mean, I agree with him on the homosexual issue, and the party position on that is clear."

 

"But it is wrong for Republicans to send the message not to vote straight ticket," he said. "The straight ticket helps all of our judicial races in Harris County."

 

Wathen, who is running against Democratic incumbent David Patronella, said he was disappointed to learn of the assault against him.

 

"These are outdated notions," he said. "I don't really see how it matters what the orientation of a justice of the peace is. The duty of a JP is to enforce the law."

 

Wilson said he wants to emphasize a plank in the 2002 Texas Republican Party platform that says homosexual "behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country's founders and shared by a majority of Texans."

 

Wilson said he issued the message because Woodfill and other local Republican officials failed the party by letting Wathen stay on the GOP ticket. Woodfill should have recruited another Republican to run in the party's primary rather than let Wathen run unopposed, he said.

 

"I realize that this will hurt Republicans down the ticket" Wilson said. "But, Woodfill and that group are the ones hurting the party for letting this go on."

 

Woodfill said he only recently learned of Wathen's sexual orientation.

 

Wilson, head of Houstonians for Family Values, is a longtime crusader against homosexuality.

 

Last year, he spearheaded a petition drive that led to a Houston city referendum preventing the city from giving benefits to domestic partners of gay employees.

 

This week, Wilson mailed a letter to GOP precinct chairs, asking them to direct Republicans away from straight ticket voting.

 

"Although the Democrats have a small lead in this JP precinct, a large turnout voting straight Republican ticket, along with pro-homosexual crossover votes, could elect Mr. Wathen," Wilson said in his letter to GOP precinct judges.

 

Wathen said he has a good shot at increasing the GOP's count of elected officials. Democrats now hold 10 of the 16 JP places.

 

Precinct 1 runs down the center of Houston and includes Montrose, Houston's largest gay community.

 

Wathen said local GOP officials assisted his legal efforts last spring when Patronella questioned his petition for office, which contained technical irregularities that the courts overlooked.

 

He also said he hoped Patronella was not involved in Wilson's effort.

 

Patronella, who has the endorsement of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said he has run a completely positive campaign that has focused on qualifications gained by being in office since 1991.

 

Patronella said that sexual orientation is not important to the judicial position and that it was inappropriate for Wilson to send out the message.

 

Harris County Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Schechter initially chuckled when she heard that one Republican was attacking another.

 

Then she called the act "disgraceful."

 

"Intolerance like this is a reason voters should join the Democratic Party," she said.

 

Log Cabin Republicans have had a series of battles with others in their party in Texas. Besides adopting its anti-gay platform, the party has denied the Log Cabin Republicans booths at recent Texas GOP conventions.

 

Wathen said he has "not been bothered too much" by such party positions.

 

"I believe that most Republicans don't worry about those things," Wathen said. "After all, the platform also says the United States should get out of the United Nations."

 

Since Conservatism has been seen in a new light or so in the past year, I've seen quite a few Republicans assert others that they are not bigots, only the ridiculously far far right are, and that a great number of Republicans are socially with the times, but disagree with Democrats on issues like Gun Control and Abortion. Some Republicans (especially those in Texas) may want to consider finding out exactly what their party stands for.

[Guest Samurai_Goat]

All I say on homosexuality is, if a guy would be happier performing the horizontal tango, bed shaker or leporous lambada of love with another guy than a woman, or a woman perfurring another woman to a man, I'm cool with it. As long as those guys keep their pants on around me. Otherwise, have a great time, guys.

Oh, and I turn 18 on November the 6th, exactly 24 hours after elections here. Thought I should throw that in.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

You can vote for a 3rd party canidate if you choose. But let's be honest, either the Dems or Republicans are likely to win. If Republicans vote for someone else a Democrat would win, which is fine if he or she is conservative.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

You can vote for a 3rd party canidate if you choose. But let's be honest, either the Dems or Republicans are likely to win. If Republicans vote for someone else a Democrat would win, which is fine if he or she is conservative.

"Liberal" used to be a term for one who stood for freedom, but now it means the exact opposite.

 

See, the thing is, I somewhat undertsand the rightie viewpoint, but the serious thing that bothers me about the GOP are the Social Conservatives and the religious moralists who tell others how to live. But if the meat of the right woke up and became Libertarians, they could be unstoppable.

[Guest Slapnuts00]

You can vote for a 3rd party canidate if you choose. But let's be honest, either the Dems or Republicans are likely to win. If Republicans vote for someone else a Democrat would win, which is fine if he or she is conservative.

"Liberal" used to be a term for one who stood for freedom, but now it means the exact opposite.

 

See, the thing is, I somewhat undertsand the rightie viewpoint, but the serious thing that bothers me about the GOP are the Social Conservatives and the religious moralists who tell others how to live. But if the meat of the right woke up and became Libertarians, they could be unstoppable.

I agree I find myself agreeing with most Conservative policies especially when it comes to foreign policy and the economy but I couldn't bring myself to register Republican because of the religious evangelists who hold power in the party and tell us how to live, when we should pray, etc.

It seems that the GOP protects broader freedoms, while the Dems protect more personal freedoms.

[Guest Some Guy]

This is where I stray from the GOP platform. Does it really matter if the guy is gay? Unless he's running on the slogan, "I'm queer and I'm here" or some other such nonsence I would have no problem voting for a gay guy. I have the same issue with female and minority candidates, eun on issues not on the color of your skin or who you choose to fuck. That shit doesn't matter, the sooner people realize that the faster discrimination will disapear.

 

Demonizing a group of people who could potetially vote for you seems stupid to me. God doesn't like homos, we get it. Now move on and talk about an issue that people give a shit about and is actually relevant to office that the person is running for.

[Guest Samurai_Goat]

Hey, where does it say God doesn't like homosexuals? I'm not a bible person, so I don't know where it is.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Hey, where does it say God doesn't like homosexuals? I'm not a bible person, so I don't know where it is.

There's a bit of writing about it in the Old Testament. Mostly in Leveticus, I believe.

 

Basically, it depends on how seriously you take the Old Testament (which also reccomends stoning virgins in the town square) and whether Sodom and Gomorrah was a parable (as in, a story to make a point) or a retelling of an event that actually happened.

 

I won't mention that not all of these books where homosexuality is referenced is Gospel (as in, THE word of God, according to what's written.)