Partisan politics a factor in nonpartisan District 6 El Paso City Council race
El Paso City Council races are meant to be nonpartisan, but the District 6 race between incumbent East Valley city Rep. Claudia Lizette Rodriguez and former state Rep. Art Fierro has become decidedly partisan.
In late October, the El Paso County Democratic Party issued a press release urging voters not to support Rodriguez in her bid for reelection, citing her "shameless" violation of campaign finance rules and her history of voting against progressive priorities.
"The El Paso County Democratic Party has traditionally refrained from weighing in on municipal races, which are non-partisan," the party's news release stated. "We honor the nature of non-partisan races and focus our work on engagement with voters during partisan elections. However, in egregious cases, especially in cases when a candidate works against our community’s values, we have taken the extraordinary step of alerting the public."
Fierro, a longtime state representative, was defeated in the Democratic Primary in March 2022 in the House District 79 race. Fierro launched his City Council campaign soon after, but finished second to Rodriguez in the Nov. 8 General Election with 30% of the vote.
City Council races in District 1, 6 and 8 will be decided in Saturday, Dec. 17 runoff elections. Tuesday, Dec. 13, is the last day for early voting. As of Saturday, Dec. 10, the last day early voting numbers were available for publication, 4,907 voters had cast ballots.
Only residents who live in those City Council districts are permitted to vote in the runoff elections. Turnout, so far, has been poor.
This is the second time the Democratic Party has got involved in City Hall politics. The Texas Democratic Party chairman endorsed Mayor Oscar Lesser. The chairman later receded that endorsement in July 2022.
Following his tie-breaking vote to kill a proposal to make abortion investigations a low-level priority for city police, Leeser lost the Texas Democratic Party endorsement.
In the District 6 race, El Paso County Democratic Party Chair Michael Apodaca said the party weighed in on the nonpartisan city race as a matter of necessity after a series of perceived missteps by Rodriguez.
“I think it comes down to really two key things," Apodaca said. "One was her comments to the public about her campaign finance reports and how she either doesn’t want to correct them or doesn’t want to be transparent. You compound that with her votes this year on the Women's Committee and the proposition trying to protect women's right to choose.
"I think the catalyst there at the end was appearing on Fox News and being a mouthpiece for right-wing misinformation," he continued. "I think a few of us finally said we'd had enough."
Fierro likewise cited Rodriguez's appearances on Fox News and Newsmax as the partisan spark in the District 6 race.
"That was a hand that was forced," Fierro said. "I've committed since day one that this is an election that will be decided by the citizens in District 6 and that is where I have kept the focus. It's their decision, not a conservative news outlet's decision."
But Rodriguez asserts that her appearances on right-wing news shows was not a partisan move and that Democrats were responsible for making the race political.
"The voters, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, appreciated me shedding light on the migrant crisis," Rodriguez said in an email. "El Paso was spending millions of our taxpayer dollars to take care of this crisis. The federal government has failed all of us on the immigration issue yet they expect local taxpayers to pay for their failure."
"I said absolutely not, which is why I spoke up and requested (El Paso) Mayor (Oscar) Leeser declare an emergency declaration," she continued. "This would’ve allowed us to receive state funding and assistance, but the Democrats, yet again, made this a partisanship issue. With the end of Title 42, I expect this crisis to get worse, but I will continue to put El Paso taxpayers first."
For Apodaca, the infusion of partisan politics in local races was inevitable.
"I think partisanship has already been brought into these races," Apodaca said. "It's always inserted, you can't completely ignore it. I think our council members do their best to be as nonpartisan as they can, but when you're campaigning you just can't ignore that."
Further, Apodaca said there has been a push for the party to be more involved in local races, which is why its board voted recently to publicly endorse Fierro in the runoff.
"Everybody was fully behind this," Apodaca said of the endorsement. "I think we were fairly united on this."
And while Fierro said he was "humbled and thankful" for the party's support, he lamented the fact that a partisan race takes people's attention away from the issues.
"It's unfortunate because this has always been a nonpartisan race and was always very much like school board... the whole purpose was to run on your platform, what good you were going to do for the community, despite your political stance," Fierro said. "There are some issues that are clearly black and white and my position on this issues are no secret, they're widely known. But the other side to it, I ran for a nonpartisan office before and I wasn't experiencing it like I am now. That's because I believe the incumbent has made the race politics. Now, it's a partisan race."
But Rodriguez asserted that the Democratic Party's involvement in the race, as well as its recent endorsement, has had little impact on her ability to connect with voters.
"I received the greatest number of votes from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents during the general election," Rodriguez said in the email. "It says a lot about someone when they are a sitting Democratic legislator, and they barely get 30% of the vote, in the case of Art Fierro. It says my record and my plans for the future transcend partisanship.
"When we represent District 6, we represent all parties, therefore, we should not inject partisan politics into these races," she continued. "Democratic leaders like Wesley Lawrence are absolutely wrong, libelous, slanderous, and defaming when they state I am anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, and anti-women. Is he blind? I am (a) dual-citizen from Mexico and the United States. I am (a) proud Latina who spoke English as a second language. I am (a) woman, mother, and wife. Just this year, I sponsored a mayoral proclamation for a member of the LGBTQ community. A few loud Democrats feel they can lie about my character to get their chosen candidate elected and it is wrong. District 6 will see past this."
Fierro, on the other hand, has seen the impact of partisanship in the District 6 race — while out campaigning, Fierro has run into voters who nod in agreement as he lays out his priorities, but then they ask him whether he's a Republican or a Democrat, to which he responds that he is "fiscally conservative, socially progressive, mostly a Democrat."
"I believe that the race is going to ultimately come down to who has the stronger platform," Fierro said. "Because the partisanship that's playing out right now is really about 'don't look here, look over there.'"
For his part, Fierro plans to beat back the partisanship, with Democratic Party endorsement in hand, by staying focused on the issues.
“From Day One, I've had three or four issues we have been working on," Fierro said. "Revisiting the city manager’s contract, streamlining city services, because we’re not getting the value for the dollars we’re investing… and hold the line on property taxes and property appraisals, I think we have got to fight to freeze taxes for the elderly and people with disabilities because we are taxing people out of their homes.”
Likewise, Rodriguez said, she would stay focused on her top priorities — taxes, traffic and the city manager — and feels confident that District 6 voters will ultimately reelect her.
"I finished with the highest amount of votes in the November general election," Rodriguez said. "After all the false attacks and lies about me, the voters of District 6 still said tax-and-spend career politician Art Fierro was not who they wanted to represent them. I always run like I’m the underdog and am already working for every vote."
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Partisan politics a factor in nonpartisan District 6 City Council race
