Yesterday I finished my endorsements for the 2011 municipal elections, with District 1 as my final endorsement. I knew I had to do something for that race since not only do I live in that district and needed to pick a candidate, I also needed to provide information on why I picked who I did. Endorsements are a part of the political process and I wanted to be a part of that this year after having researched the candidates and the race. This year I decided to try to canvass the entire slate of races and, in doing so, learned a lot more about what it takes to really do the endorsement process justice. If you’re going to put your choice out there you better be able to back why you picked who you did.
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The start of 2011 can have different meanings to different people. For some it means getting ready for another NCAA regional tournament in the city. For others it means trying to figure out an early Fiesta schedule (Easter comes real late in 2011). But for a select group of San Antonians it means getting ready for a fast-paced municipal campaign season. San Antonio’s two year terms means some incumbents and several candidates start campaigning for possible election to City Council in May. This year should prove to be just as wild as 2009. While 2009 had one of the hottest mayoral races in a while, the real races this year will most likely come in some of the council races with District 1 being the hottest of the races.
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We haven’t even gotten through the 2010 election cycle and candidates for the 2011 municipal election are already jockeying for position, especially in District 1. In 2011 Councilwoman Mary Alice Cisneros will be vacating her office due to term limits (she was not covered by the term limit extensions) and a field is already developing to run for her office. Greg Jefferson, columnist with the San Antonio Express-News, detailed some of the early political moves by District 1 candidates. It a good read and he’s a lot more cued in on the race than I am so I’ll leave any candidate analysis to him at this point. But a big question in mind is what would make a good District 1 candidate? Read more…
Tonight city council held a special session to allow for public discussion on the proposed investment by CPS for expansion of STNP 3 & 4. The session was one of many being conducted by members of city council throughout the city to allow for public input the upcoming decision by the CPS Board of Trustees on whether to approve investment and what type of investment option to move forward with. Up until this point CPS was proposing a 40 percent investment as a partner in the project with NRG, a New Jersey based energy company. After being elected Mayor Castro and Councilman Reed Williams, District 8, began to question that investment and have suggested a potentially lower investment in the project by CPS, possibly 20 percent instead. Read more…
Today Mayor Julian Castro proposed a new set of ethics reforms for city council that will be taken up by council in session next week. The proposal marks several changes to campaign contributions such as prohibiting not only but officers, attorneys/lobbyists, spouses and consultants of companies pursuing high-profile contracts with the city from making contributions to council members and the mayor. Castro also discussed CPS’s potential investment in expanding nuclear generation at STP. Finally, Castro said that possibilities of mixed-use development in Hemisfair Park will be an upcoming priority. It is evident from his actions in the first few months of office that he will be pursuing an aggressive agenda for San Antonio’s future. Read more…
Tonight closed out the San Antonio municipal elections with run-off elections in Districts 2, 5, and 8. Prior to the election I provided a recap of the races, expecting District 2 and 5 to be close ones. District 8 turned out pretty much like I expected, with several factors serving to Reed Williams benefit. Prior to the results that came in today I tried to call the race based on early voting numbers. With 14,100 votes cast I was about 500 votes off the mark, predicting 13,600 for the final tally. The split for the run-off ended up being a 2 to 1 split of early to election day. With election day falling on the same day as Texas Folklife Festival and temperatures pushing 100 most of the day it’s no wonder not many turned out for election day. Read more…
Last week Julian Castro took off as mayor of the city of San Antonio. Castro enters office after winning the mayoral race without having to face a run-off, carrying 56% of the vote. Castro’s win makes him the first mayor to win the election outright in over 15 years. While that might indicate Castro has some latitude in establishing his own agenda, he also follows two very successful terms of Mayor Phil Hardberger. Hardberger’s administration is being touted as one of the most successful in recent San Antonio history, marking four years of notable city projects, public exposure, and changing the face of city government. So what does Castro face as he takes office? What issues could help define Castro’s term as mayor? Read more…
If you’re reading this and you haven’t voted in the early voting period you’re going to have to wait until Saturday for the run-off election. Based on the Monday’s totals it looks like the run-off election turnout is going to be pretty slim again. As of Monday only 6,863 people had voted in early voting. If you add possibly another 800-900 voters to the tally that will give us a little over 7,500 votes in the early election. Using a 60-40 split that means the run-off election totals should be just under 13,000 votes. Compare that to the early voting totals for Districts 2, 5, and 8 of 12,446 and you see a 36% drop in participation from the general to the run-off election. Simply put, San Antonians lose interest the further out this gets. Without a mayoral run-off, the first election we’ve had without one in the past two decades, the voters just don’t get engaged. So how will the candidates fair?
Update 6/11/2009 2:00 p.m. – With the early vote count at 8,160 and a 60-40 split I am revising my final vote count to 13,600.
