San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Hot topics could shake up ballot
Sick leave, charter changes proposed
On Thursday, San Antonio City Council could place two hot-button items on the November ballot: mandatory paid sick leave, and three charter amendments that include a proposal making it easier to repeal city ordinances.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg has framed the latter issue, which he opposes, as “the most important thing that faces this city at this point in time.”
Also at stake is the collateral impact those proposals would have on the rest of San Antonio’s and Bexar County’s No- vember ballot, possibly swaying narrow elections by turning out thousands of new voters. This comes in a county key to Democrats’ hopes of making statewide gains, and builds on several factors already pointing to a chaotic November in San Antonio.
Paid sick leave and the charter amendments are issues rife with potential to stir up money and enthusiasm. Those in charge of Secure San Antonio’s Future, an anti-charter amendment political action committee, plan to raise more than $1 million to fight the proposals, while paid sick leave organizers gathered 145,000 petition signa- tures, more than twice the required amount, though some were ruled invalid.
“These propositions, which have powerful policy implications, pull out voters in municipal elections like no other kind of election,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “That’s likely to spike voter turnout.”
Both issues could miss the ballot: Secure San Antonio’s Future sued the San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association, alleging the union illegally funded its charter amendment petition campaign. The
suit seeks to block the proposals from reaching the ballot. Meanwhile, City Council could pass a paid sick leave ordinance, or delay a decision on the matter until after Aug. 20, the deadline to put it on the November ballot.
The charter amendments would limit future city managers’ salary and tenure, allow citizens to repeal ordinances by gathering fewer signatures over more time than under current law, and give the firefighters union sole discretion to force the city into binding arbitration on contract negotiations.
Kelton Morgan, a Republican consultant who, with Democratic consultant Christian Archer, is leading the campaign for Secure San Antonio’s Future, has said the amendments do not elicit a partisan divide. Some of the proposals — term limits, salary caps and cutting into government power — are conservative in nature, Rottinghaus said, though the local business community is mostly leading the anti-amendment charge.
Mandatory paid sick leave, however, falls along distinct partisan lines: Democrats support it overwhelmingly, while state Republican officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, have opposed the concept and indicated plans to pass legislation against it next session.
“The paid sick leave issue is one of the top three issues for liberals in big-city Texas,” Rottinghaus said. “Even if it will be struck down next session, it’s a rallying point.”
If paid sick leave reaches the ballot, it will likely draw thousands of new voters or those who vote in presidential but not midterm elections. Organizers made the latter group a big focus of their petition drive, said Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the Texas Or- ganizing Project, a lead group promoting paid sick leave.
TOP has kept a list of people who signed a petition but are not registered to vote, with plans to reconnect with them before November.
Growing voter rolls
Ballot measures aren’t the only thing that could make this year’s San Antonio-area elections especially unpredictable.
For one, the area’s electoral makeup will look much different than the last two midterms: San Antonio gained more residents than any other U.S. city from July 2016 to July 2017. As of the March primaries, Bexar County had 1.07 million registered voters — a 19 percent increase from November 2010, the fastest growth rate in that span among Texas counties that now have at least 1 million registered voters.
Democrats see a rare opportunity this midterm cycle to flip statewide seats, but would likely need to generate massive turnout in Bexar County to do so. It’s Texas’ second-mostpopulous swing county and the largest source of nonvoting Latinos, a population key to Democrats’ chances.
Abbott beat Democratic opponent Wendy Davis by 1.3 percentage points here in 2014, and straight-ticket Republicans outnumbered Democrats by even less.
This November, the dynamics of some top Bexar County races look much different than usual. This year marks the county’s first midterm election since 2006 without one of its most well-known officials, Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood, who lost his March Democratic primary.
U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, who’s represented the 21st Congressional District since 1987, is retiring, and Joseph Kopser, the Democrat seeking Smith’s seat, had raised, as of the end of
June, $1.6 million — more than every Democratic candidate in the district combined since 1979, as far back as online records go.
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, who represents District 121, also is not seeking re-election. And the wide-ranging 23rd Congressional District will feature two Bexar County residents — U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, and Democratic challenger Gina Ortiz Jones, a San Antonio native — for the first time since 2010.
On top of that, Bexar County’s Democratic and Republican parties inaugurated new chairs in June. GOP Chair Cynthia Brehm’s tenure has so far been marred by her failure to disclose allegations against her husband of sexual assault against children and exposing minors to pornography.
Her interparty opponents last month installed their preferred vice chair over Brehm’s choice and rejected her proposed bylaws. Tylden Shaeffer, the Republican district attorney nominee, said Brehm “lacks the moral authority to lead the party” and should resign.
In the Democratic Party, supporters of former chair Manuel Medina — who was crushed by new chair Monica Alcantara in March — have caused at least one meeting to collapse into a shouting match, while Alcantara acknowledged “growing pains.”