Kennedy, Fierro, Canales win city council spots in runoff elections
EL PASO, Texas -- Brian Kennedy, Art Fierro, and Chris Canales have been named the winners in Saturday's runoff election that will fill three city council positions.
District 1
Kennedy, an attorney and former Director and CEO of the El Paso Coliseum and El Paso Sports Commission, has won the runoff election for the District 1 City Council position.
After gaining more than 40 percent of the vote during the Nov. 8 election, Kennedy almost won 70 percent of the vote in the runoff election on Saturday.
ABC-7 asked Kennedy about his priorities once he takes office.
"Well first obviously is budget, everybody wants to look at the budget and we have to look at the way they control taxes, but also the roads are despicable in district 1, and we need to get to work on that," he said.
Kennedy defeated his opponent, Analisa Cordova Silverstein, by more than 1,400 votes.
District 6
Fierro, a former state representative, defeated the incumbent Claudia Rodriguez by more than 300 votes.
Rodriguez had garnered almost 43 percent of the vote in November, just missing out on the majority she needed to win the election. Rodriguez had received more than 2,000 votes than Fierro on Nov. 8, but Saturday night was a different story.
In November, the District 6 race had almost 17,000 voters, but the runoff election only had just under 2,400 votes.
'The entire campaign has been about holding the city manager accountable, holding line on taxes, having an obligation... nothing voting on without voter approval, and even making sure that we preserve that and take care of Duranguito," said Fierro.
District 8
Canales, the Chief of Staff for current District 8 Representative Cissy Lizarraga, beat Bettina Olivares by about 700 votes.
Just like the District 6 race, Olivares had received more votes than her opponent during the Nov. 8 election, but not enough to win the majority, therefore causing a runoff.
Canales was able to garner 63 percent of the vote on Saturday.
Canales shared his goals as a city representative with ABC-7.
"There's the basic things, streets and parks, that I think are really important, and a lot of people care about," said Canales, "But there are other things that not a lot of the campaign's talked about. Accessibility, sustainability, lots of other areas where I think the City of El Paso can stand to make a lot of gains, and I want to start working on those right away."
