A good runoff result in San Antonio.
Ron Nirenberg
Ron Nirenberg, once an underfunded dark-horse, secured the District 8 seat in [last] Saturday’s runoff, overwhelmingly defeating establishment candidate Rolando Briones.
“It feels good knowing that in San Antonio, the message of grassroots, neighborhood-oriented politics is still what will carry the day — not money, not machine, but the citizens of District 8,” Nirenberg said. “I look forward to working with everyone who was so passionate about this race and this community, no matter which side of the campaign they fell on.”
Nirenberg won with nearly 55 percent of the vote — almost 10 points better than Briones. Atypical of run-off elections, Saturday’s numbers exceeded those of the general election on May 11 when Nirenberg became the de facto frontrunner.
Nirenberg ran a grassroots campaign staffed primarily by volunteers, including a contingent of energized college students and recent graduates, who he calls the future of San Antonio.
Briones’ campaign was a well-funded operation staffed by several well-known political consultants. The engineering firm owner spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own money and ran what’s likely to be the most expensive campaign for a council seat in the history of recent city politics.
Nirenberg, who is conventionally married and has a son, was on the receiving end of some nasty gay-baiting mailers. See BOR (twice) and Concerned Citizens for the details. Nirenberg (a Trinity alum and the general manger of 91.7 KRTU – Tigers represent!) nearly won outright in May, and we might have been spared Briones’ foolishness had he done so (Briones claimed the nasty mailers did not come from his campaign, for what it’s worth), so maybe his win in the runoff was predestined. It’s still sweet to see crap like that fail. I hope anyone else who might think to use such tactics, on their own behalf or on behalf of someone else, takes note.
Is it possible that a new political tactic is to have someone send out hate mail on an opponent in an attempt to rally support by the group that the mail is addressed to? I remember the Keryl Douglas campaign….I know we were on different sides of that race but I also know that the hate mail from the “ORGANIZATION OF ALL BLACK PASTORS WHO REPRESENT ALL BLACK VOTERS AND THE WILL OF GOD” or whatever they were called were a fictional organization and did not come from the Keryl Douglas campaign. Could it be that some people are taking advantage of that type of hate? Hmmmm???
The article just smells funny because both candidates were not gay and based on your post I don’t know what their sexual orientation would have ever been an issue?
You can’t believe everything you see in a campaign.