Current city representatives and those seeking to unseat them in the November elections were required to file campaign finance reports on July 15, 2022. District 6 representative Claudia Lizette Rodriguez filed her financial disclosure report late and incomplete. Although the report was due on July 15, 2022, it did not appear on the city’s website until today. According to the time stamp on the report, Rodriguez filed her report on July 20. However, it did not appear on the city website until sometime today. The reason for the report’s posting today on the city’s website remains unknown. However, it should be noted that the city revamped its website over the weekend suggesting that the report’s absence from the website may have been a technical issue. Nonetheless, Rodriguez filed her report five days after it was due according to the report’s time stamp.
In addition to the report being filed late, it is incomplete. According to her report, Rodriguez received $2,500 in campaign contributions and spent $2,100, leaving $400 in her campaign account. The report lists her only contribution as $2,500 from JP Bryan of Houston Texas on May 20, 2022. Bryan is a wealthy preservationist that is helping to fund Max Grossman’s lawsuit against the city to protect the historic Duranguito neighborhood. The Bryan campaign contribution is the only campaign contribution reported by Rodriguez.
However, although Rodriguez reports that she spent $2,100 in campaign funds, she neglected to report where and when she made the expenditure. The failure to report the expenditure makes her late financial disclosure report incomplete. She is required to explain how she spent her campaign funds and she did not.
Recently Rodriguez has faced controversy in her recent votes at city council. In June, Rodriguez was one of six city council representatives that voted to override the mayor’s second veto extending city manager Tommy Gonzalez’s contract. She also voted to add the charter commission’s amendment curtailing the mayor’s veto power to the November ballot.
Rodriguez faces at least two challengers in the November elections for her seat. The first is Cristian Botello. Botello, an America’s High School and UTEP graduate currently works at the Medical Center of the Americas, according to his campaign website. Botello has raised $800 and spent $541.61 according to his latest campaign financial report.
The other Rodriguez challenger is Art Fierro. Fierro, who recently lost his reelection campaign to Claudia Ordaz Perez for his State Representative seat, raised $31,364.00 and spent $89,745.51 in his state race, according to his latest report. Fierro has $6,315 left in his campaign account.
The election for the city council seats is scheduled for November 8, 2022. Stay with El Paso News for continuous coverage of the election season.
Martín Paredes became a partner of Politico Campaigns, a political campaign management firm, in June 2022. The views and opinion expressed in our publication are those of Paredes and do not necessarily represent the views of the firm or its other partners. El Paso News is funded primarily by Paredes, in part by donations from readers and online advertisement. Politico Campaigns plays no role in our reporting. El Paso News has an open editorial policy encouraging any author to submit any article from any point of view for consideration to be published on El Paso News. Joe Pickett is a client of Politico Campaigns. Art Fierro is a client of Politico Campaigns.
It’s time for Art to file that ethics complaint and act offended