Mayoral candidate Hall says he deserves anti-HERO votes, not King
When the Texas Supreme Court ruled citizens should vote on the Houston Equal Rights ordinance the ramifications of more money and substantially more turnout spilled immediately into the mayoral campaign.
"This could ramp turnout up by 10 percent or so and that changes the dynamics of the mayoral race," said Mark Jones, Chairman of Political Science at Rice University.
"I think we are definitely looking at tens of millions of dollars at least, in terms of outside influence. You are going to see a lot of support come in from both sides that are going to blanket the city with these sorts of politics," said Brandon Rottinghaus, political analyst with the University of Houston.
Four candidates support HERO - Sylvester Turner, Adrian Garcia, Chris Bell and Marty Mcvey.
Two others, Ben Hall and Bill King, have voiced at least some opposition to the ordinance and stand to attract so called "faith and value" voters drawn to the HERO referendum.
Attorney Hall says he deserves the anti-HERO votes and King shouldn't get any.
"It's going to be decisive as far as the outcome. There is only one candidate who has consistently for the past two years opposed HERO and supported the voters right to vote and that's Ben Hall. All of the other candidates, including Mr. King, have taken either a position of support or non-responsiveness. When pastors wanted to fight in the court system none of the other candidates was present. I was," said Hall.
Fox 26 reached out to the King campaign for comment and none has yet been offered.