David Ortez

In less than 24 hours Houstonians will head to the polls to decide who will lead them in the new decade.

Both campaigns have been busy as they crunch numbers and review the early voter turnout. Voter turnout was higher than the general election but do not let that statistic deceive you.

It may well be that folks did not want to allocate time on their busy Saturday holiday schedule to satisfy their civic duty. Whatever the reason … about 5,000 more voters decided to cast their ballot than before. Roughly 67,000 voters have voted early in this runoff election.

Everyone knows who David “Dave” Wilson is by now, right? In case you forgot … he is the “anti-gay” activist that caused a stir yesterday when he declared war on Annise Parker.

Well, I did some investigated on this “community organizer” that is hell-bent on defeating Parker. Apparently, he has already decided who he will vote for in December.

Longtime anti-black activist Dave Wilson, who once led a successful effort to amend the city charter to deny benefits to black city employees, said he has sent out 35,000 fliers opposing the mayoral candidacy of Gene Locke in part because of his race.

The front of the flier has a 2004 photo of Locke being sworn into office as city controller while his wife looks on, accompanied by the headline: “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?” On the back is written, “Just because Gene Locke is black doesn’t make him qualified to be mayor of Houston.”

Wilson also challenges Locke’s record as controller, saying he failed to alert the city to a $1.5 billion operational deficit.

Locke’s campaign manager said, “In terms of the only real issue facing the city the flier addresses, that claim has already been met with a blunt rebuttal by Mayor Bill White.”