Houston, We Have No Problem.

Last night's elections were a mixed bag. Democrat Bill Owens won the incredibly hyped race in NY-23. The governor's mansions in New Jersey and Virginia went to Republicans. Incumbent New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg experienced what could best be called an embarrassing victory. Perhaps most disappointing, Maine narrowly voted to repeal a law allowing gay marriage. All of these races will be extensively parsed in an attempt to read some meaning for futures of the Democratic and Republican parties, and Tim has more on that in his column.

But one election worth looking at that hasn't received a terrible amount attention is the mayor's race that happened in my hometown, Houston. The tight competition between three Democrats and one Republican is headed to a December runoff between two of the more progressive candidates. It's not that a sea change is happening in Texas' largest city -- 78 percent of the vote went to liberal candidates, but Houston has elected Democratic mayors since the beginning of the Reagan years.

What impressed me was the diversity of the candidate field and the civility of the campaigns, much of which I think stems from the fact that it was Houston's second nonpartisan race. Annise Parker, the front-runner, is poised to be the first openly gay woman elected mayor of a major city. Her competitor, Gene Locke, would be Houston's second black mayor were he to win. The pair beat out a Republican Latino, a WASPy liberal man, a woman running for the Socialist Workers Party, and a couple of independents. Without primaries, we ended up with a pretty representative group of candidates who had to distinguish their platforms against like-minded competitors as well as members of the opposition. What came out of it were a lot of pragmatic platforms based on improvements in the realms of transit, education, and the environment. On a municipal level, this type of system seems to make a decent amount of sense.

If anything, the race may have been a little too boring and a little too reality-based, as suggested by a lower voter turnout -- which could be explained by the lack of money spent on campaigns and the absence of any real contentious issues being debated. But then again, maybe politics at its most banal is perhaps politics at its best.

--Alexandra Gutierrez