Incumbent in tight HCC race will seek a recount (White candidate allegedly "pretended" to be black)

The African-American ^ | November 11, 2013 | Renee C. Lee

[2ndDivisionVet]

Longtime Houston Community College Board Trustee Bruce Austin said he will request a recount after narrowly losing his District 2 seat to his challenger in Tuesday’s election.

Small business owner Dave Wilson was ahead of Austin by 26 votes, based on complete, but unofficial results. A candidate needs to garner a majority of the vote to win. Wilson had 50.1 percent, while Austin got 49.9 percent.

HCC officials must canvass the votes and declare them official before Austin can request a recount. The canvassing process usually takes up to four to five days.

Black district:

Four other seats were up for election. Three runoffs will take place next month. One incumbent won re-election outright.

Austin, who was first elected in 1989, said “Wilson won the predominantly Black district, which covers parts of north and northwest Houston, by deceiving voters. Wilson, who is White, deliberately did not have pictures of himself on his campaign website and his campaign materials, said Austin, who is Black.”

“He never put out to voters that he was White,” Austin said. “The problem is his picture was not in the League of Voters (pamphlet) or anywhere. This one of the few times a White guy has pretended to be Black guy and fooled Black people.”

Wilson called Austin’s remarks racist. Running a campaign without pictures shouldn’t matter, he said, noting that his picture was posted on one of Austin’s campaign mailers.

Wilson said he won the face “fair and square” by campaigning on the issues. He complained that Austin voted for spending $40 million to establish a campus in Qatar and against spending money on scholarship for needy students.

“That’s why he lost,” Wilson said. “People were not fooled. They’re tired of him wasting money.”

[Grams A]

Herman Cain is only one of a number of people who have some great ideas. What turns me off though is that the ideas are funded, oftentimes based on just an idea, rather more of a “how about if we try this....” and no concrete plan and simply because it sounds good. Nor is there any regular reporting, audit or evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the money being spent. To whom did the money go, what did they do with it and what did it accomplish. When I invest money in something, I want to know it’s for and did I get my money’s worth. That just never seems to happen with government agency funding.