Parker, Locke in runoff for Houston mayor

[ccharles000]

The unpredictable and unorthodox race for Houston mayor narrowed Tuesday to a choice between a veteran City Hall insider trying to become Houston's first openly gay leader and a former civil rights activist hoping to become only the second African-American to run the nation's fourth-largest city.

City Controller Annise Parker and former City Attorney Gene Locke, the two candidates originally predicted by many to prevail at the race's outset, face each other in a Dec. 12 runoff.

Although no outcome could qualify as completely unexpected in one of the closest mayoral elections in recent memory, the big surprise of the night was the strong showing by Roy Morales, the race's only conservative. The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who ran with virtually no money and no endorsements compared to his opponents, placed only a few percentage points behind City Councilman Peter Brown, who poured more than $3.2 million of his family fortune into his candidacy.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, Parker led the field with 31 percent of the vote, followed by Locke at 26 percent. Brown came in third at 22 percent, trailed by Morales at 20 percent. Three other minor candidates on the mayoral ballot totaled 1 percent.

Addressing a jubilant crowd at the Hilton Americas-Houston a little after 10 p.m., Parker looked ahead to the runoff.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6700242.html

[NavyMom]

1. She has to realize the black vote was split between Locke/Brown

so she has her work cut out for her. IMO she did not do a good job as a controller, she let Bettencourt get away with murder, I know I won't be voting for her during the runoff either.