San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Runoff recalls 2004 race for county commissioner
Back in 2004, a 33year-old South Side lawyer named Roland Gutierrez ran for county commissioner.
Gutierrez spent nearly $70,000 of his own money and ran a spirited campaign, but finished third in a hard-fought Democratic primary, behind incumbent Robert Tejeda and Sergio “Chico” Rodriguez. Along the way, however, he verbally pummeled Tejeda so relentlessly that he cleared a path for Rodriguez to pull off an upset victory in the runoff.
Don’t look now, but history could be repeating itself.
On July 31, Gutierrez — now a five-term state representative — finished third in another hardfought race, a special election for the Texas Senate District 19 seat recently vacated by convicted felon Carlos Uresti. That sets up a runoff between former Congressman Pete Gallego and retired game warden Pete Flores.
Gutierrez’s persistent attacks during the primary race on Gallego, a fellow Democrat, could have the effect of softening up Gallego for Flores, an unabashed conservative Republican from Pleasanton.
Logic says the Senate runoff should be safely in Gallego’s pocket.
This sprawling district, which covers 17 counties from South San Antonio to West Texas, is a Democratic stronghold. Two years ago, Uresti, already facing allegations of fraud regarding his involvement with the FourWinds frac-sand compa- ny, easily disposed of Flores by a margin of more than 15 percent.
But Flores shocked political observers two weeks ago by finishing first in the eight-candidate special election, with 34 percent of the vote. Gallego finished second with 29 percent, while Gutierrez received 24 percent.
A worrisome factoid for Dems is that Flores — whose campaign ads and high-profile GOP endorsements emerged only a few days before the election — received 4,546 votes on election day while Gallego and Gutierrez combined for only 4,055.
The bigger issue, however, is that Gutierrez exclusively targeted Gallego for his attacks during the primary race and weakened him in the process.
It was reminiscent of the way Gutierrez hammered Tejeda in 2004 for a range of perceived infractions, such as taking $35,000 from a law firm (Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson), which had a contract with the county to collect delinquent taxes.
“This guy (Tejeda) has hurt our community and it’s time to get someone who will advocate for the people,” Gutierrez told the Current in 2004.
Immediately after falling short in the 2004 primary, Gutierrez endorsed Rodriguez, saying they shared the goal of ousting Tejeda.
“We got to get this guy (Tejeda) out,” he said. “We had 60 percent of the voters saying they don’t want Robert Tejeda.”
A battle-scarred Tejeda lost the runoff to Rodriguez by 14 percent.
The dynamics of the Senate District 19 runoff are more complex, because there are no incumbents to oust and the race involves a Democrat against a Republican.
Gutierrez and Gallego share party affiliation and they served together in the Texas House from 2009-13. But it’s hard to see Gutierrez helping Gallego in the Senate runoff.
During the primary race, Gutierrez blasted Gallego for accepting a $5,000 donation in 2014 from the GEO Group, a controversial company that operates for-profit prisons and immigration detention facilities.
After this column reported that Gallego appears to live outside the district, in Austin, while claiming residence in the West Texas town of Alpine, Gutierrez essential- ly called it a disqualifying factor.
In a July 26 tweet, Gutierrez wrote, “If @PeteGallegoTX can’t be honest about where he lives, what can he be honest about?”
On Friday, I asked Gutierrez whether he planned to make an endorsement in the runoff. He responded, via text: “At present I am taking some much-needed time away from politics to spend with my family.”
Flores hasn’t yet pushed hard on the residency issue. He might not have to, partly because Gutierrez did it for him and partly because the Republican Party of Texas filed suit Friday against Gallego in Travis County District Court. The suit seeks to get Gallego thrown off the runoff ballot, on the grounds that he doesn’t reside in the district. Legally, it’s a long shot, but it’s keeping the issue alive.
Democrats might yet unite to defeat Flores, particularly if they contemplate his support for school vouchers and the replacement of property taxes (used, in part, to fund public education) with a higher sales tax.
For Gallego to win, however, he’ll need to recover from Gutierrez’s attacks more effectively than Tejeda did in 2004.