Following months of tough campaigning, the four major mayoral candidates entered Tuesday night hoping for a spot in a two-person runoff.
With 100 percent of the vote in, City Controller Annise Parker earned a spot in the Dec. 12 runoff with 30.5 percent of the vote and will be joined by Gene Locke, who garnered 25.9 percent of the vote.
Councilman Peter Brown finished third with 22.4 percent of vote and Roy Morales, who did much better than expected, finished fourth with 20.2 percent of the vote.
‘This was a nice victory to savor but the campaign is not over. Now the really intense hard work begins,’ Parker said.’ ‘Our internal campaign showed me in the lead all the way through. I am a little surprised at who’s in runoff with me, but I expected to be in the runoff, and we’ve been campaigning that way for a while.’
The basis for her lead was not the amount spent on the campaign.
‘In a low turnout election, the strong passionate grassroots support that I have pays off. It’s clearly more important than money or endorsements,’ Parker said.
Locke, a former city attorney and UH alumnus, had a slight lead when early votes were counted.
‘I’m excited,’ Locke said, ‘I’m a Cougar since 1969, and I’m so excited about where we are and about the work we’re trying to do.’
While Parker thought Locke is an unexpected opponent, Locke differs.
‘I was not surprised,’ Locke said. ‘I thought that I would make the runoff, and I’m excited about having made the runoff.’
Locke said he is also pleased that Proposition 4 appeared to be heading toward a victory. The constitutional amendment, which establishes a national research-university fund, passed statewide with 56.8 percent of the vote.
In order to avoid a runoff, a candidate would need to secure at least 50.1 percent of the vote. Since Parker and Locke failed to hit that goal, they will head into a runoff election to decide who succeeds the term-limited Bill White as the mayor of Houston.
The last mayoral runoff occurred in 2003 when White defeated Orlando Sanchez to succeed Lee P. Brown, who had himself faced two runoff elections during his political career.
The critical issue is the low voter turnout, which some have estimated to be at just 11 percent.
Brown had in recent weeks been polled as the favorite, but there was also a large percentage of undecided voters who undoubtedly had a say in Tuesday’s vote.
In other results, all 11 state constitutional ballots pass.
The city controller race remained tight throughout Tuesday, but in the end, Ronald Green (36.3 percent of the vote) and M.J. Khan (32.5 percent) edged out Pam Holm, who had 31.2 percent. A runoff election between Green and Khan will also be held Dec. 12.
