Houston's first (and so far, only) female mayor, Kathryn Whitmire, was elected a

. Back then the

, of which Parker is a proud member, didn't even exist.

Google "Annise Parker" and you'll see that dozens of

and

are keeping a close watch on the election, since a win for Parker will make Houston the largest city in America with a gay mayor. However, much like Barack Obama's win puts extra scrutiny on future black politicians, Parker will have to do more than just get elected to make inroads for gay politicians in the state.

In the Harris County League of Women Voters

, Parker says the city's broken infrastructure led to flooding problems and additional emergencies following Ike and Allison. She proposes to review the city's disaster contingency plan to make sure such problems are fixed before future natural disasters occur. Rocks Off is not sure if that plan includes moving the entire city out of the Gulf of Mexico's flood basin or not.

Before the first election the biggest complaint about the candidates was that the platforms were all so boring. Since the run-off began, Parker has been accused of throwing the

. But like Charles Kuffner says, it's

.

Let's see what

thinks of this one. As Kuff said in the link above, once it gets dirty, it's not suddenly gonna get clean again. Gene Locke may not have had anything to do with

Oh Em Gee Teh Gheys!-style fearmongering, but one of his supporters did, and that's a low-down dirrrty shame. Dirty politics have also lead

online commenters to christen City Council member Sue Lovell a racist turd-burglar, which makes Rocks Off snicker.

Locke said in the LWVH Voters' Guide that his main priority as mayor will be to make Houston safer by putting more police on the streets. Not surprisingly, the Houston Police Officer's Union and the Firefighter's Union have endorsed Locke.

Parker's biggest criticism of Locke is that he has no cash to pay for the increase in police presence. Locke swears he can do it without raising taxes - by taking money from other funds and grants. Parker, on the other hand, wants to

of Houston's museum district and sports stadiums and use the money elsewhere. That comment, by the way, was a dig at Locke, who led negotiations to build both Reliant Arena and the Juice Box.

Locke's had a bit of a problem with his campaign advertising this election. ABC13 reported that the city hash hauled away

improperly-placed campaign signs, a number Annise Parker has been

over at Twitter.

When Locke told the

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during the most recent debate that he can't be a city insider becaudse he wasn't raised with a silver spoon in his mouth, we immediately thought of young Ricky Schroeder and Alfonso Ribeiro breakdancing away in Edward Stratton III's oversized mansion. Whoever wins this election, can we see the candidates re-enact

as a show of solidarity?