SA Elections: Castro Elected Mayor, Trish Comes in Second
It is the first day post-election in San Antonio. Julian Castro is now the Mayor-elect of the City of San Antonio. He was able to garner enough votes to avoid a run-off in his second bid for the office. Castro got the support of 54% of voters (42,745 votes), Trish DeBerry-Mejia came in second place with 29% (22,031 votes). The one person I definitely did not want to be elected Mayor, Diane Cibrian only received a paltry 8% of the vote (6,181 votes). Shelia McNeil (whose connection to tax-payer funded trips, including the Inauguration; and having city workers paint her fence may have hurt her chances) recieved only 4% of the vote (2,962 votes). Here are links to interviews from KENS 5 with each of the four major candidates:
Julian Castro | Trish DeBerry-Mejia | Diane Cibrian | Sheila McNeil
Diane considered tonights bleak performance a victory for her? Trish spoke tonight about needing more people to be involved in the process, and that more people need to get out and vote in city elections. She would have been a great choice for the City of San Antonio. She was the only candidate who had real business experience and could have led a city that needs to manage its budget and still provide basic city services. DeBerry-Mejia also spoke out during the campaign about Castro’s links to unions, and his support for “meet and confer” legislation in the Texas Legislature. And with a low turnout overall in San Antonio, those last minute robo-calls (likely backed by Cibrian or Castro) could have made a difference in this race.
Trish ran a quality campaign. She promised supporters at her campaign headquarters tonight that “this will not be the last you see of Trish DeBerry-Mejia.” I certainly hope that it isn’t. I am glad that I supported Trish for Mayor, and I was glad to volunteer and help out in any way that I could. And of course thanks goes out to all the College Republicans, who lent their support and volunteer hours to the Trish campaign. In the history of CR support for Mayoral candidates, we have improved. In 2005, the candidate we supported came in third. Now, our candidate has come in second. Next time, who knows maybe we can be vicotrious and take City Hall. But now begins a new phase of this blog that covers politics. We now will transition into keeping Castro and the new City Hall honest, and I look forward to that.
Mayoral Race: San Antonio Living “Debate”
On Monday, San Antonio Living on News 4 WOAI hosted a Mayoral “Debate” with the four leading candidates for San Antonio Mayor. If you don’t know who they are, they include Shelia McNeil, Julian Castro, Diane Cibrian, and Trish DeBerry-Mejia. The show started with an opening roundtable discussion with all four candidates. [CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO]. Diane was trotting out the same old argument against Trish about her firm being involved in the process of building toll roads (a claim that I haven’t fully been able to investigate). But there are no active contracts to build toll roads. Diane didn’t want to talk about the fact that there was a recall campaign against her by the Texas Toll Party for her roll in toll roads with her work on the MPO. The video is an interesting 11 minutes long. Diane seems to pick up ideas along the way … parroting what other candidates say and co-opting the ideas and making them her own.
Then the four candidates sat down for individual one-on-ones with the host, Shelly Miles. In the order they took place:
Shelia McNeil – CLICK HERE
Julian Castro – CLICK HERE
Diane Cibrian – CLICK HERE
Trish DeBerry-Mejia – CLICK HERE
I can’t figure out how to download these videos off of the dayport system that WOAI uses … if anyone knows how to let me know I would like to post them on to YouTube so that they are visible in case WOAI takes them off their system.
I have made it clear that I have endorsed Trish DeBerry-Mejia. She has practical business experience that can help this city realize its true priorities. But the videos are their so in the words of Fox News … I present. You Decide.
’09 Mayoral Candidate Town Hall with SACurrent
Go to the San Antonio Current for a live streamed online Town Hall Meeting with the candidates for San Antonio Mayor at 6:30 PM (CT) on April 14, 2009 (Tuesday)
Get more information from the San Antonio Current. SA Conservative will have full post-Town Hall coverage after the event.
REMEMBER: Early Voting for the San Antonio Municipal Elections (May 9th) will begin April 27th.
