Today is the last day to cast an early ballot for Tuesday’s election. There are 23 candidates running for city council who have reported raising and spending campaign funds. In total, candidates running for mayor and the six open city council seats have raised over $1 million to win their respective seats. The candidates reported spending $1.2 million on their campaigns with most of the money spent by the mayoral candidates who reported spending $916,439.01, according to the 30-day and 8-day reports.
In tomorrow’s edition, we will breakdown the campaign contributions and expenditures by city council seat, including which political consultants are being paid in this election cycle. However, an out-of-town political action committee (PAC) has injected itself into El Paso’s mayoral race.
The PAC has spent around $150,000 supporting mayoral candidate Renard Johnson and opposing Brian Kennedy, according to its 8-day campaign reports. In Texas, two or more people can collect campaigns funds and spend them in support of, or against a candidate. The PAC, like the candidates, must disclose how much they raised, where the campaign funds came from and how they spent the campaign money. A PAC can be a small group or a large organization. Although PACs can advocate for measures or candidates, in most cases they cannot coordinate with a candidate on how to spend their campaign funds.
It is rare for a statewide PAC to spend money on a local race like the mayoral race.
Political observers agree that the two leading contenders to win the mayoral race are Renard Johnson and Brian Kennedy. Kennedy, most agree, is leading the pack. Because of the number of candidates in the race, the ballot count on November 5 will likely end in a runoff election between Johnson and Kennedy.
The Protect and Serve Texas PAC is based in Austin. It reported spending $150,231.54 to “design and placement” of advertisements “supporting Johnson for Mayor.” Although it appears that this is the PAC’s first foray into El Paso politics it has spent campaign monies in other municipal elections before.
According to the Amarillo Pioneer, the PAC sent a mailer supporting four Amarillo city council candidates running for office in April 2023. Most of the campaign funding for the Amarillo city council mailers came from another PAC – Amarillo Matters.
The Amarillo Globe-News reported that the Amarillo Matters PAC was formed in 2016. It reported that some Amarillo residents believed the PAC was formed “because of issues with the City of Amarillo government.”
In 2015, three new city council members ousted three incumbents, leaving only the mayor and another city council member. As the Amarillo newspaper describes it, the three new city council members changed “the tone” of the city council leading to “an exodus” of city leaders, including the Amarillo city manager.
The donors who contributed to the Amarillo Matters PAC told the newspaper that they were contributing to the PAC because of the “dysfunction” of the new city council.
One contributor who made a $100 contribution to the PAC told the newspaper that he was solicited by business leaders to make the contribution. The contributor added that he made the contribution because he felt the PAC had “the resources to push downtown revitalization efforts forward, including the multipurpose event center/baseball stadium.”
The PAC told the Amarillo newspaper that “they had formed because they were committed to ‘electing quality leaders… Who are focused on the needs and well-being of the citizens of Amarillo.’”
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El Paso Follows Amarillo’s City Council Shakeup In 2022
In 2022, El Paso’s city council political makeup was changed significantly with the election of city representatives Art Fierro, Brian Kennedy and Chris Canales. The new makeup of the city council led to the firing of El Paso’s controversial second city manager, Tommy Gonzalez.
The vote to terminate Gonzalez was five to four. Two of the newly elected city representatives – Fierro and Kennedy were joined by Alexsandra Annello and Joe Molinar. Annello resigned in late 2023 to run for the state representative District 77 seat and Molinar is in a tight race to keep his seat in Tuesday’s election. Annello lost to Vince Perez in December of 2023. Voting against firing Gonzalez were Cassandra Hernandez and Isabel Salcido, who are both running for mayor in the November 5 ballot. Henry Rivera, who is termed out, and Chris Canales joined Hernandez and Salcido in voting against the termination of Gonzalez.
Mayor Oscar Leeser broke the tie vote ending Gonzalez’ tenure as the city’s second city manager.
After the termination of Gonzalez, the city council led by the newly elected city representatives also terminated the controversial 2012 Quality of Life multi-purpose center that includes a proposed sports arena. The city council also put the controversial multi-purpose center on Tuesday’s ballot giving El Paso voters the opportunity to keep it or discard it.
Central to the controversies over the so-called sports arena and Tommy Gonzalez is the downtown revitalization public policy embarked upon by past city councils.
As in Amarillo, several business leaders have come together to change the makeup of the city council in Tuesday’s election by supporting candidates seemingly friendly to downtown revitalization and the possibility of bringing back the sports arena.
Renard Johnson And Alejandra Chávez
Although several city council candidates have received campaign contributions by proponents of downtown revitalization through a sports arena, two candidates stand out by the amounts and in one case the appearance of an out-of-town PAC that delivered mailers against a slate of candidates in 2023. The PAC is Protect and Serve Texas.
Before exploring the PAC’s attention in the mayoral race, it is important to understand how political monies have been flowing towards candidates in this election cycle that suggests some wealthy politically active El Pasoans have banded together to change the dynamics of El Paso’s city council back to when Joyce Wilson and Tommy Gonzalez were implementing the city council’s public policy of building a sports arena in the Duranguito neighborhood with the 2012 Quality of Life bonds.
