HARLINGEN — The stage is set for the city’s hottest election in more than 20 years.
On Friday, candidates’ month-long filing period closed, with nine politicos on the May 7 ballot in the city’s first election under newly redrawn single-member district boundaries that could help shift the city commission’s balance of power.
One of the most contentious elections in years is coming amid the commission’s new majority’s push for sweeping change at City Hall.
As part of a special election, the new commission has placed three propositions on the ballot, including a measure calling on voters to decide if they want to set limits on the mayor’s and commissioners’ tenures.
Mayoral race
Topping the loaded ballot, the mayoral race pits Mayor Chris Boswell, the longest serving mayor in the city’s history, against attorney Norma Sepulveda, bidding to become the first woman to serve as Harlingen’s mayor.
So far, Boswell, an attorney who first won the mayor’s gavel in 2007 after serving as a commissioner since 1998, has raised $26,620 from July 2021 to January in his bid for a sixth term, while Sepulveda, in her first run at public office, raised $18,285 from July to December 2021, city records show.
District 1
The election marks the city’s first contest under new single-member district boundary lines which the commission’s new majority redrew based on districts’ demographics such as income level.
As a result of changes in districts’ constituency, the new voting map could play a role in shifting the commission’s balance of power.
In the race for the commission’s District 1 seat, Commissioner Richard Uribe, a restaurant owner who serves as the city’s mayor pro tem, is running for a third term 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 who serves as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director.
District 2
On Friday afternoon, Commissioner Frank Puente, who had announced he wouldn’t run for re-election in District 2 after entering the race for the state House of Representatives’ District 37 seat, stunned politicos when he filed to run for a second term.
In an interview, Puente said he believes he’s qualified to run in the election because the city and state races are set on different ballots while the elections fall on different days.
If he wins the city and state races, Puente said he will resign from his District 2 position before taking the oath of office Jan. 1 to serve as District 37’s representative.
Puente’s entry in the District 2 race sparks a scramble among Nick Consiglio, a bank marketing director who serves as the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission’s chairman, attorney Daniel Lopez and Ernesto Cisneros, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.
City propositions
As part of a special election, the ballot includes three proposed amendments to the City Charter expected to help boost voter turnout.
After weeks of 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.
Members of 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 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 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.
Expanded voting
For the first time in 10 years, Cameron County is running the election, opening four voting places while expanding poll hours during the eight-day early voting period.
During the early voting period, officials are opening polling places at City Hall, the Harlingen Convention Center, the Cultural Arts Center and the Cameron County annex building on Wilson Road.
For most city-run elections, officials limit early voting to City Hall.
Meanwhile, county officials are planning to expand weekday early voting hours, keeping the polls open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. while opening the polls from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat. April 30.
During most city-run elections, officials open weekday early voting polls from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. while closing voting during weekends.
The city’s paying the county $47,630 to run the election.
Early voting is set to run from April 25 to May 3.
