The political fight set in motion by the October death of longtime District 6 state Sen. Mario Gallegos is headed for its final round Saturday as voters cast ballots in a runoff between former Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and state Rep. Carol Alvarado.

The top vote-getters in a six-way January special election, both women are liberal Democrats who share many views. In the first election, Garcia got 45.4 percent of the vote compared to Alvarado's 41.6 percent.

Early voting in the district, which includes Houston's East End, as well as parts of Pasadena, Galena Park and Baytown, ended Tuesday.

Despite the campaign furor - each has pummeled the other in attack ads - observers said Saturday's election may be a sleeper. Only 5.65 percent of the district's eligible voters turned out for the January election.

"There seems to be little excitement outside of those who are political junkies," said Renee Cross, associate director of the University of Houston's Hobby Center for Public Policy. "Relatively speaking, Houston is doing pretty well economically, and people don't pay as much attention to politics when things are going well."

Both candidates have touted endorsements. Gallegos' family said the late lawmaker favored Alvarado to succeed him. Alvarado, 45, also collected endorsements from former Houston Mayor Bill White, the Houston Professional Firefighters and R.W. Bray, a Republican who placed third in January's special election. Garcia, 62, drew support from the Harris County AFL-CIO, the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers and Joaquin Martinez, a Democrat in the January election who claimed 2.5 percent of the vote.

"Substantively," said Rice University political science professor Robert Stein, "the two candidates, with minor exceptions, are in lockstep … Carol is a new-breed Latina. Sylvia is old school."

Gallegos elected in 1995

Whoever wins Saturday, Stein said, likely will have a lock on District 6 for a long time.

Mario Gallegos, a retired Magnolia Park-born firefighter, held the job from 1995 until his death from complications related to a liver transplant at age 61.

Garcia served as Houston's presiding municipal court judge and city controller before being elected to the Harris County Commissioners Court, where she served from 2002 to 2010. Holding a degree in social work from Texas Woman's University and a law degree from Texas Southern, she was the first Hispanic to serve on the county's governing board.

Alvarado, who holds bachelor and master of business administration degrees from UH, has served as state legislator from Houston's District 145 since 2008. She was a member of Houston City Council from 2002 to 2007.

Health care, education

Garcia identified health care as her top priority if elected to the Senate, and cited the creation of seven in-school medical clinics and a Pasadena pediatric health care center as signal achievements of her years in county government.

"For me," she said, "it's all about health care. The bottom line is that if you don't have healthy children, they won't learn in school."

If elected, she said, she would "work to convince" Gov. Rick Perry to reverse his rejection of a Medicaid program expansion that, beginning in 2014, would extend coverage to 1.5 million people and about 300,000 pregnant women, children and poor parents.

"There's a big return on the investment," Garcia said. "That's just a no-brainer."

Alvarado said education is among her top priorities, noting that she has introduced a bill to extend career and technology education from high schools to seventh and eight grades. She also has supported a freeze on tuitions charged by state universities.

Alvarado said her years as a state representative have better prepared her to function in the Senate, where she is prepared to cultivate political relationships "on both sides."

Alvarado's endorsement of bipartisanship has drawn support from Bray, the African-American Republican who challenged her in January's election, and from state Sen. Larry Taylor, a Friendswood Republican, who "block-walked" on her behalf last weekend.

"Rep. Alvarado is an effective leader in the Legislature, and will represent the true interests of her state Senate seat," Taylor said in an email.

GOP: Both 'very liberal'

Harris County Republican Party Chairman Jared Woodfill disagreed, dismissing both candidates as "very liberal voices" who would promote the "Obama strategy."

Woodfill's opprobrium was mild compared to the venom the candidates reserved for one another.

"I hate to say that's politics," said Cross, alluding to attack ads that have appeared in recent weeks. "From what I can see, the Garcia campaign came out with negative ads before the special elections. Now, Alvarado is countering before the runoff. It is nasty. I guess that's not surprising."

Claims, counterclaims

In a recent direct-mail advertisement, Alvarado asserts of Garcia: "If it doesn't fill her pockets, she's not concerned."

The ad contends Garcia voted herself a "taxpayer-funded raise" while on Commissioner's Court. Garcia said the raise was part of an across-the-board wage adjustment for all county employees.

She countered that Alvarado was negligent in supervising her staff, which received more than $130,000 in improper bonuses, while she was mayor pro tem in the mid-2000s. Alvarado responded, "I think we know the story. Those individuals were found guilty. I was not the target of that investigation."

Both candidates have topped the $1 million mark in campaign spending, with Alvarado's expenditures from July 2012 to the latest reports to the Texas Ethics Commission reaching $1.2 million. Garcia has spent $1.1 million.