HARLINGEN — City commissioners are set to call what’s shaping up as a hotly contested match — the first under newly drawn district voting lines.
On Wednesday, commissioners are expected to order the election in which the mayor’s seat and the commission’s District 1 and 2 positions are up for grabs.
During the meeting, commissioners are also slated to order a special election placing three propositions on the ballot, calling on voters to consider setting term limits on the mayor’s and commissioners’ tenures, moving the city’s elections from May to November and changing the way the City Charter appoints members to the prominent airport board.
Commissioners will also consider entering into an agreement with Cameron County to run the elections.
On Monday, Remi Garza, the county’s elections administrator, said he was finalizing estimates on the cost the county would charge the city.
Mayoral race
In the hottest mayoral race in more than 20 years, Mayor Chris Boswell faces attorney Norma Sepulveda.
Boswell, an attorney who first won the mayor’s gavel in 2007, had previously served as a city commissioner since 1998.
During the period running from July 2021 through Jan. 22, Boswell is reporting campaign donations totaling $26,620.
Meanwhile, Sepulveda, in her bid to become the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor, raised $18,285 from July through December.
District 1 race
The election marks the city’s first 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 factor 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 expected to file for a third term in office.
So far, Ford Kinsley, a retired Marine Corp sergeant major who serves as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director, is the sole candidate to file to run for the District 1 seat.
As a result of the commission’s redrawing of district voting boundaries, DawnRae Leonard, a Navy veteran who had announced her bid to run for the District 1 seat, dropped out of the race after redistricting moved her into District 2.
Scramble for District 2 seat
Meanwhile, there’s a scramble for the District 2 seat being vacated by Commissioner Frank Puente, who dropped out of the race to run for the state House of Representatives’ District 37 seat being vacated by Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, who decided against running for re-election.
As a result of the commission’s redistricting, more than 3,000 District 2 registered voters won’t be able to cast ballots in the commissioner’s race after newly drawn boundaries moved them, including parts of upscale neighborhoods, into District 3, which includes the Treasure Hills area.
So far, Nick Consiglio, Texas Regional Bank’s marketing director who serves as the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission’s chairman, has filed to run for the District 2 seat, along with attorney Daniel Lopez and Ernesto Cisneros, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Late last month, Linda Burke, a dentistry clinic owner who serves as the city’s Economic Development Corporation’s chairwoman, dropped out of the race, throwing her support behind Consiglio.
Propositions on ballot
The special election’s ballot includes three propositions.
In August, the commission’s new majority called for a proposition asking voters to decide whether they want to revise the City Charter 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.
Commissioners 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 calling on voters to consider amending the charter to create a seven-member airport board, allowing each commissioner to make an appointment to the board while the mayor would appoint two members.
In December, commissioners tacked on a third proposition calling on voters to decide if they want to push the city’s elections from May to November as part a plan to draw more residents to the polls.
The charter amendment would move May’s elections to the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November beginning in 2024.
In November, commissioners argued November elections would draw more voters to the polls when they would run alongside national and state elections.
Filing deadline, early voting period
The candidate filing period, which opened Jan. 19, will run through Feb. 18, City Secretary Amanda Elizondo said.
Meanwhile, early voting is set to run from April 25 to May 3.
