Following the Money May Reveal Where Candidates for Mayor Will Take San Angelo

SAN ANGELO, TX — No elected position at the City of San Angelo is tied to a political party, so the local political parties do not get involved directly supporting mayoral or city council candidates.

However, Tom Green County Republic Party Chairman Jeff Betty said just because the major political parties aren’t involved, it doesn’t mean the left or right, Democrat or Republican leanings of the candidates should be ignored.

“Whether we have good or bad government is still a political decision,” Betty said. “The City elections may be non-partisan, but it doesn’t preclude the candidates from having their ideas about big or small government.”

Betty noted that the large metro cities in Texas all have left-leaning city councils and mayors. “You rarely see Republicans in charge of cities over 30,000 in population,” he said. Below that number of population, Betty estimates the political leanings are all over the place, left and right.

David Currie is the Chair of the Tom Green County Democratic Party. Though this county voted for President Donald Trump with 72 percent of the vote, he’s proud that over 8,000 in the county voted against Trump, and for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“In this county, it has not been a fight between the partisan political parties,” Currie said. Instead, Currie said the statewide fight is between Tea Party Republicans and mainstream establishment Republicans, and that battle extends into San Angelo’s local politics.

Currie mentioned there are at least two city council candidates who are Tea Party picks: Steve Hampton and Anna Bartosh. Currie did not see any of the mayoral candidates as “Tea Party right,” though.

“We don’t have a big Left in Tom Green County,” he said. “The so-called partisan battle is inside the Republican Party between the Tea Party and the Establishment Republicans.”

As for the Tea Party, Currie said, “They say there’s plenty of money to fix problems, they (governments at local, state and federal level) just don’t spend the money the right way.”

“We’ve got water and road infrastructure problems here. It’s going to take money to fix,” Currie said. Currie suggested voters consider practical politicians.

“That’s why I like Drew Darby so much,” Currie said, noting that Darby solves problems and doesn’t “blow things up” for the Tea Party. Darby is the state representative whose district includes the city of San Angelo. “But the Tea Party thinks Darby is a RINO (Republican in Name Only),” Currie said.

Currie mentioned Hale County Judge Bill Coleman, who was quoted an op-ed in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal April 1 saying, “I’m not sure at this present time who [State Senator] Charles Perry represents, but I’m certain it’s not the interests of this county.” Currie said the judge’s concerns point to also a rural vs. rural divide still present in Texas politics not particularly addressed by Sen. Perry’s Tea Party approach.

Currie said San Angelo always votes for the practical candidate. “Remember David Dewhurst defeated Ted Cruz here,” he said, referring to the 2012 race for U.S. Senate that catapulted Cruz onto the national stage. Dewhurst was considered a moderate, problem-solving Establishment Republican. Cruz was the darling of the Tea Party in Texas.

“I hope our city elects practical people to solve problems and are smart enough too understand it takes money to solve problems,” Currie concluded.

For San Angelo, we attempted to shine light the left or right leanings of the mayoral candidates by digging deep into their personal political donations and the political donations of prominent contributors on each candidate’s donor list. 

What we found may surprise you.

We first looked at the candidates themselves and chronicled their political donations over the years. Brenda Gunter donates to establishment Republicans. Congressman Mike Conaway, who represents CD-11 that includes the City of San Angelo, received $1,000 from Gunter over the years. Her last donation to him was for $250 in 2013. Also notable, her campaign treasurer is Col. Charlie Powell. His wife, Joanne Powell, runs Conaway’s office in San Angelo. Powell donates $250 per year to Conaway’s campaign.

Gunter is also on record for a $500 donation to Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, in 2002. You can view Gunter’s political donations on OpenSecrets.org.

In her pronouncements, Gunter calls for smaller government. Her campaign slogan, after all, is  “Cut the Red Tape.” She’s against buying the First Financial National Bank building between the Bryants because, she said, more offices for the City means the City bureaucracy will hire more people and spend more of the taxpayers’ money on salaries. The FFNB building is proposed to become the new police station, something Gunter doesn’t think we need either.

