Former Mayor Ron Nirenberg is waging a main problem towards Bexar County Choose Peter Sakai — a fellow Democrat who Nirenberg says doesn’t have the imaginative and prescient to steward a quickly rising county.
“I don’t suppose that that workplace is performing the best way it ought to. It’s been reactionary to main points. And albeit, we want robust management,” Nirenberg informed the San Antonio Report of his choice this week.
In recent times throughout the state, historically bureaucratic county judgeships have seen long-time incumbents changed with extra formidable, and in some instances extra partisan, successors.
Outspoken progressive Lina Hidalgo shocked political watchers by unseating longtime Republican Harris County Choose Ed Emmett in 2018. Then in 2022, voters selected Republican firebrand Tim O’Hare to succeed longtime Tarrant County Choose Glen Whitley.
Nirenberg went toe-to-toe with GOP state leaders many instances as mayor, however steered that isn’t essentially his intention in changing Sakai.
“The county choose has the bully pulpit and has the flexibility to set the tone for this whole group,” Nirenberg stated. “It doesn’t imply we’re in search of a battle, however it does imply that typically we’ve acquired to finish them.”
However he agreed that throughout Texas, different counties are approaching the position in a different way.
“I believe that the type of power, innovation and teamwork which are represented by a few of these new leaders in counties, is a chance to take a look at Bexar County in an identical method,” he stated.
Nirenberg marketing campaign launch
A marketing campaign launch get together on Saturday exuded power and enthusiasm as roughly 200 supporters ate pizza whereas a stay band performed at Yard on Broadway.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) and state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) had been a part of a speaker lineup aimed toward underscoring Nirenberg’s management expertise, environmental advocacy and progressive credentials from eight years as San Antonio mayor.
“Ron pushed ahead on the problems that outline what it means to be a contemporary, inclusive metropolis,” McKee-Rodriguez informed attendees. “That’s the management that we want in any respect ranges of presidency.”
Bexar County confronted its personal management shift in 2022 when longtime County Choose Nelson Wolff retired after greater than 20 years within the position.
In a three-way main with two youthful, extra partisan Democrats working, voters selected Sakai, a reasonable, longtime district courtroom choose finest recognized for his work on the Kids’s Court docket.
He got here in with a imaginative and prescient of refocusing restricted county assets round its core obligations — overseeing the courts, jail and elections — one thing he says he’s proud to have made progress towards up to now three years.
Nirenberg, then again, says the county has the potential to do extra.
Below Wolff, for instance, it added a county supervisor, professionalized the workplace and used COVID-19 reduction {dollars} to dive into psychological well being companies.
“That was maybe one in every of Nelson’s strengths,” Nirenberg stated. “He didn’t restrict the position of the choose’s workplace to what was merely written in blueprint from the folks earlier than him, he actually regarded on the area and what this area wanted, and he scoped the work of the county choose accordingly. That’s what I want to do as nicely.”
Wolff, who endorsed Sakai as his successor in 2022, stated Saturday that this time he’s backing Nirenberg, with whom he labored carefully all through the COVID-19 disaster.
“As he goes into this workplace, he’ll open up the doorways, usher in contemporary air and produce mild to the room,” Wolff stated. “He’s the person for the job.”
Sakai had about $435,000 in his marketing campaign account as of July, whereas Nirenberg is rebuilding from scratch.
Submitting for the March 3 main opened this month and closes Dec. 8, that means extra candidates might nonetheless be part of the race.
Blue-on-blue race
Sakai, for his half, says that if Nirenberg needs to repair the massive issues going through Bexar County, he ought to strive working towards a Republican as an alternative.
Proper now the GOP controls each lever of energy in Washington and Austin, and simply redrew Texas’ congressional maps to select up much more seats in 2026.
“I discover it fascinating that, [with] … the cuts to Inexpensive Care Act subsidies, the cuts to Medicaid, the cuts to SNAP, the cuts to all the essential companies that, by the vast majority of Congress proper now, are shifting ahead, Ron Nirenberg has chosen to tackle me as county choose — a Dem versus a Dem fray,” Sakai stated on a panel on the Texas Tribune Competition on Friday.
At one level, taking up Republicans gave the impression to be Nirenberg’s purpose.
First he hit the path with Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful presidential marketing campaign, then sources say he was leaning towards difficult Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
He launched a federal PAC close to the top of his mayoral tenure, after which in September registered a state PAC known as Texans for Ron Nirenberg, which he stated would offer a fundraising car for no matter comes subsequent.
Requested about these deliberations this week, Nirenberg stated that he had been in search of the chance the place he might do probably the most good.
“As I’ve gone by this discernment interval, the query in my thoughts has all the time been, the place can I be most useful and impactful to maneuver our group ahead?” he stated.
“There’s great alternative for us to raise by native management, and that’s the work I understand how to do, and that’s the work, frankly, I believe, is an important,” he continued. “We are able to dream of getting our politics on this nation and on this state on monitor, but when we are able to’t do this in our personal yard, none of it issues.”
