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With the negative and often ferocious campaigning behind him, newly reelected Mayor Lee Brown began his third term Sunday by asking the city to coalesce for his final two years in office.

“This is a city I love. I want to make sure I do everything I can to see it progress,” Brown said.

Saturday’s election returns seesawed all night until a late surge by Brown’s backers. He had 165,865 votes, or 52%, to Orlando Sanchez’s 155,164, or 48%.

Brown, the city’s first black mayor, cannot run again because of a term limit ordinance.

In his campaign, Brown attacked the Cuban-born Sanchez as being inexperienced, unreliable and a political extremist who shouldn’t be trusted to lead the nation’s fourth-largest city.

On his part, Sanchez criticized Brown, warning of an impending financial crisis. He said he could better serve the city.

Brown “has pitted nationality against nationality, ethnic group against ethnic group, racial group against racial group. That doesn’t serve our community,” said Sanchez, 44, who hoped to become Houston’s first Latino mayor.

But Sanchez struck a conciliatory note after conceding defeat: “Tomorrow . . . we’re all Houstonians. We’re working together.”

Brown, 64, a former drug czar in President Clinton’s administration, rallied Democratic congressional members who represented urban communities and had Clinton record a telephone message on his behalf.

Former Democratic Mayor Bob Lanier decried the involvement of national political parties in the race, calling what happened “a mistake.”

Richard Murray, professor of political science at the University of Houston, said that Republicans in Houston suffered.

“Close does not count, and this was a loss for the GOP heading into the 2002 midterms,” Murray said.