Remember Dave Wilson? The guy who got his 15 minutes of fame days before the runoff election right here in Houston? You know — the guy who owns a print company and has a lot of time on his hands so he decided to wage war against Mayor Annise Parker’s campaign. Wilson ended up sending around 35,000 print mailers to prospective voters reminding them that Parker was gay.
Wilson is like the “Energizer Bunny” that seems to keep going and going and his latest scheme involves Harris County Precinct 4. Although a Republican with no blue blood in him, Wilson decided to file as a Democrat in order to challenge the scandal-ridden Republican Jerry Eversole at the last minute, literally.
In case you are not familiar with the duties of the Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner, allow Eversole’s explanation to sink in.
As your Precinct 4 commissioner, I represent the interests of 904,163 residents and manage an operating budget of $80.9 million. Responsible for the largest Harris County commissioner’s precinct, I oversee the maintenance and construction of 2,992.64 miles of roads, which is approximately 45.5 percent of the total Harris County road miles. Precinct 4 also has 9.7 miles of bridges, which is 41 percent of all bridge miles in Harris County.
Translation: I make it rain, bitches!
Wilson’s late entry and the lack of foresight by Democrats have now
created a scenario, albeit an unlikely one, where Wilson will run unopposed as a
Democrat in the March Primary. He will get a chance to challenge
Eversole in November.
The End … right? Not quite.
The
Harris County Democratic Party has burned the midnight oil in order to remove Wilson on a technicality. The HCDP Chair, Gerry Birnberg, sent
Wilson a letter stating the obvious violation: It took Birnberg three
pages to tell Wilson that he does not live where he claims to be
registered to vote. See, that took only one sentence.
Birnberg states:
“I want to stress that my withholding of certification of your name for placement on the ballot
is not because I have concluded you do not live within precinct four. It is solely because I have
concluded that your Application fails to include your residence address, as required by mandatory provisions of the statute.”
Birnberg
seals the deal by noting that the address where Wilson registers to
vote is a business address and not a homestead. It seems that the drama
and nightmare have saved the HCDP from an embarrassing situation.
Wilson is not out for the count. He plans on challenging the decision. To be continued …
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2010.