Matt Stiles continues the Chronicle‘s recent coverage of local political races with a profile of the contest for City Council’s at-large Position 1:
Architect and urban planner Peter Brown is the front-runner in the race for Houston City Council at-large Position 1, but his two opponents say they believe their grass-roots campaigns could make the contest interesting.
Brown, retired Air Force officer Roy Morales and private investigator Michael “Griff” Griffin are vying to fill the seat being vacated by term-limited Councilman Mark Ellis.
Morales and Griffin say they can compete with Brown, who began campaigning six months after his 2003 runoff loss to Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, even though he’s out-raised them in campaign donations by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Brown, 69, said his experience — he’s overseen numerous city building and parks projects in Houston and other cities — uniquely qualifies him to accomplish his top goals: neighborhood revitalization and urban redevelopment.
A major force behind the Main Street Coalition, which pushed for the light rail line between downtown and Reliant Park, Brown said he would work to lure more residents back into the city from suburban areas.
The combination of weak opponents, Brown’s name ID, and Brown’s fundraising are probably going to result in Brown’s election, but not everyone in Houston would count the dangerous, inefficient light-rail line as a strike in his favor.
