HispanicBusiness

HOUSTON -- Latinos on Tuesday will seek to win City Hall in two of Texas' most important elections, as Orlando Sanchez and Gus Garcia vie to become the first Hispanic mayors of Houston and Austin, respectively.

Both men have chances of winning, recent polls reveal.

Though he is not expected to take a majority in Tuesday's non-partisan vote in Houston, Sanchez is given a good shot at capturing the highest office of the fourth largest U.S. city in an eventual second round.

The city's current mayor, Lee Brown, was favored by 36.9 percent of voters who took part in a recent poll, which was commissioned by the Houston Chronicle and KHOU-TV, and conducted by the Center for Public Policy of the University of Houston and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Sanchez is the only candidate who has substantially increased his voter support in the weeks leading up to the elections. He enjoyed 27 percent voter support in the survey conducted between Oct. 23 and Oct. 31, compared to the 18.3 percent recorded in September.

Analysts believe that none of the contenders - including Chris Bell, who earned 18.3 percent to come in third - will attain the 50 percent-plus-one votes required to win Tuesday.

The battle for mayor will center around Sanchez, a Cuban-born Republican, and Bell, a Democrat, as they seek to challenge Brown, an African-American Democrat, in a second round.

If Brown and Sanchez are the candidates in a runoff, Sanchez would take 43.4 percent of the votes to Brown's 39.3 percent, according to the new poll.

The race would be decided by those in the 15.5-percent undecided category.

Should he win a second round, Sanchez, 43, would become the first Latino mayor of Houston.

Elsewhere, another Texas Hispanic is vying to become the first Latino mayor of Austin, the state capital.

Gus Garcia, a former city council member, appears to be the candidate both voters and campaign financiers favor in the race to replace current Mayor Kirk Watson, who is resigning to run for state attorney general.

Garcia has garnered the support of important political figures, such as former San Antonio mayor and Clinton Cabinet member Henry Cisneros, who traveled to Austin over the weekend to give a last push to the Hispanic campaign.

Watson has also said he will vote for Garcia.