In an article in Tuesday’s Express-News, Jennifer Hiller reported on a new residential approach that won zoning approval in the Lavaca Historic neighborhood just south of Hemisfair Park. The project by designer and builder Hilary Scruggs, the Mews on Devine, is a development of five live-work units with 250 square feet of work space on the first floor and 800 to 1,000 feet of living space in the floors above. The units would be constructed on a space that once held a single-family home. As would be expected, the project is being met with mixed reactions by residents in the historic neighborhood, with several citing potential issues with parking and allowing more commercial use into the neighborhood. What this project is testing is what type of mix is appropriate for a center city neighborhood.
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Yesterday I got a FB comment from a friend dismayed at a mailer he had received from Diego Bernal that had been paid for by SEIU COPE, the national PAC for the SEIU union, a union for service employees that has been growing nationally. While it may shock a few, it’s really no secret that SEIU has backed Bernal, providing volunteers for block walking and fundraising. Many had thought that Ralph Medina was the only one in bed with organized labor but Bernal is just as much in the thick of the matter. Both stated at a candidate forum they support the right for labor to organize. But this really starts to prompt the question of who else are the candidates beholding to. You can tell a lot by their campaign finance reports.
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As we end up the final day of Early Voting for the municipal runoff elections in District 1 and 7 and prepare to go into Election Day this Saturday I decided to take a look at the voter turnout for the various districts from the past election to see what type of things might get people to vote. As many of you know, voter turnout for the General Election ended up around 7% of registered voters. That’s pretty dismal considering that several of the races were hotly contested races. Even with the premiere race in District 1, the voter turnout for that district ended up around 10% with the best precinct in that district coming in at around 24% (King William). With presidential races running around 60-65% and statewide races getting 25-30% what’s wrong with San Antonio voters at the local level?
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There has been a lot of discussion about the potential renaming of Durango Boulevard in San Antonio to César E. Chávez Boulevard. After Phillip Cortez proposed the ordinance to rename the street, the battle lines began to be drawn, almost as dramatically as Col. Travis’ fabled “line in the sand” in front of the Alamo. Several opposed the new name for Durango including the San Antonio Conservation Society, citing historical reasons for protecting the original name. Others, including Mayor Julian Castro, claimed the legacy of legendary civil rights leader César Chávez as reason enough to change the name. Regardless of what the reasons might be the fight has started to create lines of division throughout the city that seem to be opening old wounds.
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I finally have had a chance to take a look at the two council races that are in a runoff after San Antonio’s municipal general election. Most everyone knew that District 1 and District 7 would end up in a runoff with such a crowded field and several good candidates in the field. What surprised some though, was how close Cris Medina was to pulling off a victory and how Diego Bernal vaulted a very talented field to end up in first place facing Ralph Medina in a run0ff. I’ve already written how I think both races will end up based on election results and past history. However, I did decide to take the time and break down the races once the canvassed votes were posted. Read more…
Wow, the Perry presidential candidacy has to be one of the hottest political topics running the national spectrum these days. Yesterday, Peggy Fikac of the Chronicle/Express-News political reporting team wrote about the latest buzz on Perry’s non-candidacy. As Fikac quoted, Perry kept the buzz alive by saying he’ll “think about it.” Perry then went on to say “I think about a lot of things.” My favorite quote from the article was by Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “He’s taking a cue from Sarah Palin. You’ll know he’s serious when he gets a bus,” said Sabato. Sabato’s probably right. When we see the heavily decaled bus pull up to the rented governor’s mansion then we’ll know the Perry candidacy has official begun.
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Tonight was the District 1 candidate forum for runoff candidates, Diego Bernal and Ralph Medina, held at Mark Twain Middle School. Mark Twain was the site of the last candidate forum prior to the election, held by a coalition of 11 neighborhood associations. The crowd tonight was about 60% of the last forum which is what I predict turnout for the runoff to be on June 11th. Honestly, we’ll be doing good to get 3,000 voters or so to the polls for the runoff. But even with limited participation the candidates were still ready to field the questions provided by citizens. So how do things look as we get ready to jump into early voting that runs from May 31 – June 7?
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Yesterday I started looking back at San Antonio’s general election and what really happened last weekend. One thing is pretty clear in that the conventional political wisdom was thrown for a loop with the victory of Rey Saldaña in District 4 and the large lead Diego Bernal had over the rest of the pack in District 1. Saldaña beat a political insider who not only had the backing of the business and City Hall insider crowd but also the endorsement of the mayor. Bernal started the race in third place but emerged the frontrunner with a 12 point lead over the expected frontrunner, Ralph Medina. Both candidates are young and new to the San Antonio political scene with very little experience or exposure with voters. So what propelled these two newcomers to their surprising outcomes?
