DISTRICT 7 RACE: Henry Rivera ousts Incumbent City Rep. Lily Limon

Henry Rivera has ousted incumbent City Representative Lily Limon. With more than 70 percent of precincts reporting, Rivera has received 62 percent of the vote to Limon’s 38 percent.

“I’m sure that coming in, he will have a full rein of projects he wants to establish, has really no previous experience at that level, but you know, you learn it. It’ll take a while, but you know, certainly, we’ll be looking,” Limon said after learning of the results.

“I’m humbled, because the voters of District 7 are sending out a message, they’re sending out a strong message. They want their representation back, and I plan to restore their representation and their trust in their representative,” Rivera said.

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Rivera is an officer with the El Paso Police Department. “Our current representative is under criminal investigation, and that was another issue that brought me to run for this district. So, as a sworn officer and her as a sworn elected official, I feel that was a major part of our concern. And because of that people have lost trust in the city council,” Rivera said.

Mayor Oscar Leeser and city Reps. Lily Limon, Cortney Niland, Jim Tolbert and Peter Svarzbein are accused of walking in and out of meetings with advocates of Duranguito neighborhood residents seeking to convince city officials to spare the area of demolition to make way for a $180 million arena. District Attorney Jaime Esparza has referred the case to the Texas Rangers for investigation.

Limon had denied any wrongdoing. “If I were to pick one project citywide that I think is critical is the resolution of the arena one way or another. We are hammered with a lot of issues that are coming as a result. I believe it is the same type of issue that divided this community with the stadium four years ago. In District 7, I can tell you that I want to see all of the quality-of-life projects completed as soon as we can possibly do that,” Limon said.

During the campaign, Rivera told ABC-7 he will work to keep taxes low and restore trust and respect to the city council.

“I plan to open up a satellite office to meet with the constituents here, work after hours and make myself available to them. And of course bring that trust and respect to District 7, as well as the city of El Paso because that criminal investigation really is a dark cloud over the city right now,” Rivera said.

Rivera and Limon both agreed District 7 is in dire need of streets repairs and both promise, during the campaign, to make that a priority.

“I’ve lived here for the last 30 years. Our streets are deplorable. Potholes and patchwork. I’ve found out that streets have gone unpaved for 43 years, I think the least years were 30 years that streets have not been paved. Some people don’t even have sidewalks,” Rivera said.