Monday Musings #41: Nirenberg’s Challenge of Sakai for County Judge Office Divides Democrats

Sporting an out-of-office, salt-and-pepper beard, former mayor Ron Nirenberg moved through the crowd at the River North Icehouse on Election Night, shaking hands and exchanging abrazos as Spurs-crazy fans celebrated the passage of Propositions A & B in the Nov. 4 Bexar County election.

After a 12-year run at city hall as a two-term councilman and then four-term mayor, Nirenberg looked like a guy in perpetual campaign mode. He served as mayor through most of the city’s negotiations with the Spurs that culminated in a non-binding term sheet that committed the city to build a new arena in Hemisfair if voters approved the use of county visitor taxes to help fund the project.

Nirenberg's earlier hopes for a Washington appointment in a Democratic administration ended with President Trump’s re-election, and his fleeting look at a challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott or another Republican incumbent in Texas also came and went.

The election celebration rightfully belonged to the San Antonio Spurs and the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and their many fans, and to the ballot’s architect-of-record, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, who joined Peter J. Holt, the Spurs managing partner and principal owner, on stage to address the gathering before the outcome was known.

Mayor Gina Jones was there earlier in the evening, too, but declined to address the crowd after chatting with Holt, who graciously told the crowd he could disagree with Jones and still find ways to work together. That was an olive branch.

Meanwhile, Nirenberg shaved the beard in time for his formal announcement Saturday that he wants Sakai’s job. Nirenberg made his long-anticipated announcement before a friendly crowd of 200 supporters Saturday at the Backyard on Broadway in River North.

 “I don’t think that office is performing the way it should. It’s been reactionary to major issues. And frankly, we need strong leadership,” Nirenberg told the San Antonio Report.

While the lengthy task of negotiating a formal contract between the Spurs and the city gets underway, attention will now turn to Nirenberg’s challenge of Sakai in the March 2026 Democratic primary election for county judge. Sakai is seeking a second term in the wake of the Nov. 4 election victory, while Nirenberg is attempting to model himself after former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who won election to the county’s highest office after serving as mayor from 1991-1995. One difference: Six years passed between Wolff’s terms as mayor and his election as county judge, an office he held from 2000-2002. 

It looks to be a referendum on Sakai’s performance. Nirenberg believes he can do better. Will Democratic voters, who have always supported both Sakai and Nirenberg, agree that a change is in order? Beyond personalities and rhetoric, what looming issues will separate the two in definable ways?

I’m not sure.

Sakai, who announced his own re-election bid on Nov. 1, has made it clear he believes Nirenberg is running in search of a job, not because Sakai’s performance in office has led to the challenge. He recently took to social media to stake out his view of a Nirenberg challenge, well ahead of the former mayor’s official announcement.

“At one point, Ron’s bags were packed for DC. At one point, he was running for governor, then Senator,” Sakai wrote on Facebook. “Now, despite at one point telling the Express-News he wasn’t running for County Judge, it’s clear Ron never found the greener pastures he dreamed of…Considering the challenges we face, it’s disappointing that some would rather start fights within our Democratic party than work together to lift up our community.”

Nirenberg cast his decision in a different light, suggesting he could eliminate city-county redundancies and bring the city and county governments into better alignment.

"The power of local government isn’t what we can do alone. It’s how we can collaborate to improve people's lives," Nirenberg said. "The cities and county work best when they work together — but right now, they’re too often rowing in opposite directions."

The face-off between two prominent local Democrats has left many politically active people I’ve spoken with feeling uncomfortable about having to choose between Sakai, the incumbent with a big Nov. 4 election win in hand, and Nirenberg, who left office with a high favorability rating.

An early poll released by Democratic political strategist Christian Archer showed Nirenberg had enough community support to easily sweep Sakai out of office after one term. I wouldn’t bet any money on that survey. Polls, as we learned yet again on Nov. 4, are at best a snapshot of a moment in time. High-dollar media buys, old-fashioned campaigning, and unexpected news developments can all tip the balance. The disappearance of landlines and the advent of mobile phones, many with other area codes, make accurate polling iffy. UTSA polls showed voters rejecting a new Spurs arena in a 1999 election, and doing so again in 2025. Both were wrong.

