Whitmire Looks to Knock Off Jackson Lee for Houston Mayor, Avoid Runoff

Houston city voters are deciding their next mayor Tuesday.

State Sen. John Whitmire has been a strong frontrunner to take the lead at City Hall, pretty much the entire campaign. Compare that to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's leaked profanity-laced rant against a staffer.

Rice University's Mark Jones believes the race is headed to a December runoff, but recent polling shows Jackson Lee is a distant second.

"She has a low ceiling, with 43 percent of likely voters saying they would never vote for her and 51 percent of likely voters having an unfavorable opinion of her," Jones said last month.

Jones says Whitmire has a considerable war chest for a runoff, if he's unable to end the mayoral race Tuesday.

"Roughly half them (voters) have a negative opinion of her, and that's difficult, especially when you're running against a candidate like John Whitmire who has relatively low negatives."