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Today I’m going to get my run-off vote out of the way by taking advantage of early voting. Ever since I moved to Texas and started early voting I think I have voted on election day once in these 22 years. It’s just too convenient to do and avoids the possibility you might miss voting on election day due to conflicts. I get to vote because I’m in District 8, a real humdinger of a race. More on that in a second. In fact, more on all the district run-off races in a second. I just wanted to make sure you get the message out to your friends and family to vote in this election run-off. With municipal elections running at an all time low we really need to figure out how to change the trend. So do the Texas thing – vote early and vote often. Read more…
Today started the early voting period for the run-off elections in San Antonio municipal races for Districts 2, 5, and 8. However, turnout for this election is not expected to top 10,000 voters out of a potential 192,000 registered voters for the races according to an editorial in the Express-News. That means if you and 18 of your friends decide not to vote you’re letting one voting friend decide who will represent you on city council. Regardless of the outcome I’m sure you’ll have something to say after the election but I’m going to be hard pressed to listen to you complain because you didn’t participate. In one of the lowest turnouts for a non-incumbent mayoral race Julian Castro was elected by winning 56% of the vote that Saturday night. In actual votes Castro led Trish DeBerry-Mejia by over 20,000 votes, only twice the amount expected in the entire run-off election. This actually follows a trend I’ve noticed about elections in general – the less local the election, the more people will vote. What makes this seem even worse is that if there are any government actions that can effect you directly it’s the local government that probably has the most impact. We could analyze this issue all day long but it’s probably not going to change the outcome. The cost of each vote is probably going to be around $30 a vote cast. So why not get your money’s worth and stop by to cast a vote at any early voting site until June 9th.
By the way, I’m probably going to be a little sparse on entries as I work to complete an Open Letter to Mayor Castro, a collection of some of the great ideas to consider that were presented during the 2009 mayoral race by all candidates. Hopefully I’ll have that completed by the end of the week. I’d hate to have it ready just in time for the 2011 election.
It looks like we’re not quite done with the 2009 San Antonio municipal elections. What is interesting is that the one runoff everyone expected was supposed to have been the mayoral race. Instead Julian Castro held a commanding lead all night long and won the election with 56%, beating the odds of a runoff with Trish DeBerry-Mejia. So where did the runoffs end up? In two cases non-incumbent districts with crowded fields, District 2 and 8, ended up in runoffs. Both were expected to end up in this situation. However, in District 5 incumbent Lourdes Galvan found herself once again facing challenger David Medina in a runoff, something most did not quite expect. So where does this leave us? Read more…
In an opinion piece in today’s Express-News Bruce Davidson cites the track record that Mayor Hardberger had with shunning the influence of lobbyists at City Hall and asks if the next mayor can continue that practice. He cites a few things that might help including the extension of term limits voters recently approved, helping provide more experienced council members in decision making. I agree that it is time for council to take back the process and bring more accountability to our city government. It really is in their best interest to demonstrate that our local government cannot be bought. But what steps should be taken to carry this forward? Read more…
Today WOAI reporter Mireya Villareal provides a glimpse into the budgetary and spending habits of our city council members in all the districts. The report highlights mostly issues with the travel budget, with some council members exceeding their budget by almost $10,000 in the case of mayoral candidate Sheila McNeil. As you look at these budgets you notice that none of them exceeded their planned budgets for 2008. But when you look deeper you find that several significant line items were grossly exceeded, leading one to believe the item was abused for other purposes, travel being the most significant. So is there an issue with how our council members manage their offices? Read more…
In case you needed more information there are a couple of other blogs covering this election. San Antonio Mayor provides some really good information on the mayoral race with some interesting information regarding polls and finances. While it does have a pro-Castro spin you can still pull some good information about the state of the race and some good analysis on that information. It will be interesting to see where this blog goes after the mayoral race. Name change or just keep following the new mayor after elected? In the case of District 8 there is a blog called District 8 Race that is keeping track of the candidates running to replace Councilwoman Diane Cibrian. Lately it has been keeping track of the campaign finances and shows some interesting information regarding Jody Sherrill. It appears Sherrill may be out of money. As was stated in the blog “I’m not sure how viable he really is now.” Does this mean we’ll have a Williams and Berlanga run-off even after the E-N endorsed Sherrill?
It’s good to see these other blogs covering the municipal elections. Through their diligence the voting public has a lot more information about the candidates and the election. Hats off to both for their coverage.
We’re less than a month away from the beginning of early voting for the 2009 city council election and things are heating up. This week several candidate forums will be hosted across the city, two of them for the mayoral candidates being broadcast live. The Castro campaign will also be hosting their second virtual town hall this coming Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. The Express-News and San Antonio Business Journal continue to publish their candidate profiles on Sunday, the online versions being peppered with strong and contentious comments from all the campaigns. Yes, we’re coming into the home stretch of 2009 city council election. Read more…
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