An El Paso Inc. article (paywall) on May 31, 2024 stated that former state representative Joe Pickett was considering running for mayor in the upcoming mayoral election scheduled for November. According to the article, Pickett, who is also a former city representative, is “seriously considering” running for mayor. Because of the article, several El Paso News readers asked if Pickett was going to run for mayor. We reached out to Pickett for a comment.
As we reported in April, three candidates have announced they are running for mayor. They are Marco Contreras, Cassandra Hernandez and Renard Johnson. The day after our article was published, Steven Winters also filed to run for the mayor’s office. The current mayor, Oscar Leeser is termed out and cannot run again.
Pickett served at the Texas House, District 79 from 1995 through 2018. Pickett left the House on January 4, 2018 after being diagnosed with cancer in 2017.
Three years later, in 2021, Pickett announced he would challenge Isabel Salcido for her city council seat in the November 8, 2022 election. Just before the deadline to file to run for the city council seat, Pickett issued a press release stating he would not be running for Salcido’s seat after all.
Pickett’s political career began in 1989 when he ran for the Eastside city council seat. He came in third with about 20 percent of the vote, behind Mateele Rittgers and Bill Rodriguez. Rittgers went on to win the seat. On January 21, 1991 Pickett announced that would again seek the city council Eastside seat in the May 4, 1991 election. Pickett defeated the incumbent, Rittgers, by 215 voters, or 51%.
On March 9, 1994, Pickett defeated Lupe Casillas-Lowenberg for the Texas House of Representatives District 79 seat with 54.4% of the votes. Casillas-Lowenberg had alleged that Pickett had been arrested twice on felony charges in the 1980’s. No charges were filed against Pickett according to online court records.
Pickett Sues The City
Joe Pickett sued the city in 2021 over the city’s franchise fee on the water bills sent to El Pasoans. According to the lawsuit, the city is tacking on a franchise fee to the water bills for “wear and tear” on the city’s streets. According to the lawsuit, the fee is “not permitted by law.”
City attorney Karla Nieman told CBS 4 that the city believes the water franchise fee is “a lawful exercise of its authority.”
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Mayoral Candidate
According to the El Paso Inc. article, Pickett said that he has been thinking about running for mayor because he “has fewer responsibilities today” and because he “has been retired now since 2019.”
Yesterday in a text message interview, Pickett told us that when he agreed to the El Paso Inc. article it was his understanding that it would be about his lawsuit against the city. However, the reporter, Reyes Mata, asked Pickett if he was going to be running for mayor.
Pickett wrote to us in a text message that he “will decide middle of next month” on whether he will through in his hat for the mayor’s seat.
Will He Run?
Several political observers that we spoke to who agreed to speak to us on the condition that we not name them told us that it is unlikely that Pickett will run. We were told that Pickett wants attention from the news media because of his pending lawsuit against the city.
When we asked Pickett for a comment, he wrote to us that he accepted the El Paso, Inc. article because “the INC [story] was supposed to be about my suit with” the city.
One political observer with knowledge of Pickett’s thinking pointed us to Pickett’s last-minute withdrawal of running against Isabel Salcido in 2021. Another individual added that Pickett is playing “games” by making his announcements to run for office.
Campaign War Chest
As we reported back in January 2023, Pickett was behind the El Pasoans for Truth and Transparency that targeted Claudia Rodriguez and Isabel Salcido during the 2022 city council elections.
At the time we reported that Pickett had a sizable campaign account worth over $315,000. According to his last campaign contributions report filed on January 8, 2024, Pickett reported having $253,676.77 cash on hand. His PAC maintains less than $2,000 in its account.
Should Pickett decide to run, he has plenty of money in his campaign war chest to mount an effective run for the mayor’s race.
The last day to file to run for city council or the mayor’s office is August 19, 2024. The open city council seats are 2, 3, 4 and 7, as well as the mayor’s seat. The election is scheduled for November 5.
It would be good to have him in the race. Still, I wish someone like him would challenge Escobar on a peace platform because all the Democrats seem to be for forever wars. The whole Lindsey Graham and McConnell wing of the GOP, too.