Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker has been relentless in her criticism of fellow candidate Gene Locke's ties to quasi-governmental groups that helped fill the coffers of his law firm, Andrews Kurth.

The Houston Chronicle offers this wrap of yesterday's back-and-forth:

Locke's firm, Andrews Kurth, has reaped more than $17 million in the past six years from business at the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, the Port of Houston Authority and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, according to figures the Parker campaign highlighted that originally were published online by Texas Watchdog. During that time, Locke worked for each agency as general counsel.

With City Council approval, the Houston mayor appoints five of nine Metro board members, six of 12 sports authority board members and two of seven board members at the port. The mayor also jointly appoints, with Harris County, the chairs of the port and the sports authority.

“How is he going to separate himself from this firm that's made so many millions of dollars from all these public entities in the years since he left the city attorney's office?” Parker asked. “He has been unwilling to say anything beyond ‘Trust me, I'll do the right thing.' He needs to tell us how it's going to happen, to put it in writing.”

Locke's campaign dismissed the criticism:

“I find it incredibly disingenuous that Annise Parker would question my integrity when she knows, and she has known, that I plan to resign from Andrews Kurth upon becoming mayor,” Locke said in a statement. “This is not only much ado about nothing, but this is the kind of negative campaign rhetoric Houstonians don't deserve.”

For Texas Watchdog's part, we'd like to hear back from Locke on whether he plans to release his income tax returns, as Parker has. Texas Watchdog requested the candidates, who are in the Dec. 12 runoff, publicly release their tax returns so Houstonians could determine whether potential conflicts of interest could cloud their judgment as mayor.

Texas Watchdog requested the tax returns from both candidates Nov. 4. Locke's campaign has not responded to calls or e-mails from Texas Watchdog.

(Update) Here are some more links to some of the dialogue in the blogosphere on this issue:

Off the Kuff

Big Jolly Politics

blogHouston

Harris County Alamanac

Also, the Annise Parker campaign has weighed in again about Gene Locke's lack of transparency.