HARLINGEN — Six months after some politicos launched their campaigns, early voting opens Monday in the May 7 election, the city’s biggest in more than 20 years, with nine candidates battling for seats on the City Commission and three propositions on the ballot.
Early voting runs from April 25 to May 3, with polling places set to open at City Hall, the Cultural Arts Center, the Harlingen Convention Center and the Cameron County annex building.
This year, city commissioners contracted with Cameron County to conduct the election for $47,630, expanding poll hours to help draw more voters.
From April 25 to 29, the polls will open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; on Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 2 and 3.
Across town, politicos are calling the election the hottest since at least 1998, when former City Commissioner Connie de la Garza defeated businessman Humberto Zamora in a bitter mayoral match that tore rifts through much of the city.
“I think this is going to be a very active election,” Remi Garza, Cameron County’s elections administrator, said. “I understand there’s been a lot of activity with respect to the candidates in the community by having so many people (running) in the places.”
Mayoral race
Topping the crowded ballot, Mayor Chris Boswell faces attorney Norma Sepulveda, 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.
On his way to become Harlingen’s longest-serving mayor, Boswell overwhelming defeated his opponents including Rick Morales, now Donna’s mayor, in 2013 by 66.14 percent of the vote.
Now, he’s likely facing his strongest challenge from Sepulveda, whose legion of campaign signs stand along streets and intersections crisscrossing town.
Since last summer, each has worked to amass hefty war chests.
From July 2021 to January, Boswell raised total contributions of $26,62o before reporting a total of $41,125 from January to April, city records show.
Meanwhile, Sepulveda raised $18,285 in total contributions from July to December 2021 before listing $23,632 from January to April.
Districts 1, 2
In hotly contested races in Districts 1 and 2, the election marks the first match-up since the commission’s majority redrew the city’s single-member district boundaries based on demographics such as income level, changing the districts’ constituency, part of a move that 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 who serves as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director.
For Uribe and Gonzalez, the race is a rematch of the 2019 contest in which Uribe won 261 votes to defeat Gonzalez, who fell short with 171 votes in a runoff after coming out of the May election as the top vote-getter, drawing 264 votes to Uribe’s 256.
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.
Propositions
As part of a special election, the ballot includes three proposed amendments to the City Charter 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.
