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With the future of four seats on the ballot, McAllen ISD’s May 6 school board election is proving to be a pricey affair both in terms of political and financial capital.
Leadership is at stake, and change is inevitable: newcomer Lucia Regalado runs unopposed as the prospective winner for Place 2, while fellow newcomers Rojelio Aleman II and Aaron Daniel Rivera are fighting for the board’s undefended Place 5 seat.
More significant leadership change is also possible. Tony Forina and Marco Suarez — the Place 4 and 1 incumbents — are facing challengers Erica De La Garza-Lopez and Lizzie Kittleman, respectively.
Campaign finance reports for those candidates for their first reporting period — January to late March or early April for most of them — show they’ve cumulatively raised over $100,000 in monetary contributions, in-kind contributions and loans.
The reports also show several of those candidates spending heavily and waging fairly aggressive campaigns.
For perspective, during the same reporting period in the 2021 election with five candidates running, hopefuls had racked up less than $30,000 in funds, about half of which one candidate largely self-loaned herself in a failed bid.
This year’s campaign finance reports paint a complicated picture, with varying strategies and no shortage of notable contributors.
PLACE 1
The race for Place 1 is proving to be the most active in terms of contributions and spending.
Suarez — the most successful at getting contributions out of any of the seven candidates — had so far both outraised and outspent Kittleman, although she too had built up a tidy warchest she spent heavily from.
There’s no shortage of notable names on the list of contributions — which totaled $29,150 for Suarez and $18,145.15 for Kittleman.
Kittleman’s contributions tended to come from McAllen business people. Suarez had his share of that demographic as well, although Edinburg and Mission addresses pop up more in his report, along with names that are more recognizable on the county’s political scene.
Suarez’s largest donors were D&F Industries Vice President Trenton Hausenfluck, who gave $2,000, and County Commissioner Eduardo Cantu, who cumulatively gave $2,000, personally and through his development company. He also received an in-kind event donation valued at $2,000 from Cynthia Gutierrez, Savannah Gonzalez and Lucia Thompson, the last of whom launched a failed bid for city commissioner in 2021.
Suarez received $1,500 from local developer Shavi Mahtani and another $1,500 from Gilbert Enriquez of Edinburg.
Thousand-dollar contributors included the Edinburg’s Hernandez Law Firm, the Lopez Family Clinic of Edinburg, Adolfo Martinez of McAllen, Gabriel Kamel Hajj of McAllen and Nereida Lopez of Edinburg.
Mission businessman Eddy Betancourt, who this month received a state appointment from the governor, also gave $1,000.
Finally, Suarez took $1,000 from hotelier Sunil B. Wadhwani, who in May 2020 pleaded guilty to paying bribes to Weslaco public officials in exchange for securing an economic incentive to build a Motel 6.
Lobbyist Rene Ramirez, former mayoral candidate Michael Falleck, the Halff Associates-State PAC, former Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairwoman Dolly Elizondo are listed among many lesser contributors.
Suarez spent his money heavily and diversely. On the whole, board candidates tended to lean toward signage and events as main avenues of campaigning. Suarez bought signs too, but also opted for print advertising, and tended to spice his events up with extra amenities: mariachis, a photo booth, a musician.
Suarez paid Selina Hayes more than $2,000 in consulting fees; Abel Prado also received consulting fees.
Kittleman’s largest backer proved to be the Rhodes family of Rhodes Enterprises. Vice President of Development Mike Rhodes contributed $1,000 while CEO Nick Rhodes gave $2,000.
She received $2,000 from McAllen attorney Charles W. Kittleman; McAllen City Commissioner Tony Aguirre proved to be another supporter, kicking in $1,500.
Thousand-dollar contributors included Meg and Chris Larson of Rio Fresh, Carlos and Cynthia Garza of El Tigre and McAllen dentist Lauro Tijerina.
