And the 2007 election season is officially over for Houston.
Lawyer and former track star [Democrat] Jolanda Jones coasted to victory over education consultant Joe Treviño in the only citywide contest in Saturday’s runoff election, according to unofficial results.
Runoffs were needed to fill three City Council seats and one Houston Independent School District position when no candidate received a majority of votes in the Nov. 6 election.
Houston voters also elected city employee [Democrat] Wanda Adams and businessman Michael Sullivan to City Council seats in districts D and E, respectively. They chose Houston NAACP President [Democrat] Carol Mims Galloway for the opening on the school board.
About 26,000 people voted in the At Large #5 race, meaning that your vote counted for 40 people. For comparison purposes, the June runoff for the special election had 25,000 votes, and the December 2005 runoff had 36,000.
My congratulations to all of the newly elected Council members, all of whom ran good races and I believe will do a fine job in office. My thanks and sympathy to the runnersup, for whom the same could be said. Congratulations also to Carol Mims Galloway for her successful return to public service. And finally, a little extra salute to my neighbor Joe Trevino for his strong debut in politics. I hope we’ll see you on a future ballot.
Pasadena voters, charged with picking a new mayor in a special election Saturday, will have to return to the polls in a Jan. 19 runoff to decide between top vote-getters Johnny Isbell and Ralph Riggs.
We’ve cast our last votes until March here in Houston, but the folks in Pasadena and Fort Worth still have a job to do.