Pasadena stays with old guard in mayor’s race
City fighting federal voting rights case elects councilman allied with Isbell
Despite racial tensions and a federal lawsuit over access to the ballot box in Pasadena, the establishment won Saturday in an election that garnered national attention as a voting rights battleground.
City Councilman Jeff Wagner defeated businessman John “JR” Moon late Saturday in the heated election to replace outgoing Mayor Johnny Isbell. Wagner is closely aligned with Isbell, who has tightly controlled city politics for decades but was term-limited.
“Voters in Pasadena don’t seem to be ready for change,” said University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus. “It’s hard to persuade voters about change in a local election.”
Incumbents, including a 91-year-old mayor, also held on to their seats in a runoff in Pearland.
The runoff caps the first election cycle to be held since a federal judge ruled that Pasadena intentionally discriminated against Hispanic voters
with a now-defunct redistricting scheme that was championed by the departing mayor.
The city of Pasadena is appealing the judge’s ruling, but until it is settled, Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal has ordered the city to revert to a 2013 election map that uses eight single-member districts instead of relying on the six single-member and two at-large districts ruled unconstitutional. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice sent two observers to monitor the May election.
In that election, all eight City Council seats and the mayor’s office were up for grabs, leading to two runoffs.
Besides the race for mayor, Daniel Vela lost to Felipe Villarreal for the open City Council seat representing District A.
Four races were decided last month: incumbent and Isbell ally Bruce Leamon over challenger Steve Halvorson; Phil Cayten beat Larry Peacock for Wagner’s District F seat; incumbent and Isbell ally Cary Bass beat out challengers Oscar Del Toro and Allen Munz for District G; and Thomas Schoenbein, who supported Wagner, beat Keith Sargent, April Lance and Brad Hance for District H.
Incumbents District E Councilman Cody Ray Wheeler and District D Councilman Sammy Casados won re-election unopposed. Don Harrison won the District C seat unopposed.
In Saturday’s mayoral runoff, Wagner had not responded to questions from the Houston Chronicle. In campaign literature, he touts his experience as a former Houston police officer and as a city councilman.
Moon is a commercial real estate agent and banker who campaigned as the candidate of change, a break from Isbell’s legacy.
Moon campaigned heavily on his credentials as chief financial officer of Moody Bank, based in Galveston, saying he has the experience and knowledge to make smarter financial decisions for the city.
The runoff took place in the shadow of a federal lawsuit, brought by a handful of Pasadena residents, that shows the tension between a white population in the south of this industrial port city of 150,000 and an increasing Hispanic population on the north side.
Nearly two-thirds of city residents are Hispanic, up from less than one-third in 1990.
The federal judge ruled in January that the city intentionally violated the rights of Hispanic voters with a redistricting scheme pushed through three years ago by Isbell.
In Pearland’s mayoral runoff, incumbent Tom Reid, 91, beat challenger Quentin Wiltz, a 36-year-old who works in the pipeline industry. And in the race for a newly created City Council position, Woody Owens beat Dalia Kasseb, a 30-year-old pharmacist and the first openly Muslim candidate in Brazoria County history.
Jay Aiyer, an assistant professor of public policy at Texas Southern University, said the area’s changing population has brought a fundamental shift to the left in Brazoria County, and in Pearland specifically.
The elections reflected a suburb grappling with significant growth in recent decades as new and diverse residents moving to master-planned communities built on the west side of town. City officials estimate Pearland has 120,000 residents. It encompasses parts of three counties — Harris, Fort Bend and Brazoria — and covers 48 square miles.
Campaign rhetoric highlighted the challenges the city faces, including transportation, infrastructure, a landfill and city finances. Race and religion also became talking points, with two older, white, conservative men who had held office before facing two younger, minority newcomers.
Rottinghaus, the political scientist, said Pearland’s election was similar to Pasadena in that change comes slowly, and in modest measures, and lags significantly behind demographic change.
“If voters can’t be convinced that change is needed after what happened in Pasadena, it’s hard to believe they can be convinced statewide,” he said. “If rallying racial minorities, younger voters and Democrats didn’t work in Pasadena, it’s hard to believe it’s going to work on a more broad scale.”