Sakai, the first-term county judge and former longtime head of the Bexar County Children’s Court, should gain considerable momentum from the successful election. By the same token, he would have been weakened by an election loss. But that didn’t happen. He will also draw from his support for a new downtown San Antonio Missions baseball park last year. Approval of that sports facility was key to Western Urban’s broader plans for bringing that sector of downtown back to life. 

Enduring a long, contentious campaign and prevailing in a tough election requires fortitude, which Sakai showed throughout the Project Marvel negotiations. Sakai, known for the empathy he showed abused women and children in his many years wearing judicial robes, proved to be a seasoned campaigner. If you missed his Oct. 17 appearance on my bigcitysmalltown podcast, I invite you to watch or listen now. 

Nirenberg, on the other hand, successfully took on incumbent Mayor Ivy Taylor in 2017 and already has garnered the endorsement of Wolff, former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger, state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, and District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez.

It will be interesting to see such a contested electoral race in the wake of one contest just finished.

Multiple factors threatened defeat for Proposition B. One was the campaign by COPS/Metro and its allies, including the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. The other was Mayor Jones and her public assertions that she could deliver taxpayers a better deal after failing in council chambers to untrack the city’s negotiations with the Spurs.

A third threat was the Texas Legislature making it mandatory that all qualifying city, county and school bond elections must contain the bold-faced text, This is a tax increase atop the ballot. In this instance, that led many voters to believe they would be taxed when the election was strictly about the allocation of visitor taxes collected from hotel room and rental car customers.

COPS and Jones also tapped into popular sentiment against using public dollars to help build sports facilities for major league sports franchises. Inner-city taxpayers were led to believe, falsely, that funds invested at Hemisfair would diminish public investment in their lives and communities.

Other factors contributed to the passage of Prop A by 55% and Prop B by 52%. One was the very real fear that wealthier markets would come for the Spurs if they lost their new arena bid here, no matter how sincere Holt was in saying the team wanted to stay in San Antonio. The prospect of life in San Antonio without the Spurs was a real buzz killer in a city that is defined locally and around the globe in no small part by the five-time world champions.

Another factor undoubtedly was a handsomely-financed campaign by the Spurs. And a third was the fact that 26 cities other than San Antonio had a say in the vote. No city voted in greater numbers for the passage of Prop B than Alamo Heights. Several of the mayors in those cities have already endorsed Sakai. While those endorsements might not be household names in San Antonio, county voters could decide they do not want another former San Antonio mayor holding the county office only four years after another former mayor held a lock on the job for two decades.

Interesting sidenote: Props A & B both would have passed more narrowly in a city election with only District 2 on the Eastside opposing Prop B, opposition led by the district’s Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez.

Regardless of whether you support Sakai or Nirenberg, my belief is that it will be a closely-contested fight, and not necessarily one that will be comfortable to watch.

Post-election, a reminder of the numbers: Terms of the City-County-Spurs deal

The first phase of Project Marvel now stands to be the biggest public-private development project in city history. The new city-owned arena, estimated to cost $1.3 billion, will receive $311 million in visitor tax funding, $489 million from the city, financed through revenue bonds, and $500 million from the Spurs, who also will cover any cost overruns. The Spurs committed to spend another $500 million on the surrounding mixed-use development, and to a 30-year arena lease that will return $160 million to the city. The Spurs committed an additional $60 million to community investments that could be focused on early childhood education programs.

The city will see its investment repaid over time from rent paid by the Spurs, and ground leases for other private sector development at the site; revenues from the Hemisfair Tax Increment Reinvestment  Zone (TIRZ); and revenue from the Project Finance Zone Number Two. 

 What Mayor Jones stated after passage of Propositions A & B:

"The people of San Antonio have voted to approve the county's contribution toward the proposed Spurs arena, and I will work to ensure this generational investment helps to revitalize our downtown and strengthen our city," Jones stated. "Great cities are built through collaboration, persistence, and a willingness to keep working toward bold visions. Our urban core represents an opportunity to remake a vital part of our city - one that can drive economic activity, create quality jobs, and add affordable housing stock that our community desperately needs. I remain committed to working with my Council colleagues, City Staff, the Spurs, and with community leaders to develop a plan that ushers in an era of progress and affordability downtown."

