Who are these "fiscal conservatives" of which you speak....

Take One part progressive blogger...

While Locke and Brown are squabbling over who deserves the Republican vote, Annise Parker is rising above that fray, looking good as the fiscally conservative choice for mayor of Houston for both Democrats and Republicans

A blogger who has openly endorsed Annise Parker FWIW (not disclosed in the above post) add in one campaign e-mail from Annise Parker who cut and pasted the post word for word, and who also lists said progressive blogger on their list of 'supporters'.....


Mix it all together and you've got?


According to some "Fiscal Conservatives" for Annise Parker.


Now, I'm not going to deny Parker's bonafides (in comparison to the other candidates of course) here, nor am I going to argue against her suddenly squeaky clean fiscal prudence (again, given the competition). Nope...I'm not. As a matter of fact, I'm on record as endorsing Ms. Parker for Mayor. Granted, I feel that she's the "best of the worst" and my recommendation is more along the "do the least harm" vein but still, it's an endorsement right?

What I don't see are large groups of fiscal conservatives running to support Parker. Hell, if anything, they (and blacks FWIW) are supporting Peter Brown. There are a lot of theories out there as to why this is, most of them wrong. Peter Brown is in the lead because of his high energy and endless verve....Most of it displayed prominently on various television ads.

Peter Brown is everywhere, proving that even a man whose campaign sends nastygrams to people who tweet that he's no longer carrying an active architect's license(something that's true BTW), can hire a good PR firm and find himself a constituency. I'm willing to bet you that 70% of average voters aren't aware that Parker is gay, and possibly as many as 50% don't know a damn thing about Gene Locke, maybe they don't even know he's black.

In local politics it's all about exposure, especially on TV, during prime time, preferably when singing, dancing or annoying British judges casting come-hither looks to allegedly hopped up on pain pills and bourbon former pop diva judges are on. That's the real sweet spot in local politics, right after Simon asks Paula if she's a fan of spotted dick.

Just remember to stay away from any local production of Channel 13, or Dynamo games. After all there has to be enough voters watching to move the polls. Fiscally conservative or not.