Socorro ISD Election Results

Okay, its impossible to write this post without acknowledging one important fact...

Josh Carter got his ass kicked in ANOTHER election.

Also, every single incumbent in Socorro ISD lost reelection.

You'd think that was some big union-led revolution at the ballot box.

But it wasn't.

Socorro AFT under-performed and lost a ton of political clout unnecessarily and it is going to have a serious impact on their credibility.

They didn't endorse any of the incumbents but they also didn't leverage any union power. At one point late in early voting I saw a social media post that said that a really embarrassingly small number of union members had voted during early voting.

That was the writing not the wall for Josh Carter and frankly the union not being able to turn out its members in a school board race is a sign of a weak union. Why would trustees give you the time of day if they don't have anything to fear?

Elections have consequences and if you're the union that determines their future then they have a lot more of a reason to listen to you. But if you can't get your members to show up at the polls, what power do you really even have?

And I assure you, as much as they will want to claim victory for Trustees Paul Garcia and David Morales, it wasn't their involvement that got them across the finish line first.

Want proof?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

Socorro AFT put $1500 and mailers and phone banks and printed material and signs and banners - behind Josh Carter who limped in an abysmal third place. Carter alleges they walked thousands of doors. Thousands of doors and and phone calls for Carter what did it yield?

202 votes for Josh Carter.

They didn't get the job done.

Period.

And had they actually elected him, it probably would've been even more embarrassing for the union.

Meanwhile in the same precincts, Paul Garcia who was my guy and an at-large candidate was also endorsed by Socorro AFT. He wasn't the top vote getter but was elected because they take the top two vote-getters. AFT endorsed him but actually gave LESS money to despite the fact that they were running district-wide, because they were all-in for Carter. AFT didn't put in half the effort for Garcia that they did for Carter despite the fact that Garcia is a union guy himself.

How many votes did Garcia pull in the same area through his own campaign's GOTV effort?

436 for Garcia.

Well more than double the votes of Carter despite Carter and the union being able to concentrate on those handful of precincts and spending more time, treasure, and talent on Carter.

Socorro AFT is a woman-led organization. The overwhelming majority of its membership are Latina and are degreed professionals. The fact that they didn't endorse the most qualified candidate in the field in favor of a far lesser qualified male candidate is an embarrassment.

But bot having a real impact on the election is the bigger problem for them. Its hard to see how any trustee would be worried about voting no on a raise if they union couldn't leverage its own members to get out and vote.