October 5, 2003 7:17 AM

Sounds as if we have far too many folks with way too much time on their hands

Scheme to confuse voters in mayor's race is thwarted

I'm human, I let my personal anger at the "so called" "Hispanic Leaders" of the Democratic party over ride my professional life. Realizing my actions WERE wrong, I withdrew from the situation, and admitted I was wrong. That's the difference between me and elected officials...I will admit when I'm wrong. I'm human...I made a mistake.

- Brenda Flores

Politics is Houston can sometimes best be compared to Theater of the Absurd. Not even Ionesco in his salad days could have come up with a twisted tale such as this one:

An aborted scheme to dilute support for a major candidate by putting another man with the same name on the Nov. 4 ballot has touched two campaigns and is roiling the rhetoric in Houston's mayoral race. It is a bizarre tale that includes a Democratic U.S. congressman, a secret tape recording, a $5,000 campaign check and a floppy straw hat sold for $1,200.

Community activist Brenda Flores became involved in a scheme to confuse voters by paying someone named Bill White to run in the mayoral election against the other Bill White. Towards what end she might having been working is difficult to know, but it appears she may have come to her senses before committing anything stupid, illegal, or both.

[Flores] told the Houston Chronicle she hit upon the idea of duplicating names to create ballot confusion two years ago as a way to undermine the candidacy of Orlando Sanchez, who lost in a runoff to Mayor Lee Brown after the two had eliminated Bell in the general election.

Nothing came of that, but this year, Flores discussed with a friend the idea of running a second Bill White. She claimed that led to a meeting with a Turner campaign consultant, with whom she negotiated a $5,000 deal -- Flores would receive $2,600 in cash to find another White to run and $2,400 more after that candidate filed.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, fallout will result from this. Flores has already resigned from her precinct chairmanship and has apologized for her actions. Congressman Chris Bell became involved in thwarting the scheme, but the amount of scheming and plotting involved in this caper is truly impressive. Who knew what when?? I can't help but wonder if winning the mayor's race is really worth all of these machinations?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on October 5, 2003 7:17 AM.

So why not take a long lunch? was the previous entry in this blog.

Rushing in where fools and angels fear to tread is the next entry in this blog.

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