November 17, 2003

San Francisco

Gavin Newsom, a member of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, got 41 percent of the November 4 vote and will run against Matt Gonzales, the Green party candidate who ran second with 20 per cent of the vote. Gonzales is presently President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The runoff election is December 9. The winner will succeed Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr., the city's first African American mayor.

Brown was sworn in as mayor of the city and county of San Francisco January 8, 1996. Prior to that, he was Speaker of the California State Assembly, the longest serving Speaker in California history, and also the only African American, to hold that post.

Brown supported Newsom in the race. The wealthy entrepreneur, 36, was also backed by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a former mayor of the city and Representative Nancy Pelosi, House of Representatives minority leader.

Among the other three candidates not in the runoff is Angela Alioto, 54, a civil rights lawyer and daughter of former Mayor Joseph L. Alioto. Alioto, deceased, was President of The Conference of Mayors 1974-1975.

Houston

There were nine candidates to replace Mayor Lee P. Brown.

Bill White, a Democrat and former State Democratic Party Chairman for Texas, will fare Republican Orlando Sanchez in the December 6 runoff election. Sanchez, a Cuban American, is a successful Houston business leader.

White received 38 per cent of the vote to Sanchez's 33 per cent, creating the runoff election.