*** Dallas, TX Mayoral Election Results (6/16/07) - Official DU Thread ***

[derby378]

Current results, with 157 of 470 precincts reporting:

Tom Leppert (R) - 26,440 (59.81%)
Ed Oakley (D) - 17,767 (40.19%)

If Oakley is elected, he will become the first openly gay mayor of a major city anywhere in the United States. More background here:

Dallas weighs up possible gay mayor
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21914947-1702,00.html

Will Dallas make history with gay mayor?
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4881411.html

[bbinacan]

1. Doesn't look too good for Oakley.

[kevinbgoode]

7. He was swiftboated with the old fear-and-smear anti-gay machine

And that behavior is both disgusting and outrageous. That a city would vote against a candidate based on their sexual orientation only underscores why that community feels like they are second-class citizens.

Leppert strikes me as a tool of the Right. . .and the Dallas gay community apparently hasn't said enough about the outrageous statements coming from the con-artist, con-servative churches smearing Oakley as having a "radical gay agenda."

I think we'll see what a radical agenda is when the Right runs the city.

[mema42]

13. even then

Some of the comments were interesting on the articles in this thread. Many of the comments say the sexual orientation wasn't a factor to their decision. Others said it was, but it seemed to be not so much that he was gay, but their perception that the gay/lesbian groups would use him to push an agenda. I can see the idea behind that, but then I can only ask myself, don't all candidates have some group behind them? Doesn't that fear apply to all. If he was the better candidate, its to bad he lost. I hadn't kept up on this so I'm totally unaware of who the better candidate might have been. Quite a few seemed upset about the smear tactics, more then were concerned about his being gay.

[derby378]

2. Updated Results - 8:47:47pm CST

With 320 of 470 precincts reporting:

Tom Leppert (R) - 37,464 (57.76%)
Ed Oakley (D) - 27,993 (42.24%)

[bbinacan]

3. I think it is over.

[derby378]

4. Not until the last precinct reports in...

I'll keep everyone updated as best as I can.

Fingers crossed...

[kevinbgoode]

8. Hmm..low turnout?

That means this is nothing but a race between a fundy-backed candidate and the gay one.

[derby378]

9. Only approx. 60,000 voting so far...

...out of a city of at least 1.3 million, last I heard. This is beyond inexcusable.

[Change has come]

5. Thanks for the updates.

:kick:

[derby378]

6. You're welcome

Still waiting for further updates - they're coming in slowly for the moment.

[derby378]

10. Updated results - 9:44:30pm CST

With 463 of 470 precincts reporting:

Tom Leppert (R) - 49,457 (57.88%)
Ed Oakley (D) - 35,997 (42.12%)

[derby378]

11. Just in - Oakley just conceded the race to Leppert

Only two precincts left to report in, but it's unlikely that Oakley can get the votes he needs from those precincts to pull ahead.

[derby378]

12. It's all over, folks... (Final Results)

With 470 of 470 precincts reporting:

Tom Leppert (R) - 49,512 (57.85%)
Ed Oakley (D) - 36,078 (42.15%)

Total number of votes cast: A measly 85,590 for the entire city.