Farewell to a First Friend in San Antonio

San Antonio has lost one of its culinary luminaries and truly wonderful ambassadors.

I was honored to serve as the emcee at the Nov. 5 memorial celebration for Perny Shea, 68, that drew a standing room crowd of hundreds of friends, family and fellow members of the city’s culinary community following her unexpected death on Oct. 25 here.

Shea died while her husband, Dr. Bill Shea, was hospitalized with a long COVID-related illness. He was well enough to attend and speak briefly at the service, which was held in the International Center’s large community room that sits atop Biga on the Banks, where Shea, a partner and part-owner of the celebrated restaurant that is home to chef-owner Bruce Auden, served as the familiar front-of-house wrangler.

When Bill called me to share the sad news of his deep loss, I thought of a poem written a century ago by W.H. Auden, who, like Perny, was a Brit. The poem is ‘Stop All the Clocks’:

“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone…”

It’s a mournful and funereal poem, but longtime friends and partners of Perny helped make the event less a gathering of mourners, and more of a true celebration, with much storytelling by a number of speakers as one of the city’s most vivacious, sociable and fun-loving personalities was fondly remembered.

Shea and Auden appeared together on my bigcitysmalltown podcast in April. The occasion was the restaurant’s 25th anniversary at its current River Walk location. True to form, the occasion benefited the San Antonio Food Bank and the culinary program at St. Philip’s College.

Auden opened Biga a decade earlier in a house on Locust Street, so the restaurant is nearly 35 years old. That’s an enviably long run for a high-end restaurant where diner expectations are high and profit margins are low. I call Auden the godfather of elevated cuisine in San Antonio. Over those three decades, he has trained many of the leading chefs who have gone from working his kitchen line to opening their own successful restaurants in the city.

You can watch or listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Both Shea and Auden are Brits who somehow set down roots in San Antonio. She was an exchange student studying for a year in Missouri when she found herself in San Antonio during Fiesta in the 1970s. After returning home to England and deciding her future lay in the States, making San Antonio her new home was an easy decision.  

I first met Perny, whose full name was Virginia Margaret Shea, after moving to San Antonio in December 1989, a particularly cold winter that saw snowfall in the city. While Monika and our two young boys stayed back East to pack up and sell the house, I lived for many weeks at the Plaza San Antonio Hotel, long before the birth of Southtown and River North.

It was a cold winter in a new city where I had yet to make any friends.

A fellow editor at the San Antonio Light introduced me to the Josephine Bar & Grill and its neighbor, the old Liberty Bar. Perny was the manager of the Josephine, where I would go for supper with a book in hand. Perny let me while away the evening hours reading and tying up a table in a room warmed by her hospitality. Our kinship was kindled over many winter evening conversations.

Although it would be many years before she and Auden began to work together, I never forgot meeting him even earlier at Polo’s at the Fairmount Hotel, where then-publisher George Irish took me to dinner when I first interviewed for the job. I had spent the previous five years living and working in New York. A food snob, I was struck by the quality of food served by Chef Auden’s at Polo’s.

Everything came full circle when Biga moved downtown and Perny joined the team. The first man to feed me in the city and the first woman to welcome me as a friend to San Antonio were now partners. Both of our sons, Nicolas and Alexander, celebrated their high school graduations at Biga.

I celebrate my own 73rd birthday today. Each new month, it seems, brings word of another lost friend, or a community leader whom I have come to know and respect in my 36 years in San Antonio. Each loss sends me down memory lane in search of comfort and consolation, knowing there will be more losses in the months and years ahead. And yet also so much to celebrate as new friends and new community leaders make their mark in the city we call home.

Still, bidding farewell to Perny is not easy. 

Perny’s family is honoring her memory with contributions to Musical Bridges Around the World and St. Philip’s College of Culinary Arts Programs. You can read her published obituary on the San Antonio Report.