Brenda Gunter’s Political Donations 

Politicians to whom the donors of Gunter also contributed

Candidate Tony Villarreal’s pronouncements in public are similar to Gunter’s. He declared on his website as well as at public forums that he is pro-business. “A vote for Tony is a vote to make San Angelo a safe place to live and an efficient place to do business,” states his website.

Villarreal’s record of political donations tells a different story, though. OpenSecrets.org has no record of any donations from Villarreal to Congressman Conaway, but he did give former Democratic Congressman Pete Gallego $250 in 2012.

Gallego is a former long-time-serving Texas State Representative for the border region, District 72, that includes Del Rio, Fort Stockton and Alpine. Gallego was a ringleader of the infamous “Killer Ds” in 2003. That is when all the Democrats in the Texas House and Senate fled Austin and hid out in Ardmore, Oklahoma to prevent the Republicans from having a quorum to pass then-Gov. Rick Perry’s conservative agenda in the Texas Legislature. 

More recently, in 2014, Gallego lost his congressional seat in CD-23, the sprawling land mass that stretches along the Texas-Mexico border from San Antonio to Alpine, to Republican Will Hurd. Gallego challenged Hurd again in 2016 and narrowly lost.

Being a long-time resident of Fort Stockton, giving a donation to the former representative with whom you had worked in the official capacity as mayor of Fort Stockton is understandable, and may not necessarily be an indicator of Villarreal leaning leftward with liberals like Gallego. However, OpenSecrets.org also reveals that Villarreal gave $750 to the Democratic Party of Texas in 2009.

Villarreal’s political donors tilt leftward. There is attorney Albert Valadez of Fort Stockton. He’s on record at OpenSecrets.org with $750 donated to Pete Gallego and $250 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Another one of Villarreal’s donors, Keith Dial of Odessa, gave money to Gallego and the Democratic State Central Committee of California.

The most interesting donor on Villarreal’s latest campaign finance report is from Rudy Rodriguez. According to OpenSecrets.org, a Rudy Rodriguez with the same zip code lists his employer as Republic Services while other donations from the same name and zip code lists him as the owner of a firm called R 4 Strategies. On one LinkedIn.com profile, Rodriguez is listed as the Manager, Governmental Affairs at Republic Services, Inc. On a second LinkedIn.com profile, Rodriguez is the proprietor of R4 Strategies, a political consulting firm that lists Republic Services as a client on its website. 

Rodriguez gave Villarreal $250, but prior to that gave $1,000 to the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Mr. Rodriguez also contributed thousands to former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez (D), Henry Cuellar (D), and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He also gave $250 to the Democratic Party of Texas’ rising star, Joaquin Castro.

Rodriguez played on the other side of the fence once, according to OpenSecrets.org. He gave Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, $1,000 in 2013.

Tony Villarreal’s Political Donations 

Politicians to whom the donors of Villarreal also contributed

Source: OpenSecrets.org

Mayoral candidate Zach Taylor doesn’t have any donors and he has no records of making political donations on OpenSecrets.org. Taylor said he didn’t want to mess with all the paperwork involved with listing donors, so he never solicited campaign contributions. 

“I’m actually libertarian. When it comes to economic issues, I’m Republican. On social issues, I generally lean left,” Taylor said, when asked about his partisan political views.

Candidate Charlotte Farmer doesn’t have any political donations listed on OpenSecrets.org.

“I’m a registered Republican, but never give more than $250 in political contributions,” Farmer said. She said she was a supporter of Conaway and Governor Rick Perry. “But I gave small donations, what I could afford,” she said.

“I think Mike Conway is wonderful and he still has the people at heart and doing what is right,” Farmer said.

“To be honest, in municipal government, I ride the fence because I want to hear all voices and not alienate those who don’t agree with me on national politics,” Farmer said.

Farmer also said that if City government tilted too far to the left or right, it is beneficial to have a strong voice from the weaker side equal out the decision-making.

Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, just because the City elections are non-partisan doesn’t mean the candidates are non-partisan. How they approach solving problems will rest upon their core principles. One way to determine where the candidate’s heart resides is to follow the money.