Alexandra Chávez
Looking at the District 1 race, a clear correlation between the Renard Johnson and Alexandra Chávez’s campaigns can be made in terms of who is funding the two campaigns and how they are spending their campaign funds.
Those funding Johnson are funding Chávez. The contributors are generally the same individuals that support the proposed sports arena and Tommy Gonzalez. Most of them are funding candidates in other city council races seemingly in hopes of changing the dynamics of the city council.
But in the case of Chávez, the strategy seems to be one of significantly outspending her closest opponent enough to win the race without a runoff. With four candidates contending for the seat, the likely outcome would have been a runoff between the two top contenders. In the District1 race, the four contenders have spent $111,285.75 on their campaigns. This amount is significantly higher than the other city council races. Moreover, Chávez expenditures represent almost 68% of the total money spent in the race.
In addition to who is contributing to Chávez it is important to note that she paid former city representative Peter Svarzbein $3,600 for consulting work. But more important to note is that the Chávez Campaign paid Jovany Meza $3,000 for consulting work.
Meza works for city council representative Art Fierro and when we asked Fierro about his city employee working for campaigns, Fierro responded that Meza “is an aide who assists” his office. Fierro added that he is aware that Meza participates “in political campaigns during his personal time.” The city guidelines for city employees do not prohibit city employees from participating in political activities while they are not using city property or working for the city.
However, Meza was not only paid by Chávez for consulting but was also paid $5,400 by the Renard Johnson Campaign for consulting work, according to the last two campaign reports.
Renard Johnson
Like the Chávez Campaign, the Johnson Campaign has raised a significant amount of money for his campaign. According to the 8-day and 30-day campaign reports, Johnson has raised $583,907.34 from many of the same contributors that contributed to Chávez. The amount raised by Johnson represents 84% of the total monies raised by the four leading mayoral candidates.
Although Brian Kennedy has spent $375,939.48 which is close to Johnson’s expenditures of $411,104.20, Kennedy has only raised $42,027.30 relying on $181,000 in loans he loaned to his campaign. Although Johnson initially loaned his campaign around $54,000, he paid himself back according to the 8-day report leaving him running his campaign free of loans.
In addition to Kennedy’s loans totaling $181,000, two other mayoral candidates, Cassandra Hernandez and Isabel Salcido are relying on loans from themselves to their campaigns to run in the election. Hernandez has reported $66,600 in loans and Salcido reported $100,000.
Both Chávez and Johnson are now relying on campaign contributions to run for office with both now reporting no loans to their campaigns.
But for the Johnson Campaign, in addition to the significant amounts of contributions to his mayoral campaign is a PAC that has entered the mayoral race in support of Johnson and in opposition of Kennedy. This is like what happened in Amarillo in 2017 when their city council’s makeup was changed. The Protect & Serve Texas PAC sent mailers to El Paso voters recently targeting Brian Kennedy, like they did in the Amarillo city council race in 2017.
The Protect And Serve Texas PAC
Two mailers targeting Brian Kennedy recently landed in El Paso voters’ mailboxes. They were created by Guardian Public Strategies, LLC for $54,114.02. The work, “design, production and postage mail Ad supporting Johnson for Mayor” was commissioned by the Protect and Serve PAC.
Guardian Public Strategies, LLC was also paid another $7,000 for the “design and placement of digital ads supporting Johnson for Mayor” by the PAC.
Additionally, the PAC reported paying Murphy Nasica and Associates, the same consulting company used by the Johnson Campaign, $33,003.50 and $2,000 for “design and placement of radio ads supporting Johnson for mayor.”
The Johnson Campaign has paid Murphy Nasica and Associates $276,889.40 during this election cycle, in addition to the $35,003.50 the PAC paid it for the mailers targeting Kennedy. Murphy Nasica was paid $591,429.82 by the El Pasoans for Prosperity PAC to lead efforts in opposition to the 2023 Climate Charter election.
The PAC also reported an unpaid incurred obligation to Guardian Public Strategies, LLC in the amount of $54,114.02 for the “design, production and postage mail advertisement supporting Johnson for Mayor.”
According to Transparency USA, which tracks campaign funding, the Protect and Serve Texas PAC has received over $2 million in contributions and spent around $3.6 million. Among the campaign contributors from across the state includes $25,000 from Miguel Fernandez, $10,000 from Edward Houghton and $5,000 from Steve Ortega. All three also contributed to Chávez Campaign, and Fernandez and Houghton contributed to Johnson.
In total, the PAC has spent or obligated $150,231.54 supporting the Renard Johnson Campaign with advertising for voter outreach.
This is in addition to the $411,104.20 spent by the Johnson Campaign. It is important to note that unlike Hernandez, Kennedy and Salcido, Renard Johnson has benefited from over half-a-million dollars for his campaign without him loaning any money to his campaign.
In tomorrow’s article we will breakdown the campaign finances by office including how much each political consultant was paid and who the top campaign contributors are across the city council races.