2005 City of San Antonio Elections
San Antonio is gearing up for its next mayoral election. Julian Castro is leading in the polls but is dead last in campaign coffers with $20,840. Castro’s contributors include attorneys, Democratic activists and popular-amongst-bloggers St. Rep. Richard Raymond. Phil Hardberger comes in second on both accounts (and he has a blog). He outpaces Castro 8-1 with $165,292. Notably, he has received gifts from Congressman Lloyd Doggett and USAA’s former chairman Gen. McDermott (of highway fame). Carroll Schubert has a slick commercial on his home page where an anonymous voice boasts Schubert as a “conservative leader” who “stood up to the liberals on city council” (because San Antonio is sooo liberal). Schubert is last in the polls but he is sitting on some fat cash – fifteen times Castro and almost twice as much as Hardberger. Much of his $312,085 comes from business interests – developers, lobbyists, engineers, a real estate tycoon and builder’s PAC.
San Antonio is large and as with all elections television will be important. Castro has been running commercials since January, but there’s no doubt Hardberger and Schubert will continue to blast the airwaves. Schubert planned in March to spend $475,000 to stay on the air until May while Castro eked out three more weeks of ads.
Since Castro is working with limited funds precinct organization and turnout will be important. Grassroots activism has made a strong comeback and Castro is relying on it to possibly help him avoid a June run-off (seemingly a difficult task) and win outright. A less glamorous 2003 mayoral election brought out only 5% of eligible voters; however an all-time high of 478,073 or 53% participated in the 2004 general elections. The highs (or lows) of ’04 may have cooled the atypical voter, but with all the tax-hike maneuverings in the Legislature, it will be hard to ignore the tax freeze on the ballot.
The chance to decide on three tax proposals will surely boost turnout. Voters will look at two propositions to protect the environment – more funds to preserve land over the Edwards Aquifer and linear parks along the city’s largest creeks. The third proposal is a property tax freeze for seniors. Propositions 1, 2 and 3 will inspire voters across a wide spectrum of interests and the potential for a high turnout is definitely there.
San Antonio is the 8th largest city in the nation. The next mayor has a host of matters to confront – growth while improving and maintaining a quality environment and water supply, confronting gang resurgence and crime, re-addressing homeless issues, affordable housing, pet population control and earning the citizen’s faith back – just to name a few.
Before his graduation from law school, frontrunner Julian Castro was quoted in the Harvard University Gazette as saying, “Our city has as much potential as Harvard has prestige.”
Will voters embrace his vision of one city, one destiny? We are all in this together and we will soon find out.
April 11th, 2005 at 7:43 am
Oh yeah, it looks good in the land of the Alamo. I can’t wait.
April 11th, 2005 at 10:42 am
Latinos For Texas will goto SATX to help Castro in the early voting period. We havent settled on a final date, but April 30 seems a good candidate.
SEND ME AN EMAIL (mario@latinosfortexas.com) or post a comment (with your email address) if you are up for some participatory democracy!
adios
m
April 11th, 2005 at 11:00 am
I’m there, dude! Castro seems dedicated to uniting communities and that’s what it’s all about!
April 11th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
que sí
April 11th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
Julian Castro’s coffers are not only backed by local donations but donations from out of state. I find that to be extremely interesting. His support of various hospitality unions is intriguing as well since he has received donations from the coffers of their lobbyists. Where does he stand? I wonder what Castro’s agenda is. Unfortnuately, I feel that he will follow in the footsteps of his “big brother”, the Turtle himself, and current mayor (if you can call him that) Ed Garza.
April 11th, 2005 at 5:30 pm
Um, I attended a conference in SA a month ago. It seems to me that the next mayor better put at the top of the list STREETS. I busted both my kidneys, not to mention my suspension, driving on those streets!!
Julian is the guy! Take it from an outsider looking in! Between a young, energetic leader; a Dem-Dinosaur, and a right-winger, the choice is obvious.
April 11th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
FYI:
Republicans think long-term in their cultivation of Latino votes, even to the point of running latino candidates they know will lose in the hopes of slowly moving latino party identification. Dems need to be willing to support all Latino candidates for the future of the progressive movement.
Julian Castro is a rising star in Texas politics, and he can do great things if he wins in SA and succeeds as mayor. Heck, even if he doesn’t, he can still keep running for other offices.
April 12th, 2005 at 10:56 am
Bro, I did a little digging and looked over Castro and Hardberger’s reports.. Castro did indeed have numerous donations from people in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, DC and a PAC in Florida. I think most of them can be attributed to his former classmates, which *is* interesting.. as it appears that they believe he deserves it. You might be surprised to find out that most of those out of state donations were in the $25 to $50 range, hardly influence-peddling. Hardberger has been the beneficiary of large chunks of money from Dallas, to the Woodlands, to Laredo and DC. Meanwhile, Schubert is gladly taking money from PACs - even the ones that have received millions of dollars in public contracts - and members of “Team Perry”, you know, our Governor, if one can call him that.. cos, you know, Republicans think they can buy anything.
