Early voting begins Dec. 2 in a runoff election that will determine which of two candidates will represent much of El Paso’s Westside on the City Council for the coming years.
Candidates Monica Reyes, 55, and Alejandra Chavez, 47, were the top two vote-getters in the Nov. 5 election for the District 1 seat. Out of four candidates, Reyes and Chavez received 27% and 37% of the vote, respectively. Since neither won more than 50% of the vote, they’re now facing off in the Dec. 14 runoff.
“Our race for District 1 was crowded,” Reyes told El Paso Matters, adding that she anticipated a runoff would be necessary following the Nov. 5 election. “My camp kept telling me, ‘Brace yourself. We need to get to the runoff, and then from there we will separate ourselves from the crowd.’”
Chavez said despite the need for a runoff, she was happy with the support she received.
“I was very pleased that District 1 overwhelmingly came out to vote and selected me to be their No. 1 candidate,” Chavez said in an interview. “That was a direct result of the hours and hours that I have spent knocking on people’s doors since July.”
Chavez, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, was the owner and chef of Thyme Matters restaurant, 5857 N. Mesa St., for 20 years before selling the business last year.
Reyes has spent her nearly 30-year career in education since graduating from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. For over a decade, she’s been the executive director of the Department of Student Support Services at the Canutillo Independent School District.
The two candidates share similar priorities such as lowering property taxes, ensuring public safety and improving road infrastructure on the Westside. A notable difference between the two is their financial backing. Donors poured far more money into the District 1 election than any of the other five City Council races this election cycle.
Chavez, as of Oct. 26, had raised nearly $99,000 compared with Reyes’ donations of $27,000, and Chavez had spent nearly four times as much on her campaign compared with Reyes.
“I have very deep roots in the community,” Chavez said. “I have established very good relationships with a lot of different kinds of people from all walks of life, older, younger, and I think that just demonstrates a very positive thing in my favor.”
The two candidates will release more recent campaign finance figures in early December.
“I’m just going to keep running my race with what funds I have, and do the best that I can to get my name out there,” Reyes said. “I’m very proud to say that every single person that block-walks for me is a volunteer.”
A major question that will determine who wins District 1 is how many voters turnout in the runoff. Typically, voter turnout drops off significantly in a runoff election compared with a general election where presidential candidates are on the ballot.
Both Reyes and Chavez pointed out that about 35,000 people in the district voted for a presidential candidate, but only 28,000 selected one of the four District 1 city representative candidates.
Reyes suggested the lengthy ballot – which included multiple ballot propositions for the city and county, numerous city, county and judicial races as well as presidential and U.S. senate candidates – caused some voters to avoid filling out the entire ballot.
“Some people, they only wanted to cast their vote for the presidential” election, Reyes said. “I think, because the ballot was so heavy, people were just like, ‘I’m not going to sit here and do every single race.’”
Despite the runoff coming in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Chavez said the mayoral runoff may help generate more turnout for the Dec. 14 election.
Future of Downtown arena?
Voters in the Nov. 5 election chose to revoke the bond funds that had not been issued to build a Downtown arena – the $128 million remaining from the quality of life bond that El Paso voters approved in 2012. The next City Council will have to choose how next to proceed: whether to pursue a new effort to build an entertainment venue Downtown, or scrap the idea altogether.
Both Reyes and Chavez were adamant that they wouldn’t support asking taxpayers to approve more debt – and boost property taxes – to build any new Downtown venues.
Reyes said the city ought to improve existing facilities before building any new ones. She singled out the city’s convention center as a site the city could improve.
“We need to just take a pause, look at our budget, see what’s non-essential, work on tightening that, being more fiscally conservative,” Reyes said. “And then we can, down the road, look and see if there’s a project that needs to happen. But I’m not in favor of putting that on the back of the taxpayer.”
LEARN MORE: CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1 RUNOFF
Chavez similarly suggested that the city should keep an open mind about whether there’s a need for projects in the years ahead.
“I don’t think that people, right now, want to be burdened by another bond, or anything like that,” Chavez said.
“On the other hand,” she said, “we are a growing community, and so I think disregarding any projects just because we don’t even want to think about them is not the way to go. I think we definitely need to just continue the conversation and see what happens in the future.”
National election impact
Both Reyes and Chavez acknowledged the election of Donald Trump will likely have an impact on El Paso, particularly his stated goal of enacting a program to deport undocumented immigrants en masse.
Chavez said any federal plan to carry about deportations isn’t set and so it would be guesswork for city representatives to say how the city should respond to such an operation. She pointed out she believes city police officers wouldn’t be allowed to carry out deporations or do anything involving immigration.
Chavez said she would focus on ensuring El Paso is safe during any federal operations.
“We don’t really know what changes are going to be coming our way,” Chavez said.
“The reality is that we are a border city, and we may get some ramifications down the line, some changes to some policies,” she said. “And we will just have to make sure that we move forward in a way that represents the values of this community.”
Reyes talked through potential impacts of mass deportations on El Paso, where an estimated 52,000 undocumented people live. Reyes said the city could see a decline in student enrollment here and a hit to employment in industries such as agriculture, construction and service jobs. On the other hand, said the city may see a surge of new U.S. Border Patrol agents to carry out the operation.
Reyes’ father is Silvestre Reyes, who represented El Paso in Congress for 16 years and was the chief Border Patrol agent for the El Paso sector. She said they’ve discussed how the region could feel the effects of a federal deportation program.
“We don’t know the details of (a deportation plan). It’s not been fully vetted, it’s not been rolled out for us to understand it. But I know that is going to impact us here in El Paso,” Reyes said.
“One of my concerns is that, in the past, when we had situations with migration … the federal government through Biden gave us financial support,” Reyes said. “And so what’s the federal government going to do under Trump’s administration? Are they expecting us to do unfunded mandates?”
Candidates’ final message
Chavez said she wants to address head-on the frustration she’s heard from voters over property tax bills in El Paso, and also over unkempt streets littered with trash and weeds.
“Some people are hopeful, but some people have hesitation when they look at me because they don’t think things will ever change,” Chavez said.
“Every time they tell me their stories, or what their concern is at this time, all that does is motivate me and energize me to work even harder to hopefully represent them at City Hall.”
Reyes, for her part, said her time working at Canutillo ISD has given her strong experience working with social agencies, managing budgets and engaging with the local community.
“I’ve managed significant budgets, millions of dollars over the course of my 29 years in administration,” Reyes said.
“I really want to be focused on sound fiscal policies for city council,” she said. “I’ve had that capability to network and to work with different people on the different projects and the different initiatives that I’ve had to do in the purview of my position, so I can bring all of that to city council.”
The post Former restaurant owner faces school administrator in city runoff election to represent West El Paso appeared first on El Paso Matters.
Read: Read More