Houston CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reported the story of the Dave Wilson campaign. A campaign Mr. Wilson should not have won, and would not have won were he more honest and ethical.
Mr. Wilson ran for the Houston Community College board position in District 2. His political past reveals he is no Boy Scout; according to this Chronicle editorial paints him as “a perennial candidate for office… who ran on a platform of foul-mouthed, hate-filled homophobic slurs.”
District 2 is mostly African-American. What Mr. Wilson did to gain the trust of those voters was to print fliers with stock pictures of African-American people and families. In addition he got quotes from a cousin of his named Ron Wilson, who happens to share the same first and last names as a long-time state representative. All the while, he concealed his true identity as a conservative Caucasian male.
To say this act of deception is un-Texan, un-Houstonian, and un-American barely begins to scratch the surface. It may be technically legal. If so, our election laws are beyond broken and need to be fixed before this happens again. I’m not sure where the lines should be drawn requiring candidates to be truthful, but this is way, way over it.
The Chronicle editorial also says “Others may get a kick out of this local shenanigan. We’re not laughing.” I’m sure as hell not laughing either. And the punch line is definitely not that the voters were completely bamboozled into voting a crackpot in for a solid six years.