As Houston’s next mayoral election draws nearer, thirteen candidates continue to vie for the public’s votes at a debate held Tuesday at the Lillie and Roy Cullen Theater at Wortham Center and hosted by UH’s Hobby Center for Public Policy.
It provided six of the candidates — Sylvester Turner, Adrian Garcia, Bill King, Steven Costello, Chris Bell and Ben Hall — a platform to share their distinct stances on topics including pension reform, Houston’s infrastructure and the controversial Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.
“It’s important that everybody of voting age gets out to vote, but they need to take the time to understand the issues and the candidates, so that they can make an informed decision,” Alice Aanstoos, chairman of the Advisory Board for the HCPP said.
Early in the debate, a moderator asked the candidates for their thoughts on Houston’s low voter turnout rate, which was only 19 percent when Annise Parker was originally elected mayor.
Turner recognized the lack of participation among the youngest of Houston’s voting-eligible citizens.
“I think it is a generational issue . . . 31 is the average age [of Houston’s citizens] and 62 [is the average age of citizens] voting,” Turner said. “We need to get the young adults, the young professionals more involved in politics.”
There was an understanding of the decisive role that young, college-age voters play, especially in smaller elections.
“I wish more people would be involved. I wish I could’ve brought someone with me who may not be educated on the issues, just to show them something different,” Marisol Rodriguez, director with Americans for Energy Security for Today, said. “I would’ve liked to see younger people out there.”
State Representative for District 147 Garnet Coleman agreed with Rodriquez.
“It’s important for students and young people to understand what [the candidates] are going to do for them, for their interests.”
Traci Koenig, Principle at Anthem Advocacy LLC, stressed the significance of local elections and an intrinsic investment in voting.
“All politics are local. We all get really excited and jazzed about presidential elections. But honestly, on a daily basis, the decisions that are made in city council chambers affect your lives way more…so if you’re not paying attention to what’s happening locally, you are selling yourself short, quite frankly, because you’re missing out on opportunities to advocate for your own interest in a way that affects you directly and immediately.”
The election will be held Nov. 3, and early voting starts Oct. 19. The last day to register to vote is Monday.
Having the right mayor elected could benefit the University of Houston too…like it did during The Kathy Whitmire years. She was a great promoter of UH athletics and actually visited the basketball team at Hofheinz pavilion. All UH students should look into the background of the candidates and elect one that they think would best serve UH along with the city. Does anybody know if all UH students (18 or older) are eligible to vote in the Mayoral election regardless of which city they are from?