Behold the power of Roy:
Just as a reminder, Barack Obama got 61% of the vote in Houston last year. I don’t know how effective a boogeyman he’ll make, though I suppose that depends on where the ad airs. Roy’s eight days out report gives no hint of that, and all we know for sure is “it’s on cable”. If you see this on your TV, please leave a comment and let me know. Houston Politics, Martha, Mary Benton, and Greg have more.
You won’t see this on TV, but At Large #1 candidate Lonnie Allsbrooks sent me a link to the following campaign video on YouTube:
I confess, I’m not exactly sure what the message is that’s being conveyed, but there you have it.
Finally, because some things just need to be linked to, I give you this. I knew this was coming, and yet I was unprepared for it.
I anticipating putting a PDF of the documents filed in State District Court onto the web sometime today or tomorrow.
I also anticipate making a video statement in regards to Mr. Obando’s comments that will be posted on my Facebook page.
I respond here and now, however, to the Houston Press’s bemused view of the observance and the practice of my Judaism. After all, I am equal parts Tevye and Lenny Bruce (let that sink in). I grew up in an anti-authoritarian, secular Jewish household. I am the most observant member of my family, across all of my cousins. Yet, I have always held the Judaic practices and customs of my forefathers and foremothers in Russia and Romania, in the Great Pale, in the land of Shalom Aleichem and Tevye, as guiding me in the decisions I take and the choices I make in this increasingly anxiety producing era that we live in.
I know the strength of my faith, and I will never allow anybody to define for me who I am as a Jew, as a Republican, and, frankly, as an openly gay man. I’ve been discriminated against, ridiculed, picked on, and persecuted before in my lifetime. I guess some things never really change, except when a person in my position says, simply and eloquently, “Enough is Enough!”
Six years ago, as my mom lay dying at St. Luke’s, we had our final meaningful conversation thirty-six hours before she left us. I told her that I had made many mistakes in my life. She asked me whether or not I had learned anything from them. I told her yes. She then told me, “They weren’t mistakes then.” As I learned three months later from her best friend, Libby Zaage, mom told her that she had “made peace” with me. When my father and I arrived, she was trembling, badly, and groaning, unable to say a word. She had made her last words to Libby: “Libby, I love ya, but it’s time to go.” I asked her to squeeze my hand if she could recognize my presence through her pain and her dying process. She did so. An hour later, she opened her left eye in my direction, and then we waited four and a quarter hours till her last breath was drawn and a great woman was gone from this Earth. She left us with a quiet, enigmatic smile on her face.
I have survived many things in my life. I will survive the malicious statements made by Mr. Obando. I will survive the mischaracterization of my Judaism in the Houston Press. I will stand up, proudly and strongly, for the things and people I believe in. That is what citizenship in a republican democracy demands and requires. I aspire to that goal every day of my life.
Warmly yours,
DON LARGE
Candidate
Chairman, Harris County Republican Party
donlarge2010@gmail.com
832.341.3733