Monday Musings #18: Fiesta Blues — Little to Celebrate in San Antonio’s Mayoral and Council Elections

The results for the May 3 election to choose a new San Antonio mayor and seat a new City Council are in, and there is no need for cascarones or medals. The big loser in Saturday’s Fiesta weekend election? The people of San Antonio, with more than 9 out of 10 registered voters choosing not to participate.

That’s right. In a city that counts more than 1.2 million registered voters, only 101,038 people voted. This anemic turnout of only 9.26% of registered voters over eight days of early voting and Election Day represents the worst turnout for a city election since 2013 when incumbent Mayor Julían Castro easily won a third term with no serious opposition. Saturday’s election was heavily overshadowed by the King William Fair and the Fiesta Flambeau Parade.

More importantly, perhaps, is the fallout from Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Council’s failure to set higher standards for individuals gaining a place on the ballot when they had the chance. Currently, any city resident 18 years or older, not previously convicted of a felony, who has resided in the city for six months and is registered to vote, qualifies for placement on the ballot with payment of a token $100 fee.

Some on council believe the low entry fee opens municipal government to economically constrained residents. I would counter: Who wants mayoral candidates incapable of raising, say, $1000? 

Such a low bar for winning a place on the ballot led to a total of 27 candidates declaring for the mayoral race, yet 19 of them raised insufficient funds to mount campaigns. Many of the pretenders never intended to campaign; they just want to tell people they have run for mayor. That number grows to 21 when you count two current council members on the mayoral ballot who failed to raise significant funds. Nineteen of the 27 either did not bother to campaign, or failed to register with those who did vote, yet collectively they siphoned off 8.3% of the vote total. Only one of the 19 managed to win 1% of the vote total.

San Antonio’s elected leadership should be embarrassed by this election, its bloated mayoral ballot, the miserable turnout, and the wretched timing of holding a municipal election during the height of Fiesta. More people bought beers at NIOSA than voted.

The end result? Two of the three “outside candidates,” former Under Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones and former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, will face off on June 7. Jones finished comfortably ahead of Pablos, with 27.2% versus his 16.6%.

Both Jones, a progressive Democrat, and Pablos, a conservative Republican, benefited from strong partisan backing and significant special interest funding from outside the city. While individual contributors are limited to $1,000 maximum contributions, political action committees tied to special interest groups can spend without limits. This bodes poorly for the future of local elections in San Antonio. Outside money likely results in a lower voter turnout.

A third candidate who had not previously held a city council seat, tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano, finished third with 12.1%. All three so-called “outsiders” easily outdistanced sitting council members on the mayoral ballot. Altamirano won the bigcitysmalltown endorsement, while the San Antonio Express-News endorsed District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia. Neither media vote of confidence was sufficient to help the candidates contend.

All four of the current council members and one former council member seeking to become San Antonio’s next mayor fared poorly with voters. Adding their individual vote totals together, the five only accounted for 35%. In other words, two out three voters did not want the next mayor to come from the current council.

Interestingly, Rocha Garcia, running with the smallest campaign chest among the five, finished first among her peers with just under 10% of the vote total. District 9 Councilman John Courage who dropped out of the race late last year, citing his age (74) and undisclosed health reasons, only to jump back in earlier this year, finished with 5.6% of the vote.

Disgraced former District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, who pleaded guilty after a drunken hit-and-run episode, much of it captured on video, finished right behind Courage with 5.5% of the vote.

One new task for the new mayor and council: ban municipal elections during Fiesta, and study best practices in other cities for stiffening ballot qualifications. 

Five incumbent council members in Districts 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10 easily retained their seats, while a sixth, District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, finished with 48.9% of the vote, narrowly missing victory and now facing a runoff against conservative challenger Patty Gibbon, who finished with 17.8%.

Four council seats in districts 4, 6, 8, and 9 were up for grabs, but only District 4 candidate Edward Mungia scored a first-round victory. Districts 6, 8, and 9 will join District 1 in runoff elections on Saturday, June 7.

For the first time since former Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Phil Hardberger was elected mayor in 2005, San Antonio will see the next mayor come from outside the city council. While city elections are nonpartisan by design, the truth is this mayor’s race is now a contest between two partisan candidates.

With Fiesta 2025 behind us, and a mayoral ballot reduced from 27 names to 2 finalists, far more people are likely to vote in the June 7 runoff. In a politically blue city, Jones has to be considered the favorite. Yet the inevitability of heavy outside special interest funding and negative campaigning over the next 30 days means the fight for the 56% of voters who supported other candidates will be fierce.

We will invite both Jones and Pablos to return for a bigcitysmalltown episode in advance of the runoff. Stay tuned.