Houston Chronicle article reproduced in its entirety due to brevity, and because for the moment, I'm just about speechless.
DALLAS - What started as a dull runoff race to field a Republican candidate for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives has heated up due to a controversy over cross-dressing. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Tuesday photographs of candidate Sam Walls dressed in women's clothes have circulated among political leaders in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth. Local Republican leaders confirmed separately that they had seen the photographs of Walls in a wig, dress and high heels.
Walls, who has the endorsement of several leading Republicans in the state and was expected to win the run-off, was not available for comment. He said in comments printed in the Star-Telegram that he will not drop out of the race due to a campaign of blackmail. "Through intermediaries, my opponent told me to drop out of the campaign or the private information would be released," Walls told the paper. "Now my opponent is using the information in an attempt to intimate that I am a homosexual, which I am not." Walls, 64, who describes himself as a fervent Baptist, told the paper his family had "dealt with" the issue of his cross-dressing and that he asked for forgiveness.
The opponent in question is Rob Orr and his campaign officials said they have not distributed the photos. Jeff Judd, the county chairman of the Republican party, said it was too late for Walls to drop out of the April 13 runoff. "It would have been much better judgment for him not to have run," he said.
County GOP takes cautious stance (By Martha Deller, [Fort Worth] Star-Telegram Staff Writer, Wed, Apr. 07, 2004)
CLEBURNE - More than 100 people showed up at Johnson County Republican Party headquarters Tuesday night hoping to hear more about photos of state House candidate Sam Walls in women's attire that began circulating last week and have divided the county GOP. Walls, 64, is in the April 13 GOP primary runoff against Burleson real estate broker Rob Orr for the House District 58 seat. [...] Two and a half hours later, party chairman Jeff Judd read a statement that left Walls' backers and his District 58 opponent Rob Orr each claiming victory in the dispute about the photos and how they were made public. The statement called on all Republican party candidates to "keep the peoples' trust by living their lives and conducting their activities in a manner that is above reproach."
"Above reproach." Yes. Well. Quite. Just a bit late for that particular admonition, one might think.
I will admit that I am (somewhat) impressed at how the Johnson County Republican Party managed to cobble together a desperately neutral and mostly non condemnatory statement. Although one suspects that it's mostly because the deadline had passed, and there was no way to get Walls off the ballot, so they had to figure out a way to be unsupportingly supportive, so to speak.
It's nasty but masterful political dirty tricks. It has the advantage of apparently being true and documented (and one wonders first why Walls had pictures taken, if he did, or who took them and how if he did not, and second, how whoever did this managed to get the damn things). It will also be interesting to see if Texas Republicans can separate what's relevant from what isn't. After all, one would assume that Mr Walls' political values are the same, regardless of the clothing he's wearing at the time. (Mind, one suspects that they may also be more than a little hypocritical, but that's somewhat beside the point.) And, for what it's worth, now that this has been revealed, should they elect him, he'll probably be more effective, because now he doesn't have to worry about the information leaking out in a more damaging way. (Although how it could be more damaging, one can't and doesn't want to imagine, thanks.)
Posted by iain at April 07, 2004 01:16 PM
