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Houston mayor's race going to runoff

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  • MICHAEL GRACZYK/None
  • Originally published November 3, 2009 at 11:41 p.m., updated November 4, 2009 at 12:02 a.m.

HOUSTON (AP) — City controller Annise Parker and former city attorney Gene Locke qualified Tuesday for a runoff to become mayor of America's fourth-biggest city.

Parker, 52, who would be the first openly gay mayor of Houston and the second woman to lead the city, collected nearly 31 percent of the vote Tuesday.

Locke, with 25 percent, topped architect and urban planner Peter Brown, who finished with nearly 23 percent. With all the precincts counted and the total vote approaching 175,000, Locke took the second runoff spot by about 4,500 votes.

A fourth major candidate, county school trustee Roy Morales, had more than 20 percent.

Brown was by far the biggest spender in the race. Morales didn't have enough money to run TV commercials.

A runoff next month is needed because no one received 50 percent of the vote. A date hasn't been set, but the election will be in December.

"This election is about our future," Parker told cheering supporters as her partner and their adopted children stood behind her. "And it comes down to one question: Who do you trust to lead our city through these tough times and give our children the future they deserve?"

Parker's sexual orientation was downplayed in the campaign and in her previous races when she won three terms to City Council and three as controller. A victory next month would make Houston the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor.

"I know there are folks ascribing a lot of different things to this campaign. The simple fact is: I am the most qualified candidate in this race and I intend to be the next mayor of Houston and I'm in the best position to lead our city."

Elections officials who expected a 25 percent turnout revised their forecast to as little as half that amount.

Brown, 72, a two-term Houston city councilman, sank more than $2 million of his wife's wealth into his bid to succeed Bill White, who is term-limited after six years in office.

Locke, 61, would be the city's second black mayor, and Morales, 53, would have been Houston's first Hispanic mayor. Lee Brown, a former police chief, served as Houston's first black mayor until he was term-limited in 2003.

"The job for us doesn't stop tonight," Locke said. "It really starts tomorrow. ... Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work."

Except for Brown's expenditures — bankrolled primarily from the fortune of his wife, oil-field services heiress Anne Schlumberger — the race was noteworthy for its lack of fireworks.

Brown's cash stockpile allowed him to boost name recognition because he was able to run broadcast ads far earlier than his chief opponents, then blanket the city of nearly 2½ million with mailings and more commercials as the election neared.

Still, no clear favorite emerged. Independent pre-election polls showed Brown with a slight edge, although "Don't Know" was the favored response among those surveyed.

"The race started slow and lost momentum, characterized by a civility rarely observed in an open race for one of the most powerful mayor positions in the United States," said Richard Murray, director of surveying for the University of Houston Center for Public Policy.

"Voters hardly seemed aware they had to choose a replacement" for White, he said.

Brown touted his "blueprint" for the city, stressing greater efficiencies to create jobs, protect neighborhoods, take better care of resources and combat the city's legendary traffic, recurring flooding and crime.

His campaign pitch, however, wasn't much different from the other hopefuls.

Parker said her 12 years in public life would allow her to immediately step into the top job. Her six-year stint as city controller, reviewing city spending, is the same job Kathy Whitmire held before she became Houston's first woman mayor in the 1980s.

Locke attracted endorsements and financial backing from business leaders, cashing in on his three-year tenure in the 1990s as city attorney under popular mayor Bob Lanier, who supported him. Locke cultivated city insiders since then as legal counsel to several government agencies.

The race was nonpartisan, although Brown, Locke and Parker are Democrats. Morales, a retired Air Force officer, offered himself as an alternative, a conservative Republican in a city that's largely Democratic, about 25 percent black and one-third Hispanic.

Incumbent White, who did not endorse a successor, plans to seek the Democratic nomination to succeed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison if she resigns as expected this year to run against Texas Gov. Rick Perry.


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