Houston Must Replace Popular Mayor

By Michelle Koidin
Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) With Election Day drawing near, it looks like Houston
voters want Bob Lanier for mayor again.

Too bad.

Because of term limits, Lanier, the city's immensely popular chief
executive for the last six years, can't run for a fourth twoyear term.

Instead, voters in the nonpartisan race Nov. 4 will choose from among eight
candidates who want to follow ``Mayor Bob'' as leader of the nation's
fourthlargest city.

With no central issue to fight over, the candidates have been talking
mostly about keeping up the momentum begun by Lanier, a 72yearold former
real estate developer who first won office in a 1991 runoff and kept the
job with consecutive landslide victories. He made his mark by rebuilding
roads, neighborhoods and parks, adding hundreds of police officers and not
raising taxes.

``People would like to see the mayor continue. They would like to see his
policies continue, particularly the infrastructure and reduction in
crime,'' said Bob Stein, professor of political science at Houston's Rice
University. ``Many of the candidates are sort of trying to be Bob Lanier.''

The apparent frontrunner is Lee Brown, who was Houston police chief, New
York City police commissioner and President Clinton's drug czar. Brown, who
has Lanier's tacit support, would become the city's first black mayor.

Nearly 25 percent of voters surveyed in a Houston ChronicleKHOUTV poll
published earlier this month backed Brown. Businessman and Republican
activist Rob Mosbacher Jr. got 20 percent. Former City Controller George
Greanias had 12 percent. Five lesserknown candidates, including two city
councilwomen, got no more than 6 percent each.

Onethird of the voters were undecided in the telephone survey, which had a
margin of error of three percentage points.

If no one gets more than 50 percent on Election Day, a runoff between the
top two votegetters will be held, probably in early December.

Brown, 60, benefits by being the only black in the race, since blacks
account for about 25 percent of the vote in Houston city elections and
typically rally behind one candidate, said Richard Murray, a political
science professor at the University of Houston.

And black turnout will probably be well above average, because of the
combination of a strong black candidate and an Election Day referendum on
whether to curtail the city's affirmative action programs, Stein said.

While Lanier formally has not endorsed anyone, all signs indicate he favors
Brown.

``Lanier's campaign team has pretty much all moved over to run the Brown
campaign, and Lanier remains very popular and feared among political
contributors,'' Murray said.

That probably explains why Greanias has had difficulty raising money.

Greanias, 49, the city's chief financial officer for eight years, clashed
repeatedly with Lanier before leaving office in 1996 because of term
limits. Lanier ``will leave no stone unturned in efforts to defeat him,''
Murray said.

Greanias has responded to Lanier's open criticism in what Stein said is the
only wise way: He stoically has taken some hard hits from the mayor and has
been careful to avoid engaging Lanier in debate.

``There are good things that Mayor Lanier did that we need to continue,''
Greanias said, pointing to Lanier's park and neighborhood programs and the
expansion of the police force.

Greanias had raised about $350,000 through September, much less than Brown
or Mosbacher,

who has collected more than all of his rivals combined.

Mosbacher, 46, the son of former Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher,
unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 1990 and U.S. Senate in 1984.

He raised about $2 million through last month, allowing him to bombard
Houston with TV and radio ads. Brown raised $940,000.

© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press