The Election, the day after: lots of coffee.

Bleary-eyed politicians dutifully drudged to their day jobs after a long night of both reveling and loathing the election results.  One thing good about election nights is that there are definite winners and losers.  That was the case this time around as well.

First up, the Mayor's race.  After spending more than $3 million of his own money, Council Member Peter Brown managed to finish in third.  He was just barely ahead of Roy Morales, the little-known candidate with very little money.  It was a surprisingly poor showing for a man who poured so much resources in the campaign.  Controller Annise Parker and former City Attorney Gene Locke were the big winners.  With Parker just a few percentage points ahead of Locke.

The Mayoral results this first round were certainly a relief to Locke's campaign.  Even though he had the support of both the Police and Fire Unions, as well as former Mayor Bob Lanier, Locke's campaign didn't run as smoothly as many experts had anticipated.  Now the battle between Locke and Parker for the run-off should certainly perk up the election.  Parker will have her work cut out for her.  Even though she is ahead, Locke's got the backing of a lot of institutional powerhouses, including downtown businesses, and the Houston Association of Realtors, etc.  He's also out-raised her on the money front as well.  It will be interesting to see where the Morales and Brown supporters go.

The Controller's race also yielded a surprise.  Council Member Ronald Green was the front-runner going in, but many political insiders had expected him to go into the run-off facing well-financed Pam Holm.  Instead, by just a sliver of voters, fellow Council Member MJ Khan edged her out.  It will be interesting to see if Green's team questions Khan's nagging issue of residency.  Does Khan live in Houston or not? It's a question that's been raised a multitude of times, but so far, voters haven't paid much attention.

Finally, incumbent council members Jolanda Jones and Sue Lovell will both face run-offs.  This has to be disappointing to their campaigns, as usually incumbents at City Council get fairly easy election cycles.

It's now a sprint to the finish for the December 12th run-off election.  A low turnout is expected, so every vote counts!