A flyer sent by the Conservative Republicans of Harris County that highlighted Annise Parker's endorsement by Houston's GLBT caucus was largely funded by two key members of Gene Locke's campaign fund raising arm, according to campaign finance records.
Ned Holmes, Locke's finance chairman, and James Dannenbaum, who sits on Locke's finance committee, each gave conservative activist Steven Hotze's group $20,000 less than a week before Hotze mailed a flyer indicating he was endorsing Locke.
In a list of Parker's perceived negatives, Hotze wrote that she was endorsed by the "Gay Lesbian political action committee," a reference to Parker's endorsement by the Houston GLBT Political Caucus. Parker is openly gay.
Allen Blakemore, Hotze's political consultant, told 11 News "absolutely we solicited the donations. We said we'd like to publicize our endorsement of Mr. Locke and we asked if they would like to help us. They did not review the flyer first," he said.
"Was there coordination? No," Blakemore said. "Was it an anti-gay flyer? I can't imagine anybody who looked at it or is being thoughtful would say that it is an anti-gay flyer. Mentioning the endorsement was descriptive information. It's not like nobody knew it before we put it on our flyer. It's on her website."
Records show that Dannenbaum is a regular contributor to Hotze's group. In addition to the $20,000 donation on November 23, 2009, he donated a total of $50,000 in 2008.
Until a November 24 donation of $20,000 ,Holmes had not given to Hotze's group since 2001, when he donated $2,000, records show.
Locke said he did not know his finance chair and member of his finance committee had donated to Hotze in order to help publicize the endorsement. "I didn't know this flyer was going to come out," Locke said. "I had no knowledge of it prior to that.... I was not involved in any of those discussions. There was no coordination or cooperation between my campaign and that mailer at all. Any insinuation or suggestion that there was is simply false."
"I am disappointed," Locke said. "I don't think that bigotry or race are matters of importance in this campaign at all. I want voters to talk about the real issues that are important. Because there's a flyer out, and because there's a news story out, I'm compelled to say that I'm disappointed."
Parker campaign manager Adam Harris said the incident reveals a disconnect between Locke and his own supporters. "I think the Gene Locke we see now is full of empty rhetoric," he said. "And until he is willing to come clean and tell the truth about what's going on, either he is directly involved in this illegal coordination or he has completely lost control of his campaign."
