Thoughts on Annise Parker's win for those outside Houston

1) First off, for those of you outside Houston, although Houston is probably the reddest major metropolitan area in the country, the city proper leans democratic and we also have a very large and semi public gay population (maybe the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th largest in the country) with long roots and deep public history. So, although we have tons of crazy christian right wingers, our mainline establishments are probably more tolerant than you might think. (We're not Dallas!)

2) Annise Parker won because she was an incredibly well qualified candidate who happened to be gay, not because she was a gay candidate.

3) She's going to have a tough start as mayor. She comes in without business backing, and most of White's staff following him into his campaign for governor. We'll have to wait and see if she can figure out ways to build a city hall and leverage the very established city council members. Plus, she's apparently planning to try and remake the police department which is going to hit a whole bunch of bureaucratic drag.