Voters in Houston Choosing a Successor to Rep. Leland

Four months after Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.) was killed in a plane crash in Africa, voters Saturday were choosing his successor in a runoff election between two former Leland allies.

State Sen. Craig Washington and City Councilman Anthony Hall topped a field of 11 candidates Nov. 7 to qualify for Saturday’s nonpartisan runoff for Leland’s 18th Congressional District seat.

A poll last week showed the race nearly deadlocked, with Hall ahead 41% to 38%, with 21% undecided. The poll, conducted for KPRC television in Houston, had a 5-point margin of error.

The winner will serve the remainder of Leland’s two-year term.

Both men are Democrats in a district that has been described as among the most staunchly Democratic in the nation.

Washington, 48, is an attorney and former law school instructor. He has served in the Texas Senate since 1983 after a 10-year stint in the state House.

Hall, 45, also an attorney, gave up his City Council seat to run for the Leland vacancy.

Washington and Hall agreed on many issues, with both favoring increased money to battle drug trafficking and abuse, and for health care to the poor and elderly and military cutbacks in Central America.

The race came down to a question of style, with the flamboyant Washington contrasting with the more businesslike Hall.