Houston Mayor-elect John Whitmire took a parting shot at U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) after delivering a 30-point beatdown over the weekend in the runoff election for mayor.
“People want to go to work for me because we respect people. We don’t bully people,” Whitmire declared in his victory speech, according to the Houston Chronicle — his remarks being a likely reference to the leaked audio of a profane tirade purportedly from Lee being directed at her staff.
“My family taught me to treat people the way you want to be treated, and that works wherever you are, regardless of what community you’re visiting with. Treat these individuals like you want to be treated,” Whitmire added.
Voters have spoken, and I am humbly grateful to the people of Houston for electing me as their next mayor. While this marks the beginning of the true challenge ahead, as you all know, my only reason for running was to make a difference. I’m fired up to get started. Thank you to… pic.twitter.com/XlGvD1O4P3
— John Whitmire (@whitmire_john) December 10, 2023
He took another not-so-veiled shot at Lee for taking credit for bringing federal dollars to Houston.
“I was just about fed up with one person taking credit for our entire Harris County delegation because I know this person is a public servant and is bringing significant funds, and so has Al Green and Lizzie Fletcher,” Whitmire said. “Quite frankly, we’ve got a great congressional delegation.”
In conceding the race, Lee said: “I’ve had a great opportunity to serve this city, and yes, I was there during every disaster bringing federal dollars here. I never ran away from the fight to make Houston better. Even though the outcome was not the way we would have wanted. The best thing for us to do is to shore up and stand up and be committed to Houston moving forward. That’s what I will do.”
The controversial Democrat lost in a landslide, 65-34, despite being endorsed by failed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the stinging defeat coming on the heels of a vulgar meltdown directed at staff over an apparent scheduling issue being secretly recorded.
“I don’t want you to do a godd**n thing. I want you to have a f**king brain. I want you to have read it. I want you to say, Congresswoman, with such and such date,” Lee can allegedly be heard saying. “That’s what I want. That’s the kind of staff that I want to have. So some stupid other motherf**ker did it. And, and I don’t have the information.”
“Nobody sent me the information,” the audio continues. “I need to, uh, ensure my, um, schedule and, uh, you know, if, if Boo Boo did it, sh*t ass did it, f**k face did it. And nobody knows a godd**n thing in my office. Okay?”
Lee would later acknowledge in a statement that she was “not perfect.”
“I want to convey to the people of Houston that I strongly believe that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and that includes my own staff. I know that I am not perfect,” Lee said of the recording. “I recognize that in my zeal to do everything possible to deliver for my constituents, I have in the past fallen short of my own standards and there is no excuse for that. I am passionate about serving my constituents. I want the best for all of them.”
Adding to her problems, the 73-year-old Democrat’s campaign released an embarrassing campaign ad indicating the wrong date for her runoff election for mayor, informing Houstonians that she has spent her entire time in office — 28 years in the DC swamp — “fighting” for them before encouraging them to vote on December 7th or earlier — for an election being held on December 9th.
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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