To the surprise of absolutely nobody, it must be said.
A candidate who stuck to his campaign despite photos showing him wearing dresses has lost his bid for office in Texas runoff elections that also picked GOP candidates for five congressional elections. Sam Walls, 64, who sought a seat in the Texas House, had said he would not give in to "blackmail" from whomever circulated the photos, saying they tried to use "very old, personal information" to force him out of the race.
Walls, a businessman, had once seemed the favorite over real estate broker Rob Orr, but GOP leaders urged him to withdraw after the pictures surfaced, and on Tuesday Orr won with 60 percent of the vote.
"Some people have said they feel sorry for me, but let me tell you how wonderful it has been for me," Walls said after his loss. "If you have not had the opportunity to find out that all your friends are true friends, then I feel sorry for you." He has said his family had "dealt with" the dress issue, and he apologized to supporters for any embarrassment caused by "a small part of my personal past."
Yes, well ... you'd kind of rather find that out without that sort of accompanying public embarrassment, most times.
It is oddly encouraging -- well, as encouraging as it can be when you're talking a conservative Republican being defeated by an archconservative Republican -- that Walls managed to still pull 40% of the primary vote. Allowing that it wasn't a massive number of votes overall -- Walls lost by just over 1,000 voves, according to other accounts -- it still indicates that a fair number of people may be starting to see beyond things that may be irrelevant to actual job performance; that is, whether or not the person stands a chance on delivering for things that are important to you.
Posted by iain at April 16, 2004 01:13 PM
