With 62 percent of the vote, Houston City Councilwoman Annise Parker beat out a fellow council member for city controller, the second-highest position in the city's government.
The city's first openly gay city council member, Parker has made a notable contribution to the overall effort to elect more openly gay public officials nationwide.
With 62 percent of the vote, Houston City Councilwoman Annise Parker beat out a fellow council member for city controller, the second-highest position in the city's government.
The city's first openly gay city council member, Parker has made a notable contribution to the overall effort to elect more openly gay public officials nationwide.
Parker wins controller's race
By LORI RODRIGUEZ
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
CITY CONTROLLER
100 percent of vote
ANNISE PARKER - WINNER - 62%
BRUCE TATRO - 38%
Annise Parker easily trounced her fellow Houston City Council member Bruce Tatro in the race for city controller.
In complete but unofficial returns, Parker had 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Tatro.
Both candidates sought the city's top financial spot after having served on council the maximum six years allowed by municipal term limits.
Since wiping out four other candidates in the Nov. 4 election, both candidates focused on their differences in style and politics.
Parker, the city's first openly gay City Council member, stressed a track record of successfully passing city ordinances largely by cooperating with the administration of Mayor Lee Brown.
Tatro, who earned the nickname of "Councilman No," often voted against administration proposals and was an outspoken critic of Brown.
"We both had a track record and the voters could compare and ask, what have you done as a council member? What have you done positively rather than what have you opposed and what have you killed," Parker said.
"I didn't run saying I wanted to reform the office. I want to sit down with the new mayor and say let's not be adversaries. Let's work together to improve the city."
While the controller is the second-highest ranking official in the city behind the mayor, the post doesn't come with a vote on council.
The controller basically keeps the city's books, pays its bills and audits its accounts.
But the office frequently has served as a bully pulpit for fiscal responsibility and a springboard for higher office. Former Mayor Kathy Whitmire had held the controller post and, two years ago, Sylvia Garcia parlayed the job into a bid to become the first woman on Harris County Commissioners' Court.
With little actual say in how the city spends its money, the clout of the controller largely hinges on the power of the personality holding the office.
Parker views herself as a team player, saying she is neither confrontational nor combative; she said she wants to win points on the issues, not by wearing down the opposition.
Tatro's style is to stake a position early and stick with it. He is known for an obstinate and unyielding nature and campaigned on the theory that taxpayers want an advocate, not someone who compromises.
City elections are officially nonpartisan, but Parker is strongly identified as a Democrat and Tatro is an equally avowed Republican
Conceding the race, Tatro noted that the partisan split mirrored the 2-to-1 margin in the mayoral contest between businessman Bill White and former Councilman Orlando Sanchez.
"We just ran as good a race as we could under the circumstances. The mayoral contest reflected the same partisan split and also reflected the expenditures of the campaigns," Tatro said.
"White and Annise draw from the same pool and, politically speaking, driving out that vote was beneficial to both of them."
"I wish them well. Nobody said fixing Mayor Lee Brown's office was going to be easy."
In previous at-large elections as well as this race, Parker cobbled together a winning coalition of gays, women, Democrats and progressives. On council, she focused on quality-of-life issues, including preservation of historic buildings. She has said she would use the controller's office to free up money for parks, libraries and recycling.
In previous elections, Tatro has relied on his westside, conservative Republican base; in his first citywide race, he tried to energize the same base and reach out to other Houstonians. On council, Tatro has maintained that the city should suspend public arts funding and focus on rebuilding its infrastructure.
Both candidates offered voters fiscal experience. Parker spent 18 years as an oil and gas analyst. Tatro was a computer systems developer before joining the council.
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