Regardless of where Castro’s money is coming from, you can’t change the fact that he has the least of it. Given that he believes in the grassroots means (to me) that he is willing to listen to and be accountable to the people of San Antonio and that is something elected officials, of late, have forgotten about it - the people!
P.S. He might be from the same district as Garza, but that doesn’t mean he is Garza.
April 12th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
Granted, he does have the least of the $$, but his accounting and reporting is somewhat suspect. I guess he didn’t study these subjects at Harvard (too busy soliciting $$$ for his political future perhaps
) . See below. I find it difficult that “accounting” erros were the problem. Seems as if Castro learned from previously convicted councilmen. Sorry, sister, but I am NOT a Castro fan!
Follow the Money: Castro’s Report “Beset with Violations”
LAST UPDATE: 4/12/2005 12:33:51 PM
Posted By: Holly Whisenhunt
Watch this story…
In campaign ads and speeches, mayoral candidate Julian Castro has claimed the ethical high ground. His original TV ad includes this line about the city’s campaign finance ordinance passed last August:
“In office, he led campaign finance reform and the much-needed ethics reform.”
But his latest campaign finance report appears to have violated some of the very rules Castro helped pass. For example, the dates of contributions are missing, as are the names and addresses of some contributors.
The report apparently doesn’t account for nearly $42,000 in campaign funds. And there are a number of contributors who appear to have given more than the $1,000 limit set by the council last year.
Trouble Shooter Jeff Coyle spoke with Castro Monday afternoon:
“You helped pass the law that put a cap on contributions and there are some in here that appear to be more than that,” said Coyle.
“We will explain that,” replied Castro. “They appear because of the way they were reported to be over that limit. They are not over that limit; as best as we can figure, nobody gave more money than is allowed.”
Castro explains that some contributions were mistakenly reported twice and that a $1500 donation from a California woman was actually from the man and her husband (couples are allowed to donate up to $2000 per election cycle).
Castro blames the accounting errors on a volunteer staff and says his campaign has hired an accounting firm to make corrections.
“I’m the candidate, so the buck stops with me,” Castro said. “If there are some mistakes that were made on there, we’re going to correct them and make sure that the city clerk has accurate information.”
By state law, candidates are allowed to file amended reports to correct errors.
But Phil Hardberger, one of Castro’s opponents for mayor, says the sloppy report cannot simply be explained with “accounting errors.”
Hardberger’s campaign sent a two-page press release to the Trouble Shooters claiming the report was “beset with violations” and questioning Castro’s ability to lead a city with a $1.5 billion budget.
“I think these are very serious ethical violations that give a prediction of future performance should Julian be in that job,” Hardberger told Coyle.
“Not really letting people know where he’s been and how he’s been spending his money and who he’s been meeting with I think are very serious violations that cannot be explained with ‘that’s simply an accounting mechanism.’”
Meanwhile, Councilman Carroll Schubert, a third candidate for mayor, was not available for comment.
April 12th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
Dannnnng! Just because they made some reporting errors, doesn’t mean he is taking bribes or pocketing the money!
Amending campaign finance reports is not that unusual.. I think Hardberger and his paid staff might be getting desperate.
April 12th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
We all want a “fair playing field”….so, Castro should practice what he preaches….or at least practice what LAWS he passes. Funny how he had trouble remebering a LAW he passed since he is a trial lawyer with a Firm that gets city contracts….hmmm….double dipping?
April 12th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
hey aaron — thanks for the article, seriously!
i think it a solidly factual account, (even if it has some speculating — which i can take with a grain of salt or two) and i honestly dont know that much about Castro personally, so i have to form some judgements.
having seen first hand how campaigns run (helter-skelter comes to mind) versus how elected officals often run their office (NOT helter skelter) it doesnt worry me that plausible errors come up in a campaign. if a big issue seems to be reports that need amending — and until he amends them we all have to reserve some judgement that they might IN FACT just be “accounting errors” — well, reasonable errors dont worry me.
if Castro seemed to be hiding or going on some unwarranted counter-attack, that would be more troublesome to me, as an indicator of what kind of person is Castro.
vive le discussion!
adios
m
April 12th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
oohhh… i know what city contracts you are referring to and Castro’s services were never rendered! they used one lawyer from his firm and one lawyer alone!
and he had already done work for the city pre-Castro days.
he and his brother both resigned from a very prestigious firm and thus gave up a lot of money to avoid any conflict of interests…. and serve the public.
i know you might not like him, but try not to exclude him outright. Phil has been a good Dem and is quite *liberal*, but we have the chance to support a progressive Latino with a future in politics.. someone that could possibly unite Latinos around the state to fight for things we need as a whole… and this is desperately needed if we are going to move forward. damn, i should’ve re-registered in Bexar to cancel you out! just kidding… my sister-in-law will do that for me.
