Despite being 1000 miles away from home, I am keeping a close eye on the Houston mayoral race. Since mayor Bill White is term limited, that opens up the mayor's chair for a new occupant. I'm hoping that it will be current city controller and former at large city councilmember Annise Parker.
Thanks to the Net, I've been able to keep up with the latest happenings in the campaign and some of the debates as well.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm familiar with Annise thanks to her time as a member of the Houston activist community. I had the pleasure of voting for her for city council three times and believe that she's well qualified to be the next mayor for my hometown.
We're a few weeks from the November 3 election day, but also bear in mind in Texas we do have early voting.
With four major candidates and a few minor ones, it looks like there will probably be a runoff election in December, and the other person in it might be city attorney Gene Locke.
There's also a sense of history to it as well. If Gene Locke gets it, he would become my hometown's second African-American mayor. In Annise's case she would become the second female mayor in Houston history and the first GLBT one of a large US and Texas city. So I'm checking all the various news station websites back home, Annise's campaign one and nervously watching this potentially historic campaign unfold.
Hopefully I'll get to see in January 2010 Annise being sworn in as the city of Houston's 61st mayor