One last election to review:
Dist Brown Frazer
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A 5,232 7,918
B 13,161 2,616
C 15,244 15,726
D 16,390 4,197
E 6,118 16,073
F 3,890 3,527
G 8,775 21,762
H 6,558 3,117
I 5,253 2,731
J 2,794 2,763
K 10,632 5,434
A 39.79% 60.21%
B 83.42% 16.58%
C 49.22% 50.78%
D 79.61% 20.39%
E 27.57% 72.43%
F 52.45% 47.55%
G 28.74% 71.26%
H 67.78% 32.22%
I 65.79% 34.21%
J 50.28% 49.72%
K 66.18% 33.82%
Chris Brown
Chris Brown was the only runoff candidate who did not finish first in November to win in the runoffs. Brown ran better than Mayor-elect Sylvester Turner in every district except the three predominantly African-American ones, and he still had very strong showings in those districts. He won districts F and J, both of which Turner did not win, and came within 500 votes of winning District C. Some of that was due to a successful strategy of making this a D-versus-R race – Brown had multiple email blasts going out in the days after the November race highlighting endorsements from a phalanx of Democratic elected officials, including many African-American officials, which no doubt helped him in B, D, and J – and some of it was his continued TV advertising, which likely helped keep the undervote rate to a modest 14.20%, the lowest among citywide races. I can’t say for sure if Brown did a better job of holding on to Turner supporters than Frazer did of holding on to King supporters or if he claimed some crossover voters. It’s not clear because despite Brown’s better performance in the districts I cited, he still had a lower absolute vote total in all of them, so I can’t say for sure that there had to be some King/Brown voters. I’m sure there were some, I just can’t put any numbers to it. Whatever the case, it worked. Brown won, by a 10,000 vote margin.
As for Frazer, this is two close losses for him. The “thanks to my supporters” email he sent out after the runoff said he intends “to stay very involved in the financial issues of Houston as a private citizen, not as a candidate”, so I suspect this was his last campaign. That said, four years is a long time, and people have been known to reconsider. Maybe the Chronicle will want someone to take over their “pension reform columnist” gig. I didn’t agree with Frazer on a number of things, but I respected the way he ran for the office. You knew what he believed in and what he would do about it. We can always use more of that.
