Brown edges out Sanchez
in historic runoff election
By Ken Fountain
Daily Cougar Staff
In one of the closest mayoral elections
in Houston history, Lee P. Brown, the city's first black chief executive,
narrowly won a third and final
term Saturday in a fiercely-fought runoff
with outgoing City Councilman Orlando Sanchez.
With 100 percent of the 718 precincts counted,
Democrat Brown garnered 158,874 votes, or 50.7 percent, while Republican
Sanchez had
154,491, or 49.3 percent.
In a sign of just how high the stakes were
in the allegedly non-partisan race, more voters went to the polls in Saturday's
runoff than during
the general election Nov. 6, a reverse
of the usual trend.
"I want to commend Orlando for a tough
campaign," Brown said to his cheering supporters at the George R. Brown
Convention Center late
Saturday night. "I know, like all of us,
he loves Houston."
Brown went on to thank several people,
including former challenger City Councilman Chris Bell and City Controller
Sylvia Garcia, with
whom he has had several public disagreements.
He also gave a special acknowledgement
to the voters in the small sliver of Fort Bend County that lies within
Houston's city limits. The
largely black population in that area
gave Brown the last-minute push that assured his victory.
Brown vowed to continue working on the
projects he spearheaded in his first two terms, including the light rail
project and the effort to have
Houston named as the site of the 2012
Olympic Games.
UH alum Sanchez, speaking to a die-hard
group of supporters, said, "We want to congratulate Mayor Brown for a well-run,
hard-fought
campaign. And tomorrow, we wake up and
we're all Houstonians. We're working together."
Had Sanchez won, the Cuban-American immigrant
would have been the city's first Hispanic mayor. While a Republican, Sanchez
gained
the favor of most of Houston's traditionally
Democratic Hispanic population.
"We are empowering a whole new group of
Houstonians. For that, we are all winners," he said.
Besides the mayoral race, there were four
runoffs for City Council positions.
In the race for the At-Large Position 3
seat being vacated by Sanchez, dermatologist Shelley Sekula Rodriguez (widow
of former Channel
11 newscaster Sylvan Rodriguez) handily
defeated communication consultant Andrew Burks Jr. 59.5 to 40.5 percent.
Real estate broker (and UH alum) Michael
Berry beat Claudia Williamson for At-Large Position 4, being vacated by
Bell, 59.3 to 40.7
percent.
The tightest council race was that for
District D, comprised of the Third Ward (including UH), parts of Montrose,
the Texas Medical Center
and southwest Houston.
Community activist and radio announcer
Ada Edwards beat real estate developer Gerald Womack, 52.1 to 47.9 percent.
In District E (northeast and southeast
Houston), Addie Wiseman, former aide to outgoing City Councilman Rob Todd,
beat retired chemical
engineer Barnard Maristany, 47 to 43 percent.
