HOUSTON -- Mayoral candidate Louie Welch, running on a 'return-to-morality' platform, may have created a political firestorm with his inadvertently broadcast remark that part of his plan to stop the spread of AIDS was to 'shoot the queers.'
The former Houston mayor said Thursday night he had not realized the microphone at KTRK-TV was turned on and that his remark was broadcast to viewers just before the 6 p.m. EDT newscast.
'I apologize, but I don't think I had the gay vote anyway,' he said.
When contacted later at his home, Welch, said the remark had been off-the-cuff.
'We were horsing around. I inadvertently pulled a Reagan,' he said. 'I'm in good company. Others also thought they were speaking into dead mikes.'
Welch, who served five terms as mayor, was referring to President Regan's testing a microphone some months ago with a joke about bombing the Soviet Union, a gaffe that set off worldwide diplomatic reverberations.
Welch, 66, said his apology was addressed to 'whoever was listening.' Ratings indicate 146,000 viewers regularly watch Channel 13's 6 p.m. newscast.
The gaffe happened just before the KTRK Channel 13 newscast at 5 p.m. as the anchor was announcing the headline stories.
The camera showed tape of Welch at an event at a restaurant and the announcer said, 'Mayoral candidate Louie Welch has announced his plan for dealing with AIDS in Houston. We'll talk live with the candidate about his four-part answer to combatting the spread of that disease.'
A reporter then announced a story about a helicopter crash. Because of a technical mistake that broadcast was interrupted by Welch's voice saying, 'One of them is to shoot the queers.' Welch was not seen on TV at the time.
The Houston businessman, who resigned as chairman of the Houston Chamber of Commerce to campaign against Mayor Kathy Whitmire, has won unsought support from the so-called Straight Slate anti-gay coalition. Welch has centered his campaign on what he says is the government's responsibility to foster a return to conventional morality and lifestyles.
Whitmire did not her Welch's remark but later said, 'It would be hard to understand why a mayoral candidate would say something like that.'
Whitmire courted the vote of the nation's third-largest gay community in the 1983 mayoral election and celebrated her second term victory with a swing through bars in Houston's predominantly gay Montrose neighborhood, publicly thanking homosexuals for their support.
This time, however, she has downplayed her ties to the city's gay community.
Houston has been beset with increasing problems during Whitmire's second two-year term: high unemployment, an increase in crime, worsening traffic congestion, and a depressed economy due to the slump in the oil and gas industries. However, political observers are saying AIDS and the issue of homosexuality could prove her political downfall.
It remains unclear whether there will even be a Nov. 5 election. Last week U.S. District Judge Gabrielle McDonald ruled the city had failed to obtain required approval from the U.S. Justice Department for a redistricting plan and canceled absentee voting. She also threatened to postpone the scheduled election if the Justice Department does not approve the new council district lines by Oct. 26.
