Less than 50 percent of the City’s 125,298 registered voters turned out for the Nov. 6 General Election to decide not only the fates of political futures, but also, ostensibly, to chart the future of this City and the region.
Of Laredo’s 260,000+ residents, about half have made the effort to register to vote. Seemingly, however, they couldn’t be bothered to show up in numbers to exercise the vital right to participate in the choice for who will govern them and how they will spend taxpayer money.
Voter apathy is a telling characteristic about a city, a red flag for the lack of civic responsibility and a failure of some to recognize the value of their own voice in the electoral process.
Many of the 47,648 who voted in City races in the General Election no doubt did so of their own volition. The enterprise of cañoneros, the vote harvesters paid by candidates, likely dragged in the balance. Wouldn’t it be a telling revelation to know how many registered voters who voted via cañonero had no idea for whom they voted.
It would seem that had many more registered voters, informed voters, turned out in this election, we might not be looking at the number of costly runoff races ahead.
Mayor Pete Saenz, who harnessed 47.62 percent of 45,562 votes cast in the Nov. 6 election, will face off with former City Council member Roque Vela Jr., who came in with 28.02 percent of the vote.
The December runoff has become even more contentious than the Nov. 6 contest. Vela’s hot-headed assertions are a clear contrast with the informed, forward-thinking perspective of incumbent Saenz.
The differences between the two candidates could not be more striking. Vela has been arrested thrice — once in a 1996 DPS drug sting for shipping himself 22 pounds of marijuana from Laredo to San Antonio; a second time in 1997 for a fistfight in Abilene; and a third time in 2002 for domestic violence for choking his sister with his hands at the family bowling enterprise on McPherson.
While Vela was breaking the law, Saenz, an attorney and and an officer of the Court, had established one of the City’s most reputable law firms.
COUNCIL SEAT RUNOFFS
Incumbent District I City Council member Rudy Gonzalez, who trounced his two challengers in the November contest with 59.05 percent of 4,684 votes cast, was the only City candidate who prevailed with an outright win.
District II incumbent Vidal Rodriguez, who says his job or profession is being a City Council member, harvested 47.21 percent of the 5,236 votes cast in his district on Nov. 6. He will square off in the runoff with lifetime educator José Perez III, who came in with 34.22 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 election.
Perez, who has been in public education for more than 20 years, is the principal of Santo Niño Elementary School, the longtime and no-longer polling site for the south side’s Precinct 129. The voting site has been moved to Dryden Park in a change that some suggest is a tactic of voter suppression, while others call it an ounce of prevention to circumvent election meddling.
The District III runoff between attorney Christina Perez and realtor Mercurio Martinez III is for the City Council seat that will be vacated by Perez’s husband, Council member Alex Perez Jr. The two candidates finished the Nov. 6 race in an extremely tight contest — Martinez with 31.77 percent of the 4,054 votes cast and Perez with 31.13 percent.
Martinez has been endorsed by the other four candidates who ran against him and Perez in the General Election — Abey Lugo, Juanita Ramon, Manuel Osorio, and Anastacio Barrera.
Perez has the endorsement of the Political Action committees of the Firefighters Union and the LPOA, the Laredo Police Officers Association.
In the District VI race to fill the position that Charlie San Miguel will vacate, Vish Viswanath took 23.14 percent of 9,729 votes cast in the General Election and will be in the Dec. runoff with Dr. Marte Martinez, who captured 18.59 percent of votes in a field of 11 candidates.
Of those 11 candidates three — Rick Laurel, Cuate Mendoza, and Jorge Rodriguez — have endorsed Viswanath, a business owner who has lived in the United States since 1980, is an American citizen, and has made Laredo his home for 24 years.
Martinez, a pain management physician, is a native of Brownsville and is a relative newcomer to Laredo, practicing here for the last six years. He has the endorsement of the PACs of the Firefighters Union and the LPOA.
Much hangs on the outcome of the runoff races for Mayor and the Council seats for District II, III, and VI. The willful Gang of Six has created an imbalance that is counterproductive and needs to be righted so that City business moves us forward with sustainable growth and quality of life in every sector of the City.
