HARLINGEN — Voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide two City Commission races in one of the city’s hottest, most heavily funded runoff elections, which could shift the board’s balance of power.
By the close of the runoff’s 10-day early voting period at 8 p.m. Friday, 614 residents had cast ballots in the District 1 race while 461 had voted in District 2, Cameron County Elections Department records show.
“It’s been a pretty steady flow. With runoffs, we usually see 40 to 50 percent of voters come back. We’re close to seeing that this time around,” Elections Administrator Remi Garza said Friday on the last day of early voting, referring to the May 7 election, which drew the city’s heaviest voter turnout since the 1998 contest in which former City Commissioner Connie de la Garza won 4,304 votes to defeat businessman Humberto Zamora, who drew 3,444 votes in a bitter mayoral race.
District 1
In the hotly contested race for the commission’s District 1 seat, incumbent Commissioner Richard Uribe, a restaurant owner, faces Ford Kinsley, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major working as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director.
In the May election, the first contest under the City Commission’s new single-member district boundaries redrawn based on demographics such as income level, Kinsley came out as the top vote-getter with 451 votes while Uribe drew 432 votes.
Meanwhile, J.J. Gonzalez, a real estate broker who served on the commission from 2000 to 2006, fell short of the runoff with 374 votes.
On Thursday, Gonzalez said he was not throwing his support behind either candidate.
“I’m not supporting either one. I’m going to remain neutral. They haven’t called me since the first time they called me,” he said, referring to the candidates’ calls following the May election.
District 2
In the District 2 contest, Daniel Lopez, an attorney who serves as the Cameron County Commissioners Court’s litigation counsel, faces Ernesto Cisneros, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.
In the May election’s heated four-man scramble, Lopez clearly emerged as the contest’s front-runner, winning 345 votes while Cisneros drew 225 votes.
Meanwhile, Nick Consiglio, a bank marketing director who serves as chairman of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, fell short of the runoff with 218 votes, while incumbent Commissioner Frank Puente, a roofing contractor, lost his bid for a second term, picking up 101 votes.
Heavily funded runoff
The contest has become one of the most heavily funded runoffs in years, with Kinsley amassing the biggest war chest, stockpiling a $24,574 cache in his campaign to topple Uribe.
Meanwhile, Uribe, who took on the role of the commission’s leader after commissioners appointed him mayor pro tem following the May 2021 election, raised $15,366 in his bid for a third term.
In the District 2 race, Lopez racked up $8,647 in political contributions while taking out three loans totalling $25,221 in the contest in which Cisneros raised $6,719.
