Houston mayoral race as face of future politics

And in New York's mayoral race last month, half the Hispanic vote went to Republican Michael Bloomberg, who won that election.

What this means, experts agree, is that minority candidates can no longer count on traditional voting blocs.

Mayor Brown has been spending a lot of time and money in the Mexican-American neighborhoods of Houston, trying to play on the traditionally Democratic voting habits of Hispanics. Sanchez seems to have the upper hand here - in large part because of his surname.

While Hispanics in Los Angeles turned out in droves this summer to vote for candidate Antonio Villaraigosa in that city's mayoral race, in the end, Mr. Villaraigosa couldn't form strong enough coalitions within white or the African-American communities.

And James Hahn, the white candidate, won a decisive majority of the black vote in that election, leaving L.A., where Latinos make up 47 percent of the population, still waiting for its first Hispanic mayor.

When all is said and done, an ethnic candidate's platform must be "palatable to white voters," says Dr. Rodriguez. "These new candidates have to move beyond their ethnic identity to win."

San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza, currently the only Hispanic mayor of a major city, knows that firsthand. He raised more than $800,000 - a lot for a mayoral race - for his campaign last spring and garnered the backing of established business and city leaders.

But he also learned how to appeal to white voters. He talked about quality-of-life issues such as streets, airport noise, traffic, and parks - and won the primarily white North Side outright, even though his white opponent lives there.

"For people of all ethnic groups, the rise to leadership positions lies in their ability to transcend their ethnicity and become leaders for the entire community," says Mr. Garza. "I've seen a lot of good elected officials who put a ceiling on their political growth because they weren't able to cross over into other ethnic and economic classes."

But Garza is heartened by recent events. Austin, for example, recently elected its first Hispanic mayor. And back in Houston, a minority candidate is sure to be elected on Saturday.

But this won't be the last election of its kind, experts say. This is the political race of the future.

"Two minority candidates is unique, but it's going to be less and less so," says Chris Garcia, a political scientist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. "African-Americans have been in most large cities for a while, and Latinos are now spreading into cities all over the US. This is going to shed a whole new light on racial and ethnic voting."

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