Harlingen City Commission races head to runoffs, props pass
Nov. 5—HARLINGEN — Three city commissioners are heading for runoffs while voters passed all 22 propositions on the ballot, including a measure giving the mayor a vote on the commission.
In the city's most hotly contested election in decades, Commissioner Michael Mezmar and attorney Frank Lozano are heading for a runoff in the District 3 race.
In the District 4 race, Commissioner Frank Morales and former Commissioner Basilio "Chino" Sanchez are locked in runoff while District 4 Commissioner Rene Perez is facing reserve constable Nikki Alvarez Daniell.
In the battle for the District 3 seat, with 71% of the vote at 10:30 p.m., Mezmar, a financial advisor who first won office in 2012, pulled 1,196 votes while Lozano drew 1,106 votes, with Jennifer Vasquez Colten, who works as Texas State Technical College Foundation's executive director of advancement operations, falling short with 933 votes and Steven Ritter, a pilot, dropping out of the race with 757 votes.
In District 4's scramble, with 80% of the vote at 10:30 p.m., Morales, a semi-retired salesman bidding for a second term, won 1,073 votes while Sanchez, a retired newspaper production technician who served as a commissioner from 2012 to 2015, took 683 votes, with Dagoberto Pena, an investigator with the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, finishing with 476 votes and B.T. Vargas, a business owner, picking up 319 votes.
In the contest for the District 5 seat, Perez, a schoolteacher bidding for a second term, pulled 1,962 votes, or 47%, while Daniell, a Cameron County Precinct 5 reserve deputy constable, drew 1,385 votes, with former City Commissioner Ruben De La Rosa, a Texas Southmost College instructor who served as a commissioner from 2015 to 2021, falling short with 820 votes.
A proposition asking voters to decide whether the city should give the mayor a vote turned into one the election's hottest issues.
In Harlingen's most sweeping City Charter election since 2006, with 88% of the vote at 10:30 p.m., 11,416 voters cast ballots supporting Proposition C, the amendment giving the mayor a vote on the commission, while 5,919 voted against the measure.
While some residents opposed the proposition, claiming the proposal could spur deadlocks in the case of tied votes, Sepulveda pushed for measure.
Noting the mayor runs at-large, she argued giving the mayor a vote on the commission would help better represent residents while giving them insight in the mayor's position on issues.
-
Featured Local Savings
