San Angelo Police Chief Race Likely to Result in Runoff

The election for San Angelo police chief will likely be decided in the runoff election, San Angelo LIVE! poll results indicate. There are four candidates in the race, including incumbent San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez.

Challenging Vasquez are two current SAPD lieutenants, Frank Carter and Mike Hernandez, as well as former SAPD officer Jeff Davis.

In a poll conducted by Google Surveys from April 12-14 that screened 517 likely voters, Mike Hernandez and Vasquez are in a statistical dead heat for the lead.

Figure 1: overall results of the Google poll conducted April 12-14 of 517 self-identified likely voters:

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Figure 2: results of the Google poll conducted April 12-14 of 517 self-identified likely voters, males:

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Figure 3: results of the Google poll conducted April 12-14 of 517 self-identified voters, females:

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Those participating in the poll who were tagged as definitely located within the San Angelo Designated Market Area mirror the overall poll results.

Table 1: Poll results from respondents who Google definitely identified as being located within the San Angelo DMA when participating in the poll.

The poll has a margin of error of approximately +/- 4 percentage points. It gathered a random convenience sample from readers of San Angelo LIVE! and screened each participant with the question, “Will you be voting in the May 7 City of San Angelo Police Chief election?” before asking for their preference.

While Google asked respondents to voluntarily indicate whether they will be voting in the election, Google attempts to identify the location from where the survey is being taken. Many mobile providers identify the location of smartphones in major metro areas like Austin or Dallas, not San Angelo, even though the phone is actually located within the San Angelo city limits. We have manually shown the subset of number of votes Google reports are definitely located within the San Angelo DMA to transparently reveal where the poll votes were collected (see table 1).

In order to win the May 7 election outright and not have a runoff, one candidate must earn 50 percent plus one vote. Click here to view the poll's data on Google.

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Above: ASU professor Jack Barbour, Foster Communications reporter Denise Bloomquist moderate the discussion with the police chief candidates. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde) 

The police chief candidates last met at the City of San Angelo-sponsored candidates’ forum Thursday, April 14. Campaign finance was addressed, particularly of Lt. Frank Carter and Jeff Davis. An Odessa family donated $30,000 to Carter’s campaign, and Davis said he used $69,500 of his own money to finance his.

San Angelo Standard-Times reporter Rashda Khan asked Carter about his Odessa donors who financed nearly 75 percent of his campaign (watch video).

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Above: ASU student Miah Wagnon, Conexion Hispania reporter Joanna Martinez, and newspaper reporter Rashda Khan. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

“Good question. They’re good friends of mine. Yes, they’re from the Odessa area, but as a family here, they own four houses in San Angelo. Probably each one of them valued at over $500,000 a piece, so they pay their taxes. They employ people [who] take care of their lawn; [they have] local employees who build swimming pools and renovations and everything [like that]. They’re great friends of mine,” Carter said.

Davis was asked if the $69,500 he reported as his own contribution to his campaign was really his money (watch video). Specifically, will Davis release his tax returns to prove that money was his?

He answered, “I’m glad you asked that because, you know, a lot of times we have to make sacrifices for your community and the things that you believe in. You know, my family, they’re going through the same thing I’m doing. We made the sacrifices because we believe in the people [who] are sitting in this room, that are in this community, and we love every one of them. And God’s been good to us, and he gave us a gift, and we’re sharing it with you so you’ll have a choice.”

Chief Tim Vasquez agreed to share his tax returns. Davis will share his also. “You’re more than welcome to see my tax returns,” Carter added.

The local paper’s reporter then went after Mike Hernandez for his use of his nickname “Burrito” in campaign materials (watch video).  Khan asked, “You have a nickname of ‘Burrito’. How did you get it, and do you find that culturally offensive?”

Hernandez attempted to knock down the politically correctness with humor.

“Not at all. It’s a sign of respect. And it is from the days when I worked in the gang unit in the early ‘90s, when I got Officer of the Year (award) a couple of times. They just chose a food. And what I’d like to say when people ask is, it’s because everybody likes burritos. If you’re watching your carbs, it’s a corn tortilla for less calories. And, if you don’t like chorizo, you get barbacoa. So, everybody likes burritos,” Hernandez said.

Conexion Hispania reporter Joanna Martinez asked if there was a problem within the department with transparency and trust. (watch here).

Hernandez made an issue of Police Chief Vasquez briefing the media on an officer-involved shooting on Sept. 11, 2014. Hernandez argued that Vasquez’s statement at the time released information that interfered with the ongoing Texas Rangers investigation.

“That’s being too transparent to the point that we may be tainting the investigation,” Hernandez said. (See the story and video about the Sept. 11, 2014 officer-involved shooting as a result of a domestic violence call.)

Vasquez was adamant that it is the police chief’s responsibility to tell the citizens what is happening with their police department.

“You, as taxpayers and as citizens, if your police department is involved in a shooting, you expect to hear from me as swiftly and as precisely about what is about to happen and what has happened. And I have held that commitment to our community from day one. And I will hold that [commitment] until the day I am no longer chief. I owe you the transparency that you ask [for], and that you deserve. And that’s what I will continue to do. Period. The Texas Rangers don’t run the San Angelo Police Department; you do (pointing at the audience). I answer to you, not them,” Vasquez said.