Diane Cibrian: Can’t Handle an Interview? And She Wants to be Mayor?
Diane Cibrian, who if you read this blog you know I don’t support on a personal level, apparently has more trouble than just practing debate responses and seeming relaxed as a candidate. Let’s just say that Diane Cibrian and the media don’t necessarily get along unless she can make you ask the questions she wants you to ask. This video is from an interview with FOX 29 News (KABB-TV in San Antonio) and Sylvia Rincon. She doesn’t understand that this is an interview and not a Mayoral forum. Notice that when she finally answers the question she tries to tie her and Phil Hardberger together (because she wants you to think that she is the next Phil Hardberger). Like I said before, she is unprofessional and if she can’t handle an interview … how’s she going handle being Mayor? Who storms out of an interview like that Diane? Was it because they didn’t ask you about strip clubs or how you and Phil Hardberger are the same people. Here is a hint Diane… YOU ARE NOT PHIL HARDBERGER, YOU ARE A HORRIBLE CITY COUNCIL PERSON. I am one of your constituents and I don’t think you’ve done a lot for our city except try to dictate what businesses open where in this city. And while we are at it … you can stop with the whole I’ve done this and I’ve done that … it sounds pretentious and conceited. You were afraid how they would cut the footage of this interview? That’s always concern number one … that’s why you practice and know how to put your ideas into good quality soundbites. Give them a ton of footage of you bitching about the interview … and thats all they have to show.
This interview was last month but I was just informed of it’s existance. Leave a comment… Let me know what you think. Diane also seems very worried about Julian Castro. Here’s another tip Diane … stop trying to pretend your a Republican and for small businesses … we all know your a liberal … don’t try and hide it. Remember “I will not vote to lower taxes” at the UTSA Debate … yeah thats what you really think.
UTSA San Antonio Mayoral Debate
Last night, the four leading candidates for San Antonio Mayor were at the University of Texas-San Antonio for a 90-minute Mayoral Debate. These four candidates were Trish DeBerry Mejia, Julian Castro, Sheila McNeil, and Diane Cibrian. I think the debate shows that this race is really between Trish and Julian, Sheila and Diane left something to be desired (specifically the latter). There were plenty of interesting moments that I will share with you.
- Julian stuck to his basic message he had back in 2005 that you shouldn’t have to go away for college “to make your dreams happen.” Even though he could have gone to St. Mary’s for college and law school but didn’t.
- I was right when I previously said that Diane Cibrian wants to you to think she is the next Phil Hardberger when she was asked if there was one thing she disagreed with the Mayor on. Sheila mentioned the new Parade Ordinance and I can’t remember what Julian said, but Diane looked at each of them and said basically ‘Well, that wasn’t the mayor who did that.” She then proceeded to say that there was nothing she disagreed with Mayor Hardberger on and that he has just been fantastic. While Mayor Hardberger has been a great Mayor, I think everyone in town can come up with at least one thing they didn’t like that he has led on. (For me its Main Plaza … I just don’t get why it was done).
- It really was a bad debate night for Diane Cibrian. She needs to practice what she might say and do a lot more prep before she does this again. There were two very prominent missteps. First was the question of raising property taxes in Bexar County. Diane first said “I will not support a vote to lower property taxes.” She would later correct herself … but its a quote that will live on for her. The other was on the subject of the rumored sale of Market Square. While Diane may have meant to say she didn’t support the sale … she said, “I do not support Market Square and I never have.”
- Trish was the first to discuss desalination investment as way to diversify the San Antonio area’s water supply away from relying solely on the Edwards Aquafer.
- Trish also focused on small businesses and helping them thrive in San Antonio, as well as regional partnership with areas around SA like Austin, the Valley, etc.
- The entire night Diane tried to one up the other candidates (I know that kind of the point) by calling them out and staring at them while she basically verbally face slapped them. It was unprofessional and a very noticable lack of class.