A long list of less sumptuous contributions came from McAllen attorney John Ball, DHR Health President Susan Turley, Rio Bank President Ford Sasser, Ben Smith of Higgenbotham and Thomas Davidson of Vantage Bank.
Kittleman also received a $2,000 loan from her husband.
Spending the lion’s share of her money on signage, shirts and stickers, she paid $350 to Belen Guerrero-Aguirre and $2,000 to Amanda Salas, both listed as campaign managers. Food and beverages for Kittleman’s sole event cost less than $100.
PLACE 4
The race for Place 4, in contrast, has proven to be more modest.
Forina has raised and spent less than either of the Place 1 candidates, while De La Garza-Lopez is running a lower profile campaign that’s almost entirely self-funded.
Forina had received $9,813.51 in contributions.
Forina’s largest backers, donating $2,500 apiece, were McAllen law firm Tijerina and Denzer and Jeremy and Martha Smith, known from Matt’s Building Materials.
April Lopez, a McAllen doctor, kicked in the second highest amount at $1,000.
Smaller contributions came from local restaurateur Albert Rego, former McAllen Mayor Jim Darling, Edinburg Economic Development Executive Director Raudel Garza and McAllen Chamber of Commerce board member Carlos Melguizo.
Forina spent his money mostly on signs and on contract labor for signs, followed by campaign kickoff expenditures.
He also owed $6,257 in legal fees to the Law Office of Gilberto Hinojosa.
De La Garza-Lopez, on the other hand, was funded largely through $3,324.75 she loaned herself.
She spent that money, primarily, on signs.
De La Garza-Lopez did accept one in-kind donation valued at $200: tickets to a dinner donated by current McAllen ISD Trustee Debbie Crane-Aliseda and her husband.
PLACE 5
In terms of spending and fundraising, Rivera proved to be by far the most aggressive candidate running for a seat on the board.
He also dwarfed Aleman in terms of money, who was the most modest candidate of the race financially.
During the reporting period Rivera had collected a war chest of over $40,000: $17,400 in monetary contributions augmented by a $25,000 self-loan.
Rivera’s largest donor was 3BU Family Limited Partnership of Alamo, which gave $2,500, followed by D&F Industries Vice President Trenton Hausenfluck, who gave another $2,500.
Popular delinquent government debt attorneys Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson and Jonathan Sakulenzki both kicked in $1,500, respectively.
Donors who gave $1,000 included Lauro Tijerina Jr. of Edinburg, the Beto Salinas Ranch in Mission, Ruben J. De Jesus of Edinburg and the Mission Motel 6, along with law firm Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins & Mott.
Rivera spent a little over $24,000 during the reporting period, largely on signs, events and campaign meetings.
He also spent $2,500 to hire Martha Hinojosa as his campaign manager and over $4,000 on graphics and social media.
Aleman’s sole monetary contribution of $100 came from Pamela Zamora of Mission. He also received business cards from Gina Cruz worth about $100 and 25 campaign yard signs from McAllen City Commissioner J.J. Zamora worth $227.
Augmenting his campaign purse with about $200 of personal money, Aleman bought car magnets and polo shirts.
PLACE 2
Perhaps not surprisingly, Lucia Regalado received most of her contributions for the period before the Feb. 17 candidate filing deadline, when she learned she would run unopposed.
Regalado raised some $7,398, her largest monetary contributor being Edinburg attorney Lucia Caesar at $1,000.
An attorney herself, Regalado received a good deal of her support from other local lawyers, including Jaime Pena, Austin Stevenson, Aissa Garza, Mauricio Martinez, Tania Ramirez, Savannah Gonzalez and Uri Heller.
McAllen City Commissioner Tony Aguirre also kicked in a $300 contribution to the campaign, while Regalado received an over $1,000 in-kind donation from Carlos Jaime Trevino for shirt embroidery.
Regalado spent most of her money on signage, event and meeting expenses. She also paid Amanda Elise Salas as a campaign consultant.
The campaign recorded almost $27,000 in outstanding loans.