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San Antonio has almost completed its municipal election cycle for the next two years. The only thing left to do is finish runoffs in two districts, District 1 and 7, where everyone expected runoffs to occur. In the other districts, incumbents secured their seats, a self-funded businessman locked in his place on council, and a young political newcomer defeated a seasoned, well-connected politician. But even though D1 and D7 have runoffs scheduled for June 11th, is the answer already known in those districts?
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There’s been quite a bit of activity these past two weeks regarding the Republican presidential nominees. To start with, New Gingrich threw his hat in the ring for the first time in his and may have wished differently after his FAIL week as presidential nominee. Mike Huckabee declared it God’s will that he not seek the nomination. Donald Trump announced his decision to not seek the nomination during Upfront Week with the network, like the true showman he is. Tim Pawlenty is now scheduled to announce his candidacy for president next week. Which brings us to our own Gov. Rick Perry, who appears to be getting press as a potential nominee without even doing a single thing. So can we expect Gov. Perry to join the rank and file of nominees even though he said wouldn’t seek the nomination?
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I’ve been posting a series of blog entries about low voter turnout in San Antonio. My last entry tried to dive into some of the reasons why turnout is lower the more local the election. Today Gilbert Garcia of Plaza de Armas also dug into the issue, citing voter dissatisfaction as another possible cause. “Isn’t it possible that by not voting, people are already complaining about their government – albeit silently?” said Garcia in the article. Regardless of the cause, voters just aren’t voicing their opinion on municipal matters in the elections. If you dig a little deeper, though, low turnout could open the door for other voices to be heard, some that voters might find unacceptable or intolerable.
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I’ve been diving into this issue of voter turnout, or lack thereof, in San Antonio and posed a question to some of my Facebook friends as to what they think the problem is. As you may know, the more local the race the smaller the turnout. So one reason I put out was the lack of media exposure for candidates at the local level. I’ve found that many people in San Antonio can name some of the possible 2012 presidential candidates but can’t even name their current city council member. So what will it take to raise awareness of local elections to the point where people will start turning out to vote?
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This weekend has been an interesting one when you look at some of the events that are unfolding. In Austin, our Texas legislators seem to be having a problem trying to govern as they work towards passing a budget in which many will find fault. In San Antonio, as we wind down early voting for our municipal elections, voter turnout is one of the worst we’ve had in a long time. Based on prior history and current totals, only about 5-6% will vote in this year’s municipal election. That’s about 45,000 people making decisions for a city of over 1.3 million people, or 29 people relying on 1 person for their municipal decisions. So why are voters content with letting a few decide the future of San Antonio?
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One of the big tasks faced by this session of the Texas legislature is to redraw the various districts of Texas to hopefully adapt to the dynamics of population and political change throughout the state. The process happens every decade after the results of the US Census are published, providing information on how many people live where in the US. This year’s census will give Texas four more seats in Congress thanks to an increase in the Hispanic population and a migration of people from around the nation to Texas for jobs.
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Yesterday I blogged about the poor voter turnout we see for local elections and some of the trends seen in voting in America. The bottom line was that for elections that probably have the most direct effect on you as a citizen, those seem to have the least amount of turnout. In talking with some colleagues one comment was that voter apathy was a big contributing factor to turnout. Voters didn’t seem to feel like their vote really mattered in some cases. Then as I was reading my tech blog feeds I found out today the UK was voting on a referendum to change the method of voting from “First Past the Post” to “Alternative or Instant-Runoff Voting.” After doing some digging, the later seems like a more viable approach to helping voters take more stock in the system.
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In an article in Tuesday’s Express-News, Jennifer Hiller reported on a new residential approach that won zoning approval in the Lavaca Historic neighborhood just south of Hemisfair Park. The project by designer and builder Hilary Scruggs, the Mews on Devine, is a development of five live-work units with 250 square feet of work space on the first floor and 800 to 1,000 feet of living space in the floors above. The units would be constructed on a space that once held a single-family home. As would be expected, the project is being met with mixed reactions by residents in the historic neighborhood, with several citing potential issues with parking and allowing more commercial use into the neighborhood. What this project is testing is what type of mix is appropriate for a center city neighborhood.
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