4 candidates vying for El Paso City Council District 3 seat on November ballot
EL PASO< Texas -- Four candidates are running on the Nov. 5 ballot to represent District 3 on the El Paso City Council.
District 3 represents parts of the Lower Valley and East El Paso.
The seat is currently held by city rep. Cassandra Hernandez.
Hernandez was elected to the seat in 2017 after serving as the President and Vice President of the Rosedale Neighborhood Association from 2014 to 2017.
However, the city enforced the "Resign to Run" rule when a post on Cassandra Hernandez's Facebook allegedly announced she was running for mayor. By announcing another campaign, the rule states the city representative had forfeited her seat on the city council.
Hernandez maintains someone else was responsible for the post and it was deleted.
The city council decided on an election anyway and said Hernandez would be allowed to run to keep her seat.
On October 29, Hernandez filed her campaign finances. Candidates report finances 30 days before the election and eight days before.
In the eight-day report, Hernandez reported $14,950 in contributions. The report said she had a current balance of nearly $7,500.
Her highest contribution was $2,000, but she also had smaller campaign contributions from the El Paso Apartment Assocation and the El Paso Firefighters Association Local 51.
Three other people have since signed up to run against her.
Ana M. Duenez applied to run at the deadline and will be placed second on the ballot. She is a former board secretary for the Ysleta ISD Board of Trustees.
Duenez did not report any campaign contributions or expenses.
William Veliz will be placed third.
He has served on the city's zoning board, as well as the police and firemen pension fund. Veliz listed his job as a real estate agent.
Veliz recently made headlines due to a warrant out for his arrest. However, the fine associated with the warrant was paid and it was recalled.
The warrant was issued for a speeding ticket from October 2018, where Veliz was pulled over for driving nearly twice the speed limit in a 15 mph zone.
The candidate says the warrant was a result of lack of communication.
"It is unfortunate that the Municipal Courts and County courts don't communicate towards the status of warrants. Also that there is a failure of notification of warrants, as I have heard from District 3 residents, it has happened to them as well," Veliz said in a statement issued to ABC-7.
Veliz reported $15,157 in contributions with a balance of nearly $1700.
His largest contributions were $5,000 each: one from Robert and Elizabeth Veliz, and another from Richard Castro.
In the final spot on the ballot, Brooks Vandivort - an El Paso native who was previously the chairman of the City Planning Committee.
Vandivort is reporting $570 in contributions. He says his campaign has a balance of $2,000. His largest contribution is $250 from Historian Max Grossman.
Early voting kicked off on October 21 and will last until November 1. Election day is November 5.
