Democratic? Municipal Candidates Pandering to Republicans
At least two municipal candidates are pandering to Republicans, John Whitmire and Nick Hellyar.
One is surprising as he is gay but was not endorsed by the Houston LGBTQ – Political Caucus.
I am not outing the candidate. But I have seen several people refer to Hellyar as having bipartisan support (pandering to Republicans).
From a comment on Off the Kuff;
I’ve met Hellyar. He is thoughtful, pragmatic, and has substantial bipartisan support. I plan to vote for him. The only nominal Republican in the race actually lives in Brazoria County, from Houston Chronicle reports, and has no chance to win citywide and miserable fundraising.
Houston Democracy Project had the following to say about Mr. Hellyar;
Though Mr. Hellyar doesn’t say what political party he supports on his website.
Republicans don’t treat municipal elections as non-partisan. Neither should we.
With Republicans attacking democracy and attacking so many different people, it’s a matter of public safety to fight back. There is no public safety without democracy.
Mr. Hellyar has a page of endorsements.
He is endorsed by an ideologically diverse crew.
For example, Mr. Hellyar is endorsed by both incumbent Democratic Councilwoman Sallie Alcorn and the right-wing Republican former Houston Councilmember Greg Travis.
Seems contradictory. The visions of the two major parties are difficult to reconcile at the moment.
There is an old saying that there is no Republican or Democratic way to fill a pothole.
But we don’t need our potholes filled by people who support authoritarians or by people silent about authoritarians. We could find people fully committed to democracy to fill the potholes.
Issues Mr. Hellyar could address are the loss of an elected school board in what 60 years ago was a Jim Crow city, the 21 Republican lawsuits moving to the Texas Supreme Court seeking to undo hard-won 2022 Democratic Harris County election victories, the many restrictions on municipal autonomy imposed on Houston by the far-right state legislature and endless hostility from Texas Republicans directed at gay people, trans people and many other people.
The other candidate is John Whitmire, but that will be for another day.
