The Low Down on City Council Candidates (So fFar)

As we continue in this election season, more and more people are starting to throw their names around for consideration as candidates, let me give you a quick summary of what I now about the candidates that are in the hunt (so far).

District 1 – Ann Morgan Lily is the incumbent. She's filed for re-election. You basically know her already. Her only opponent so far is Manny Hinojosa. He describes himself as a “watch dog” but its unclear what he's watching other than the Domestic Partner Benefits issue. He's a minister, but not a very strong speaker as ministers go, which is a shame because his opponent isn't the greatest speaker either.

Hinojosa has a bit of a temper and is sometimes prone to getting frustrated. He's also pretty defensive so if someone turns up the heat on him he's likely to give us a little entertainment. I've had discussions with Hinojosa, mostly about the Bible, but we've also talked a little about policy. I think he should hit the books for a while and get up to speed on issues and develop a stronger understanding of policy before he ventures in to public forums. He's a reasonably intelligent guy and if he hits the books hard he might do okay in a candidate forum.

One small problem with that though, campaigns in El Paso are rarely won or lost in a candidate forum. Hinojosa has to develop a base of supporters along with some financial backing in order to be competitive. Despite the fact that he's a Republican Party Precinct Chair, he doesn't have much direct experience with campaigns so he better surround himself with people that know what they are doing and can run a campaign. If I were him, I'd get on the phone with the college Republicans. Except the College Republicans aren't really to into the whole Jesus thing to the extent that Hinojosa is and his tendency to get frustrated easily may also be an issue for the College Republicans, especially after the Besco meltdown. He better play nice if he's going to court them because they don't take anybody's shit just because they are College Republicans.

District 5

Quintana's not running for re-election. A doctor, Michiel Noe, has filed to run, but I honestly don't know much about him. He's a doctor, so one assumes he has a little dough and that alone will be helpful in a race that will likely be a crowded field. But the eastside doesn't vote very strongly and so the question will be if there will be more candidates than voters!

From what I can tell, I don't think he has any measurable political experience in town, so there will be questions left unanswered about experience, political savvy, knowledge of grass roots campaigning, and oh, what his platform will be.

Omar Macias is a former Customs and Border Patrol employee who is considering the run. After retiring he opened a business and has some pretty well-rounded experience. He looks good on paper so far, but has limited campaign experience, which isn't necessarily a deal breaker in city races given the low voter turnout. Resources and organization will be something he will have to solidify pretty soon as the race starts to kick up.

Once I know about positions and platforms of all the candidates, I'll fill you in.

District 8

Jorge Artalejo is going to run. He is a perennial candidate and will likely take the bus to all of the forums and not do any real campaigning. He'll sputter something about leadership and taxes, but won't ever gain any traction, put up a sign, or knock on any doors. He will get the lowest number of votes in the entire election.

The other two candidates are interesting prospects. 

From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia

Courtney Niland is known for charity work on a range of causes. Very admirable. Most people talk about doing charity work, she actually does it. Good for her. I'm told she's pretty progressive, but in all fairness, the people that told me that were all Republicans so that might be a relative term.

I tried very hard to reach her and called and text messaged her several times so that I could get to know more about her candidacy, what she thinks about CO's, eminent domain, annexation, and all the other city issues, but she was always “too busy”. But I'm sure I'll catch up with her at some point on the campaign trail.

From what I can tell, it looks like Rick Armendariz and Mark Smith will be helping out on her campaign. Maybe they'll get in to the win column for city elections because they have had a pretty bad run of luck in a few of the races. If memory serves one or both worked with Naomi Gonzalez, Jimmy Suerkin, & Gus Haddad in their recent to semi-recent bids for city office.

But they are fresh off of a big win with Dee Margo and their experience in that part of town will be pretty valuable to Niland.

From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia

Ernesto Villanueva is the last candidate in the District 8 race. For Niland and Villanueva, they will have to start kicking things in gear soon because despite the fact that he's going to lose, I think most people in political circles know Artalejo's name more than theirs at this point. But that's really easy to over come.

Villanueva has been involved with the street car initiative and downtown revitalization and is a bit of a political novice, but has started to be involved in more and more city initiatives so he's about as seasoned a campaigner as anyone else in the races so far (that isn't an incumbent). He'll need to out-hustle his opponent. Niland, through her charity work, is used to raising money and has Armendariz and Smith around to help with the other stuff, so Villanueva has to start wearing out some shoe leather if he wants to pull off the win.

Niland and Villanueva are both pretty young and dynamic. Villanueva has the (somewhat) advantage of being bilingual.

Okay, that's it for the intros of the candidates so far. I'll get back to this once I get a chance to talk with the candidates and ask them about actual issues. 

Stay tuned.