EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — There is a total of four El Paso City Council seats up for election.
District one, five, six and eight, KTSM 9 News taking a look at the candidate’s finance report filed with the city clerk. The report shows how much each candidate received in political campaign contributions.
The candidate who has raised the most overall not just out of his race, but all city council races is candidate for district one, Brian Kennedy who received more than $25,000 from Oct. 11 through the 30.
Political expert Dr. Richard Pineda and Director for the Sam Donaldson Center for Communications Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso saying money can play a role in elections.
“Either it’s a way for an opponent to point to somebody’s funders and say here’s the big money behind x person and this is a bad thing or there as been a little bit of rumbling about this in some of the city council races this time errors on the finance reports,” said Pineda.
The largest race is that for District one, with six people appearing on the ballot.
- Brian Kennedy — $25,685.00
- Analisa Cordova Silverstien –$10,512.88
- Deliris Montanez Berrios — $50
- Lauren Ferris – $1,434.02
- Erin Tague -$326
- Dave Jones – did not file
In district eight four people are vying for the seat. In this race Candidate Bettina Olivars raised the most in October with more than $10,000 raised.
- Bettina Olivaris – $10,640.00
- Chris Canales –$2,650.00
- Rich Wright — $6,962.00
- Cruz Morales Jr — name will appear on list of declared write-in candidates
In the district five-race, incumbent Isabel Salcido outraised her two challengers in October with close to $10,000.
- Incumbent Isabel Salcido – $9,812.15
- Richard Genera – $6,770.00
- Felix J. Munoz — $0.00
In district six, incumbent Claudia Rodriguez had a note on her campagin finance report saying the correct amount fundraised between September 29, 2022 and October 29, 2022 is $15,815. It also notes that a $5,000 donation was missing.
- Incumbent Claudia Lizette Rodriguez – $15,815
- Cristian Botello – $1,365.00
- Art Fierro – $14,925.00
- Benjamin J. Leyva – Did not file
Political expert Pineda adding that he is expecting runoffs in some city council races.
“What you are likely to see is probably one candidate that’s got a high number of turn around but not enough to cross that 50 plus one threshold,” said Pineda “I’m willing to bet on on our general trends that the second place person that’s going to be forced into a runoff is probably going to be substaiantlly a significant number away.”
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