Race for County Commissioners Court Precinct 1
EL PASO, TX (KVIA) -- Election Day is just one week away, meaning that a lot of the races here in El Paso are starting to heat up.
Precinct 1 will have a new representative in Commissioners Court for the first time in 12 years, with Carlos Leon announcing he will not be running for re-election.
There are three candidates who are running for the open seat: Claudia Rodriguez, Jackie Arroyo Butler, and Ryan Woodcraft.
Woodcraft is the only one out of the three who does not have prior government experience. He is a 20 year military vet with 5 rotations to the Middle East.
When asked about what his plan for Precinct 1 is he said, "Really taking a look at where some of those overlaps or inefficiencies that we can work on while, you know, planning strategically for the future, how do we achieve a balanced budget at the no new revenue, no new revenue tax rate next year and beyond?"
Rodriguez was a city council representative from 2019-2022 for District 6 here in El Paso. She is running as a Republican and wants to use her prior experience in city council to help her moving forward.
"Unlike my opponent, I've actually walked the walk. Unlike my opponent. I know what it's like to make hard decisions. Unlike my opponent, I know the issues that are really hurting my community and unlike the current, county commissioner, again, I will bring a different perspective, a conservative perspective to that seat."
Arroyo Butler is currently the Senior Policy Advisor for Leon's Precinct 1 office. She believes that El Paso needs the experience for county decision making, rather than city hall and municipalities. Her main priority is to address infrastructure issues that face all of Precinct 1.
"Being able to to to address those real, critical infrastructure needs that we still have within El Paso County while making sure that we're not placing an undue burden on taxpayers and keeping, taxes as low as possible for those who live on fixed incomes."
Early voting ends on Friday, November 1st, with Election Day coming on November 5th. For any election related stories, you can find them linked here.
