Jim Tolbert avoids runoff, elected new city representative
Update: (8:45 p.m.) Jim Tolbert continues to lead with 59 percent of the 1,211 votes (719 votes) with 8 of 24 Precincts reporting.
Unofficial early voting shows that Jim Toblert leads the races for District 2. Tolbert has received 59.01% of the 949 votes cast.
The next closest candidate is Cemelli De Aztlan with 12.12% of the votes.
Eight candidates are vying for the Central El Paso city council seat left vacant by Rep. Larry Romero, who resigned in February after suffering a stroke.
Romero was the target of an ethics investigation and earlier this month agreed to sign a letter of reprimand after the city’s Ethics Review Commission found he violated an ethics ordinance for his role in the resurfacing of streets in his district.
Romero remains on holdover status per state law, and is still getting paid.
The eight candidates include Jim Tolbert, whom Romero beat in the 2013 municipal election. Tolbert filed the ethics complaint against Romero.
The candidates running for the City Council District 2 seat are:
Dolores Garcia Baca
Gordon Ray Thatcher
Angel Del Toro
In a interview with ABC-7 Saturday night Tolbert said he’s ready to focus on some of the issues that he feels need to addressed.
“We’ve been stagnant for two, three years, we haven’t been moving on quality of life projects. We haven’t been moving on economic development. We haven’t been moving on some of our infrastructure problems and we need to start doing more for our small businesses so it’s time to get things moving again,” Tolbert said.
The certified results will be ready from the county elections administrator Monday May 16.
Tolbert could be sworn in to take office within two weeks following those results.
