A white Republican candidate for public office surprised many in Houston last week when he beat out his black rival in a heavily black district. None were more shocked than the voters themselves, who believed they were voting for a black man.
KHOU reported that Dave Wilson, who is mostly known for his personal crusades against gay rights, beat out 24-year incumbent Bruce Austin for a seat on the Houston Community College Board of Trustees by misleading voters to "think he's black."
One of Wilson's tactics was to send out campaign material with photos of "smiling African-American faces" which he randomly found online. The material was captioned, "Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson."
Another piece of mail had the words "Endorsed by Ron Wilson" on it, which was intended to clearly imply to mean former state representative Ron Wilson, a black man. However, the mailer's fine print noted that "Ron Wilson" was simply the man's cousin.
Austin claims that Wilson made sure his photo was not readily available to voters.
Wilson went on to win the race by 26 votes, which KHOU says "was almost certainly influenced by his racially tinged campaign."
"I don't think it's good," Austin is quoted as saying. "I don't think it's good for both democracy and the whole concept of fair play. But that was not his intent, apparently."
Source: gawker.com
