Here’s a shocker from deep in the

heart of Texas: the next sheriff of Dallas County will be a Latina lesbian

named Lupe Valdez, who scored a close upset over her Republican opponent. My

hunch is that some last minute dirty politicking by the Republican, Danny

Chandler, tipped this race. Valdez is openly gay, but her sexuality had not

been a part of this race until Chandler accused her in the last days of the

campaign of being an advocate of the gay agenda. It is hard to figure what

the “gay agenda” has to do with being the county’s chief law enforcement

officer, and it was a pretty transparent attempt to signal to Dallas voters,

“Hey, my opponent’s gay!” I know two Republican voters here who thought that

was so low-down that they voted for Valdez just to spite Chandler.