The 2001 Houston mayoral election took place on November 6, 2001. Incumbent Mayor Lee Brown was re-elected to a third term. Officially the race was non-partisan. None of the candidates received a majority of the votes, so a run-off election was held on December 1, 2001.
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Turnout | 28.65% (first round) 31.28% (runoff) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Lee P. Brown was elected mayor of Houston, the first black person to do so, in 1997, and was reelected in 1999. Brown announced that he would seek reelection to a third term, the maximum allowed due to term limits, on August 26, 2001.[1]
City controller Sylvia Garcia and city councilor Carroll Robinson considered running.[4][5]
The mayoral election is formally nonpartisan, but Brown and Chris Bell were aligned with the Democratic Party while Orlando Sanchez was aligned with the Republican Party.[6] A forum was held at Kingwood College on October 2,[7] and televised debate was hosted on October 10.[8]
Brown was accused of causing the death of a fire captain due to the city's policy of three people per fire truck rather than the standard four. Brown proposed a $16 million expansion to the fire department's budget after the incident, but Sanchez attacked it as a "self-serving, despicable and cynical act".[6] Bell's wife received a fake anthrax letter. Brown and Sanchez also reported receiving suspicious mail.[9][10]
The Democratic National Committee spent $75,000 to aid Brown and DNC chair Terry McAuliffe campaigned for him. The Republican National Committee donated $15,000 to Sanchez's campaign. Elaine Chao and Mel Martínez, members of President George W. Bush's cabinet, campaigned for Sanchez. 60% of Hispanic voters supported Sanchez in the initial election.[11][12]
Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size |
Margin of error |
Lee Brown |
Orlando Sanchez |
Chris Bell |
Other / Undecided |
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Houston Chronicle KHOU[17][18] |
September 5–10; 20–26[a] | 792 RV | ± | 36% | 19% | 15% | 30% |
Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Lee P. Brown | Non-partisan democracy | 125,282 | 43.46 | 165,866 | 51.67 | |
Orlando Sanchez | Non-partisan democracy | 115,967 | 40.23 | 155,164 | 48.33 | |
Chris Bell | Non-partisan democracy | 45,739 | 15.87 | |||
Luis Ullrich | Non-partisan democracy | 572 | 0.20 | |||
Larry DeVoy | Non-partisan democracy | 488 | 0.17 | |||
Anthony Dutrow | Non-partisan democracy | 235 | 0.08 | |||
Total | 288,283 | 100.00 | 321,030 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 288,283 | 100.00 | 321,030 | 100.00 | ||
Invalid votes | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
Blank votes | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
Total votes | 288,283 | 100.00 | 321,030 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 1,006,301 | 28.65 | 1,026,404 | 31.28 | ||
Source: [19][20][21][22] |