A combination of partisan interests, a large number of candidates and a proliferation of PACs supporting them likely made San Antonio\u2019s 2025 mayoral race the most expensive in the city\u2019s history, local political consultants say. <\/p>\n
Final campaign finance reports for candidates and outside groups were due Tuesday, though some stragglers still had not filed as of Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201c[San Antonio] has never seen that kind of money,\u201d said Kelton Morgan, a longtime San Antonio political strategist who has worked for candidates or PACs in nearly all of the city\u2019s recent municipal elections, including for tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano in this year\u2019s mayoral race.<\/p>\n
The price tag on a mayoral campaign has been steadily rising for years, with multiple candidates cracking the $1 million mark<\/a> in individual fundraising for the expensive race 2015 to replace Juli\u00e1n Castro.<\/p>\n The 2019 race between Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Greg Brockhouse also broke some new ground in how local races are funded, with unusually high PAC spending<\/a> from the police and fire unions.<\/p>\n But this year\u2019s race to replace Nirenberg \u2014 San Antonio\u2019s first mayoral contest without an incumbent in eight years \u2014 drew at least eight candidates<\/a> with either recent political experience, self-funding capabilities or connections to Republican or Democratic party leaders that don\u2019t typically get involved in nonpartisan municipal races. <\/p>\n \u201cCampaigns overall are becoming more expensive \u2026 but it feels like this election was also just sort of a proxy for what was going on in national politics,\u201d said San Antonio political consultant Laura Barberena, who pointed to Republicans\u2019 wave election just six months before the mayor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n From a field of 27 candidates<\/a>, this year much of the attention centered around former Air Force Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones, a favorite of national Democrats who\u2019ve long sought to promote her as a future leader, and former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, a close ally of two Texas Republican governors.<\/p>\n Pablos spent about $770,000 on the race, while another $1.5 million was spent on his behalf by a PAC aligned with Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> that hoped to build a bench for Republican talent in some traditionally blue territory. He received another $360,000 in help from the San Antonio Police Officers\u2019 Union.<\/p>\n Jones\u2019 campaign spent a total of roughly $700,000, while left-leaning PACs spent at least $590,000 on her behalf, according to a San Antonio Report analysis. <\/p>\n She received help from national Democrats\u2019 Fields of Change PAC \u2014 aimed at promoting a new generation of Democratic leaders \u2014 as well as the statewide progressive group Texas Organizing Project, the Texas Democratic Party and even the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n Together, between the candidates and their supporting PACs, Jones and Pablos had at least $3.8 million spent helping them throughout the course of the election.<\/p>\n Barberena said it\u2019s unclear whether that aggressive spending is the new normal, but suggested the attention this year\u2019s race received from state and national political interests could signal the \u201cdawn of a new era\u201d in local elections.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone is realizing that the way we take back our national politics is to go local,\u201d Barberena said. \u201cSo I think a lot more groups are going to be focused on some of these local races.\u201d<\/p>\n PAC mentality <\/p>\n In a crowded race, this year none of the candidates\u2019 individual fundraising reached the $1 million mark strategists have come to consider the going rate for a successful mayoral campaign. <\/p>\n But that didn\u2019t stop a number of them from finding creative ways to fund the expensive political efforts needed to reach voters in a low-turnout election.<\/p>\n Altamirano, former District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez and former Councilman Clayton Perry all put significant personal dollars into their campaigns<\/a> \u2014 money that isn\u2019t subject to the city\u2019s $1,000 individual contribution limit.<\/p>\n At the same time, Altamirano, Pelaez and Jones all received help from PACs<\/a> that either did not legally have to disclose their donors, or reported large sums of money funneled through other groups. <\/p>\n