Precinct 2 and 4 candidates feeling confident, after attending community meeting
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — The El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization (EPISO) and Border Interfaith held its first in-person candidate accountability session Sunday since the pandemic.
The six El Paso County Commissioners Court candidates remaining in the May 24 primary runoff election for Precincts 2 and 4 were invited to the session where they were asked to state their position on policies such as colonias, education and economic development programs.
Richard Morgan who served in the marines for more than 30 years and now is a teacher wanted to see real action and commitment from the candidates.
"I’d be looking for transparency, I’d be looking for a concrete plan with metrics, something that they can be measured against and not just pie in the sky thoughts, but something tangible that we can hold them accountable to," Morgan said.
That was most of the sentiments from El Pasoans who attended the accountability meeting.
The Precincts still up for grabs in the election are 2 and 4. which covers northwest and west El Paso.
As well as central, south central and parts of east El Paso.
Blanca Trout, a candidate for Precinct 2 and Carl Robinson, the incumbent for Precinct 4, both declined to attend the meeting.
The incumbent for Precinct 2, David Stout, and Judy Gutiérrez, a candidate for Precinct 2, both attended the meeting.
Sergio Coronado and David Adams, are both candidates for Precinct 4, and they were in attendance.
"I thought it was a great meeting. I wish more organizations, people would take the time to inform themselves, of what their candidates are willing and wanting to do for the people... how you’re [candidates] aligning to my needs," Coronado said.
"These events are great, it’s an opportunity to engage with many people who are informed and who are voters and give them the opportunity to hear some of the things that we feel are important," Stout said.
The candidates were asked three yes or no questions:
- Would they support additional county funding, at least one million dollars over the next two years for project Arriba?
- Will they pledge to maintain or increase the level of county funding for the next round of support?
- Will they commit to meeting with leaders of EPISO and Border Interfaith within 30 days of taking office?
Three out of the four candidates answered yes to all the questions, except for David Adams, who took a business approach to the first question.
"I’m hoping to give 2 million dollars to this program, I think it’s fantastic what project arriba does, but I need to be realistic and not do false promises and hopes like politicians do. I’m a regular person I’m looking at it from a businessperson point of view," Adams said.
With the runoff election happening on May 24th all the candidates feel optimistic about their chances.
"I’m feeling very confident going into this election, but it’s going to be decided by probably 3 thousand voters unfortunately, that’s the history that we have," Gutiérrez said.
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