City Controller Annise Parker has beaten former City Attorney Gene Locke in today's runoff election to be Houston's next mayor.

According to my Twitter feed, the Chronicle called the race (via tweet, at least) around 10 p.m. tonight, saying Parker had an unbeatable lead with 88 percent of precincts reporting. As I type this, my TV screen is saying 99 percent of all precincts are in. (I'm sending you to Chron.com for the very latest results.)

Aside from this being a huge local story, it'll also likely be a national story, as Parker is making history by becoming the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. Her sexual orientation became an issue late in the race, when Locke received the endorsement of a prominent anti-gay activist. Then the Chronicle's Brad Olson broke the story that two of Locke's top money men had given big bucks to a conservative PAC that had sent out an anti-gay direct mail piece going after Parker.

Locke just appeared live on my TV screen at home, via KPRC-Channel 2, saying he had called Parker to congratulate her. He said he had pledged to work for unity. He called on the city to "heal like we've never healed before, and move forward under a new administration."

Meanwhile, we've been following, and often retweeting, much of the work of KTRK's Miya Shay, who has been all over Twitter with the results tonight. Follow her at @miyashay or see her live blog on the KTRK site.

And if you're just tuning in, mentally, to the fact that we've had a mayoral election here in Houston -- well, heck, clearly you don't have a listed telephone number in the city of Houston, 'cause if you did, you'd have figured that out from the 85 political robocalls you would have gotten today. But if you want to find out more about the new mayor-elect, you can see our interactive presentation about her financial and political connections, and you can read all of our previous coverage about Annise Parker at this link.