April 12th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
:) I just do not like the fact on how he has switched on several issues. He will win just because he is leading in the 18-34 female age group..and, since SA is about 90% Hispanic in this demographic, he will win. Unfortunately, 85% of that population wil not vote. There you go sister, another area for you to hit up for registering voters. You can register them BUT YOU HAVE TO GET THEM TO THE POLLS! Registering does no good if they don’t vote! GO Castro, I guess.
April 12th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Mario…Will the ammended documents be right? Do we really know if these “amended” documents are really correct? NO! Only Castro knows. In my opinion, regardless if he amends them, he is still suspect because of ALL of the fuss he made re: campaign contributions. He has lost my respect, the little that he had.
April 12th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
Mario will tell you that if the “cute” Castro gets the 18-34 females to the polls he will be happy because only 1 in 5 vote! And we busted behinds to get people to the polls… knock and drag, baby, knock and drag!! That is why we are going to SA for early voting!
Now, I will agree that it looks silly that Castro gets fussy over some things, but that type of behavior applies not only to him, but to many people. Regarding the money… he still doesn’t have any! Special interests and high-rolling donors are buying Schubert and Hardberger! The more people that participate in Castro’s campaign, the more people he will be accountable to.
And hey, there are still links to hit! Golf is not totally dead in SA.
April 12th, 2005 at 4:15 pm
but, ya know, can ya ever KNOW if anything is right if you werent there the whole time doing the watching the people sign the checks, cashing them, and doing the accounting paperwork yourself ; )
so do i have reason to trust?
well, i tend to think because all the fuss he made (and i ll take your word that he made such a fuss), he knows an SA Express-News reporter might look deeper and track him more closely, leading him to be more likely to do his best to be on the level.
is there a reason, Aaron, you say he is “suspect” because of the fuss he made?
April 12th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
Castro is a phony, I’m not just saying that to be negative on him but I’ve had behind the scenes interaction with him. He has this innocent, soft spoken way about him but he is far from that. Once he is out of the public eye, he is a major jerk who is extremely demanding of those around him.
Every opportunity he has, he will taunt his Harvard degree. This political thing for him is not about helping the people, it’s all about him being elected as mayor as a stepping stone to something bigger.
He is not ready to be mayor of a major city. Remember he has only been on the city council for two, 2 year
April 13th, 2005 at 7:30 am
Mario….This is why I say “suspect”……
Campaign Notebook: Castro touts plan to raise family incomes amid report criticism
Web Posted: 04/12/2005 08:30 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
Under continued attack over discrepancies in his latest campaign finance report, mayoral candidate Julián Castro unveiled a plan Tuesday to boost San Antonio’s median family income by $13,000 over the next 25 years.
The plan would foster conditions that would raise the annual average family income to nearly $57,000 and, by extension, cut poverty levels, reduce crime and increase the number of college graduates citywide, he said.
“I’m not under any illusion that we’re going to accomplish all these things in two or four years, but we can set a foundation,” Castro said.
He calls the proposal “Destiny 15,” referring to placing San Antonio in the top 15 cities in median family income nationwide, and said it could be reached by protecting existing businesses, luring new businesses and working with local school districts to elevate graduation rates.
Meanwhile, candidate Phil Hardberger said he wants Castro’s campaign bank statements made public immediately, calling the errors in his report “gross mismanagement and Enron-style accounting.”
Castro has hired an accounting firm to review his financials and provide a corrected report next week, after the end-of-season tax rush.
“I’ve taken responsibility for any errors,” Castro said. “The buck stops with me.”
————————————————————————–
PLEASE….EMPTY promises! Does he not have a better platform than to tout “Destiny 15″ (Much like his heroes (Garza) Southside Initiavtive..JOKE) instead of FOCUSING on today’s issues. If our state and national government can not “fix” education or a decent living wage then what does a mayor expect to do? Bring in another Toyota? I think not. He is a JOKE. I tend to agree with the phony part…
You are correct that someone needs to investigate…LAGirl Friday time to put your sleuth hat on! I really hope CASTRO (both of them) LOSE!
April 13th, 2005 at 10:30 am
It will be interesting to see how your MAN Castro votes on the pending City Mgr position. If HE VOTES YES, then his “Destiny 15″ vision (if you can call it that) will start with an upper paying job INSTEAD of reaching the people he is wanting to represent. 265K per year, 10K a month in TRAVELING expenses to Phoenix to visit her son and husband (move them to SA!), 20K in relocation expenses, $1500 in living expenses till a permanent residence is found, 2 paid house hunting “visits” ….hmmm
Here is what Castro is saying…
“I’m leaning toward supporting the proposal,” Julian Castro said, adding that ‘many of my constituents do have reservations about the pay.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, but I believe the city needs someone who is visionary.”
This is the future that you want to lead YOUR vision….GOOD LUCK!