Norma Chávez, who is in a runoff election against Vince Perez for the House District 77 seat, owes $6,300 for campaign materials alleges one of her vendors. In following up with the allegation, El Paso News also discovered that Chávez’ campaign consultants are no longer with her.
In a telephone call yesterday, a vendor, who we have agreed not to name, told us that Norma Chávez owes them $6,300 in campaign materials she used for her campaign. The vendor told us that they have requested payment numerous times, which Chávez has refused to pay.
According to the vendor, they reminded Chávez yesterday via email that she was supposed to get back to them yesterday to settle the account. The vendor told us that as of close of day yesterday, Chávez has not responded to them.
According to Chávez’ last campaign finance report filed on February 26 her campaign had $17,039.19 left. On March 5, Chávez filed a “correction affidavit” for a Daily Report. In her report, Chávez reported that on March 4, she accepted another $11,000 in five campaign contributions she accepted the day before the election.
The two largest contributors for $2,500 each were Stanley Jobe and Maria Teran. Jobe owns Jobe Concrete and Teran owns Sierra Machinery.
Adding the latest campaign contributions to her total suggests that Chávez ended Election Day with about $28,039.19. It is unclear how many other outstanding bills the campaign has making it difficult to ascertain how much money the campaign has going into the runoff election.
Norma Chávez received 3,132 votes to Vince Perez’ 3,698 votes in a four-way race.
Campaign Consultants Have Left
To get a comment from Norma Chávez we reached out to her campaign consultants yesterday. In a telephone call yesterday, Lily Limón, a partner in Sun City Strategic Group, told us that they are “not authorized to speak on behalf of the campaign.” Repeated attempts to reach Eddie Holguin were not returned.
We asked Limón if they are still working for the campaign, Limón repeated that they “cannot speak for the campaign.” In a follow up question, we asked Limón since when are they not speaking for the campaign. She responded that “since Election Day.”
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Norma Chávez Responds
In a telephone conversation today, Norma Chávez told us that the amount in question is a “disputed invoice.” According to her, it is an endorsement mailer that was sent out “twice.” Chávez told us that she has not responded to the vendor because she has been traveling, first to Austin and then to Dallas.
Chávez added that she will be returning to El Paso over the weekend and plans to meet with the vendor on Monday. Chávez told us that she did “not approve” the work, which according to her is a duplicate mailer that she feels she should not have to pay for.
According to Chávez, her campaign mailed seven mailers throughout the campaign. The disputed invoice is for a mailer in between the others.
We asked Chávez if she did not approve the mailer, who would have approved it. Chávez replied that a consultant “may have approved it,” but “didn’t know if he did.”
Chávez says that she believes she “should pay the postage” for the disputed invoice but not the mailer that she reiterates she did not approve.
When we asked Chávez if Sun Circle Strategic Group was still helping her with her campaign, Chávez replied that her previous consultants “did a fantastic job” to get her into a runoff but she is now using an “Austin group” to help with her campaign.
Dallas Consultant Explains What Happens When A Candidate Fails To Pay
We spoke to Brian Mayes, the principal of Mayes Media Group, about political candidates not paying for services. In a telephone interview today, Mayes told us that from his 30 years’ experience occurrences of political candidates not paying their bills was “rare.”
However, Mayes added that it is now becoming “normal” for “dishonest candidates, like Donald Trump who do not pay their bills.” Mayes added that candidates who refuse to pay their bills do not impact wealthy owners, but instead “impacts the blue color workers and their families” who do the work.
Mayes told us that Chávez “must explain to the voters why she is taking money out of the pockets” of the “blue color workers that are impacted” by candidates not paying their bills.
Previous Failure To File Report
In January, candidates running for office were required to file an interim campaign finance report with the Texas Ethics Commission. Two candidates, Alexsandra Annello and Vince Perez filed their reports. Chávez did not. Her consulting team insisted that our reporting was in error because according to them, Chávez was not required to file the January 15 report.
On January 18, Chávez filed the Special Session Report that was due on January 15 and that her consultants insisted we were wrong about her being required to file it.
On April 21, 2011, the Texas Ethics Commission sanctioned Chávez with a $1,000 civil penalty for several violations while Chávez was in office.
Election Day for the runoff is May 28.
Disclosure
Each election cycle, El Paso News publishes the names of the political candidates that the technology company owned by Martín Paredes provides branding and technology services to. Although not required to, we provide this list to our readers for transparency purposes. Clients of Cognent have no influence over the stories we choose to cover. Click here for more details.
