What’s in a name? City council runoff opponent suggests confusion over similarity to previous politician

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- With early voting already underway for the runoff election, a question of how campaigning has been handled and name recognition, or possible confusion, is at play in the El Paso District 3 City Council race.

"That's my name," said District 3 runoff candidate Jose Rodriguez.

Rodriguez says he has been running his campaign based on interaction with the community - and not any name similarity with previous political notables in the area.

"The few times I have been asked 'Hey are you the Jose Rodriguez that was state senator?' And of course I said no, no, no," Rodriguez said.

But Rodriguez's opponent, Deanna Maldonado-Rocha, feels it is a substantive issue for the runoff campaign.

"I'm still having to address a name recognition issue that I have with my opponent," Maldonado-Rocha said, "but other than that, that's, for the most part, from my perspective, been a very successful campaign."

She says she was anticipating a runoff with the field of five candidates in the November general election, but was not expecting who her opponent would be. 

"I think the most surprising thing for me was because, because my opponent hasn't campaigned," Maldonado-Rocha said. "He hasn't filed a finance report. So there's been zero fundraising, zero expenses, according to -- I'm just assuming, because there's no finance report."

Rodriguez is the only city council candidate making it to the runoff that hasn't filed updated campaign finance reports. Instead, he filed an initial declaration of intending not to accept donations of nor spending more than $1,080 in total. Rodriguez says he's stayed far within that limit, only printing sets of cards and calendar flyers for his campaign, and handing them out to voters he meets.

"I didn't need that much," Rodriguez said. "I needed to meet the people - that's it"

Maldonado-Rocha feels the lack of spending underscores the name recognition issue. She has been sending out mailers and text-message campaigns, stating in part "DONT BE MISLED! My opponent shares the same name as the former senator, but it isn't him. He has no experience and no plan. That's why he hasn't done any campaigning."

"What I have been hearing from residents within the district," Maldonado-Rocha said, "is that they believed that they were voting for the former senator."

ABC-7 asked Rodriguez directly if he has been using the name similarity to his advantage.

"Not at all," Rodriguez said. "I always say I'm a realtor. And I say, if they ask me flat out, 'Are you Jose Rodriguez, the ex-state senator?' 'No. I'm not.' I'm a realtor. I've never run for office. I've never held any political office. And that settles it."

But he takes issue with his opponent's messaging campaign about his name.

"It's equivalent to dirty politics," Rodriguez said. "They're grasping at straws because I'm going to get a lot of votes again. Maybe not the majority, but I'm going to get a lot of votes because of this, because of that. But mainly because I'm meeting people face to face. Okay. That's my main thing."

As for Maldonado-Rocha, she plans to keep the campaign going strong through election day.

"I still need to keep doing my part," Maldonado-Rocha said. I still need to keep knocking on those doors and making those phone calls. And so I feel like it's it's it's not I can't take it for granted that that is going to happen. So I still need to keep my foot on the gas."