Mayor dons her running shoes for re-election
Days ‘tough,’ but Parker says she wants job for two more years
An Easter weekend campaign event replete with rousing speeches, dogs of both the hot and four-legged variety and a kids’ Easter egg “scramble” kicked off Mayor Annise Parker’s re-election bid Saturday at Discovery Green.
With no announced opposition so far, Parker’s bid to retain what she called “the best job in the world” would seem to be a cakewalk — if not an Easter egg roll — compared with 2009.
In her first run for the office that year, the former neighborhood activist, city councilwoman and city controller nosed out the candidate anointed for the open seat by the downtown establishment, attorney Gene Locke, as well as two other candidates, to become the first lesbian mayor of a major American city.
This year, the establishment seems to be satisfied with the mayor’s job performance, as evidenced by her endorsement by erstwhile opponent Locke and by former mayor (and still political paterfamilias) Bob Lanier. Parker also has raised more than $1 million in campaign funds with two more major fundraisers still this week.
“It’s been a long, tough 15 months,” the 54-year-old incumbent told the crowd on a warm and hazy Saturday afternoon. “Most of the decisions I’ve had to make were hard decisions.”
Those among the 300 or so at Discovery Green were, of course, pleased with her performance.
“She’s doing wonderful things in the city,” said Lesa Jackson, who volunteers at the GLBT Community Center and at Fresh Start Community Haven, a shelter for the homeless.
“We wanted to hear our mayor talk about redistricting, flooding issues and the budget,” said Tom Edmonds, an investor and native Houstonian. “She took over at a time when the city was in the greatest financial peril since Kathy Whitmire was mayor, and I think she’s doing a marvelous job bringing us out of it.”
City is ‘better off’
Parker, wearing a green jacket for Earth Day and running shoes for the race, told her cheering supporters that Houston after her first term was in good shape. “It is better off financially, it is better off economically, it is better off in terms of its governance than any other city in America,” she said.
Not everyone agrees.
Jared Woodfill, chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, last week found fault with “the drainage tax she pushed through and that she continues fighting (state Sen.) Dan Patrick on in Austin.”
Added Woodfill: “The last thing the people of Houston need is a new tax.”
He also accused the mayor of backing a new redistricting plan that “clearly increases Democratic strength on the council.”
Although Woodfill said he had heard talk of potential challengers, none has emerged.
“I don’t know what kind of institutional support someone could get at this point,” said Democratic political consultant Keir Murray. “Unless a candidate could bring a lot of his own money into the race, it’s awfully late. It seems early, but it’s late.”
Tough days ahead
Despite the campaign cakewalk to the November election, the mayor would face major challenges during her second two-year term, Murray said.
“The first term was the easiest,” he said. “The budget crisis is a continuing problem for anyone in office. Layoffs are coming, including HPD layoffs. There will be unhappiness. There’s no getting around it.”
Other longtime City Hall observers have suggested that Parker could face increasing difficulties with a fractious City Council.
They note that she has been either unwilling or unable to forge a consensus in the style of Lanier or her immediate predecessor, Bill White.
On Saturday, though, those were issues for another day.
“I know there are problems out there; I know times are tough,” Parker said, “but the Houston that I see has all of you in it, and the Houston that I see has a better, brighter future for each one of us. And if we only keep working and if we only keep helping each other, that future that could be, that should be, can be and will be.”