Liaison to fill seat
Unofficial results indicate she’ll win enough votes to avoid runoff for District K position
The constituent liaison for late councilman Larry Green will avoid a runoff to fill his seat in District K.
Martha Castex-Tatum, the constituent liaison for late councilman Larry Green, will fill the District K City Council seat vacated when Green died of a drug overdoes in March, according to unofficial election results Saturday.
A runoff was largely expected in the nine-candidate race, but Castex-Tatum won well over the 50 percent threshold.
“We wanted to win it tonight because the people of District K deserve to have someone to represent them on Monday,” Castex-Tatum, 48, told reporters Saturday night on a video posted to Twitter.
Castex-Tatum will serve the remainder of Green’s term, which ends in late 2019. She will be only the second person to hold the seat added after the 2010 Census for the district that covers a slice of southwest Houston between Almeda Road in the east and Beltway 8 in the west, Brays Bayou in the North and Beltway 8 in the south, with a portion in Fort Bend County.
The Houston native grew up in the Keswick/Ramblewood neighborhood, attending Grissom Elementary, Parker Elementary and Welch Middle School in what is now District K.
As a San Marcos resident who earned a master’s of public administration from then Southwest Texas State University, she unseated a 12-year City Council incumbent to become the first African-American woman elected there.
She returned to Houston in 2004 as a residential Realtor with Keller Williams Realty,
where she worked for 10 years. She currently works at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services.
“The voters have spoken,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement. “Martha brings a unique perspective to the job after working as Green’s director of constituent services. I know he is smiling at the election results.”
The other candidates were Larry Blackmon, a retired teacher; Patricia Frazier, a community activist who lost to Green in 2011; Gerry Vander-Lyn, an administrative assistant; Lawrence McGaffie, a minister who formed a nonprofit youth organization; Carl Evans, a businessman and president of Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood; Elisabeth Johnson, a community activist; Anthony Freddie, who served as assistant to former Mayor Lee Brown’s chief of staff; and Aisha Savoy, who works in the city’s flood plain management office.
The special election was among more than 70 in the region, where voters cast ballots for school trustees and city council members, as well as a handful of bond issues and at least one property tax increase.
Voting results from other elections in the Houston area at the time of publication:
Humble ISD
Voters supported the Humble Independent School District’s $575 million bond referendum that includes a new elementary and middle school, among other major construction and renovation projects.
Galveston
David Collins bested Frank Maceo for the City Council District 3 position, and Jackie Cole beat Carolyn Sunseri for the District 6 seat. District 5 will head to a runoff election on June 16 as none of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the votes. Running for the District 5 seat were Jeff Antonelli, Chris Petrowski, Carol Hollaway and John Paul Listowski.
Mayor James D Yarbrough, District 1 representative Amy Carmen Bly, District 2 representative Craig Brown, and District 4 representative Jason Hardcastle all ran unopposed.
Jersey Village
Harris County criminal investigator James Singleton led by three votes over lawyer Simon Hughes for the Place 4 City Council position in Jersey Village, according to preliminary results. Incumbent City Councilmen Andrew Mitcham and Gary Wubbenhorst ran unopposed.
Katy ISD
Engineer Susan Gesoff won the Position 6 seat on the Katy ISD board, and Katy ISD test proctor Dawn Champagne won Position 7. They bested Scott Martin and Don Massey, respectively.
Pearland ISD
Incumbent Sean Murphy was leading local imam Daniel Hernandez for the Position 4 seat on the Pearland ISD board. Licensed school psychology specialist Crystal Carbone had a healthy lead over Bellaire High School Assistant Principal Al Lloyd for the Position 3 seat.
Sugar Land
Incumbent Mayor Joe R. Zimmerman bested opponent Diana Miller to maintain his title as mayor. Jennifer Lane led Farha Ahmed, a write-in candidate, for the council member at-large Position 2. Himesh Gandhi ran unopposed for the council member at-large Position 1.