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HARLINGEN — Voters are going to the polls Saturday to decide a bitterly contested election that could change the city’s leadership while shifting the commission’s balance of power.
After setting a May early voting record here, the election’s crowded ballot’s expected to draw a “very strong turnout for the city,” Remi Garza, Cameron County’s election’s administrator, said Friday.
Across town, politicos are calling the election the city’s most pivotal contest in more than 20 years, sharply dividing voters.
“It’s very important for the future of Harlingen,” Dr. Mitchell Hughston said at City Hall before casting his ballot during early voting. “I like the leadership we have now. A lot of good things have been done. I’m happy with the progress.”
Meanwhile, Gina Espinoza, a payroll administrator, said it’s time for change.
“It’s the people — we need a change,” she said before casting her vote. “Hispanics and Anglos, I don’t know what it is. There are some people who have been sitting too long and are too comfortable with their positions. We haven’t expanded. A lot of people don’t want to.”
Mayoral race
Topping the ballot, Mayor Chris Boswell, running for a sixth term, faces attorney Norma Sepulveda, who’s vying to become the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor.
Boswell, an attorney, served on the city commission from 1998 to 2007, when he won the city’s highest elected office before going on to become Harlingen’s longest-serving mayor.
Now, he’s facing his strongest challenge from Sepulveda, who’s calling for change.
A member of the Hidalgo and Cameron County Bar Association, she’s a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, serving as its liaison to the Harlingen Executive Office for Immigration Review.
A court-appointed attorney for the indigent, she’s volunteered “hundreds of hours” representing victims of domestic violence and crime, she said.
In one the city’s most heavily-funded mayoral races, Boswell’s campaign war chest bulged to $67,211 while Sepulveda’s cache amassed $65,499.
District 1, 2 commissioners’ races
In hotly contested races in Districts 1 and 2, the election marks the first contest under the city commission’s new single-member district boundaries, redrawn based on demographics such as income level.
Under the new map, the districts’ changing constituency could shift the commission’s balance of power.
In the race for the commission’s District 1 seat, restaurant owner Richard Uribe, the city’s mayor pro tem who first won election in 2016, is running for his third term in the contest pitting him against former Commissioner J.J. Gonzalez, a real estate broker who served on the commission from 2000 to 2006, and Ford Kinsley, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major serving as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director.
For Uribe and Gonzalez, the race marks a rematch of their 2019 contest.
During a three-man May 2019 election, Gonzalez came out the top vote-getter, drawing 264 votes to Uribe’s 256.
Then in a June runoff, Uribe won 261 votes to defeat Gonzalez, who fell short with 171 votes.
In District 2, Commissioner Frank Puente, a roofing contractor running for his second term, is sparring against a scramble of challengers including Nick Consiglio, a bank marketing director who serves as chairman of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission; Daniel Lopez, an attorney who serves as the Cameron County Commissioners Court’s litigation counsel; and Ernesto Cisneros, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Treasure Hills draws highest early voting numbers
An eight-day early voting period closing on Tuesday marked the city’s record for a May election, with 3,997 residents casting ballots in the city with 37,507 registered voters.
The record early voting turnout shows the election’s drawing new voters to the polls.
Across the city’s five districts, early voting numbers show the strongest turnouts in the Treasure Hills area, the west side and Uribe’s District 1, which is drawing more votes than District 2’s four-man scramble.
While 886 residents cast early votes in District 1, District 2 turned out 643 votes, county records show.
In District 3, the Treasure Hills area out-drew other districts, with 1,056 residents casting ballots.
While 532 residents voted in District 4, District 5 turned out 880 ballots.
Meanwhile, voters are doubling their requests for mail-in ballots.
In the election, they’ve requested 591 mail-in ballots compared with about 300 in the 2019 contest, Garza said.
Propositions boosting turnout
For nearly a year, the election’s been in the works, unfolding amid a turbulent year on the city commission.
In June, 2021, the commission’s new majority began proposing changes to the City Charter, finally calling for three propositions on the election’s ballot.
As part of a special election, the ballot includes three proposed charter amendments expected to boost voter turnout.
After heated debate, the commission’s new majority called for a proposition asking voters to limit the mayor’s and commissioners’ tenures to four, three-year terms.
The proposal, whose term limits would become effective in 2024, would not count incumbents’ current terms against them if they chose to run for re-election.
The new commission also called for a proposition asking voters if they want to change the way the charter appoints members to the board overseeing Valley International Airport.
In 2006, the charter gave the mayor sole power to appoint members to the prominent nine-member board.
Now, commissioners are asking voters to consider creating a seven-member airport board, allowing each commissioner to make an appointment to the board while the mayor would appoint two members.
Meanwhile, commissioners called for a third proposition asking voters to decide if they want to push the city’s elections from May to November to help boost turnout, arguing November elections would draw more residents to the polls when local contests run alongside national and state elections.
The charter’s amendment would move May’s elections to the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November beginning in 2024.