- The other thing about Diane was that she tried to make it seem like she was working with every committee on every topic. A friend of mine said that if there was a question about Mars and aliens, she would claim to be working on a city committee with NASA to ensure it happened. My question is … what results has Diane Cibrian gotten if shes been doing all that. Not enough to be mayor if you ask me.
- Julian constantly seemed to be speaking down to me … and picked up on a lot of what other candidates said before it got to him. If he went first it was a lot of generalities. He also moved away from promising that he wouldn’t raise taxes, saying that no Mayor could responsibly say that … it just sounded like we were stupid for thinking that a Mayor would try to lower the burden of taxes from the government. I guess we were wrong.
So after all of that I came to the conclusion that Trish DeBerry Mejia is the best choice for the next Mayor of San Antonio. She has the leadership and creativity to move the City of San Antonio forward. For more information on Trish, visit her website at www.trishformayor.com.
Tomorrow: Complete Wrap-Up of UTSA Mayoral Debate
Tomorrow I will post a complete wrap-up of the San Antonio Mayoral Debate hosted at UTSA on Wednesday Night. Just a few things to look forward to:
- Diane Cibran won’t “vote to lower” property taxes.
- Diane Cibran doesn’t support “Market Square and never” did.
- Trish DeBerry-Mejia has a good night.
- Sheila McNeil holds her own.
- Julian Castro talks down to us a little bit more.
- Rhett Smith calls me and UTSA fascist, holds a flag.
- Cibrian adds to horrible night with verbal face slaps to opponents, showing no class on the night.
That and a whole lot more coming up tomorrow in the Wrap-Up.
Local: Mayoral Candidate Cibrian Keeps Fighting Strip Clubs
It seems that yet to officially announce San Antonio Mayoral candidate Diane Cibrian is continuing in her apparently never ending fight against “Booby Rock” and other strip clubs in San Antonio. For those who don’t know there were plans to open the strip club on Interstate 10 near Huebner in an abandoned bar called “Hooligans.” Once these plans surfaced Cibrian of course fought it with all she had. The plans were scrapped but weren’t abandoned all together (at least we found out tonight that they weren’t). Tonight News 4 WOAI in San Antonio reported on its 10 O’Clock newscast that the man who wanted to open the club a couple of years ago … is trying again. This time he wants to open the club just a mile down the freeway near I-10 and Wurzbach in the building that has been vacated by the closing of a night club called “Planeta Mexico.” Cibrian again wants to fight it for the good of the neighborhoods. Cibrian seems to not realize that there is another strip club in that neighborhood called All Starz … why isnt she fighting that one? She apparently wants to make this a plank in her platform for the campaign. She wants the voters of San Antonio to think that she is fighting against the undesirable aspects of society. Unfortunately, I don’t think that this will get her very far. I think it might become a laughing matter. Why fight a new strip club that will be less than half a block from another one? It doesn’t really make a lot of sense Diane. Look, I personally might never find the desire to go to a strip club … I mean I don’t really understand why you would pay a woman to do what I assume goes on … just get a girlfriend. (Hahaha) Look … everyone has the mentality of not in my backyard … but business is business … its gotta go somewhere. What this boils down to is that you want to decide what businesses can make it in San Antonio. What then is the extent of government involvement in our lives. If we don’t want the strip club there … guess what … we won’t go … and it will close down. Simple as that Diane. The market will figure itself out.
Kind of on an aside here … Diane looks like she is also trying to imply that she is the next Phil Hardberger. How can I say this? Well her campaign signage looks to be very similar to outgoing Mayor Hardberger’s. Take a look at the logo above and this from the Hardberger website back in the day:
Anyone else notice the similarities? Either Cibrian and the Mayor used the same company for logo design and they aren’t worth the money they get paid … or Cibrian wants to you to think she is the next Phil Hardberger (who has been a very popular mayor in town). But going to that length? Really Diane? Really?
Perry 2010
