EL PASO, Texas — Ricardo Samaniego will lead El Paso County for four more years after voters returned the Democratic county judge to office Tuesday, and two fellow Democrats won open seats on Commissioners Court.
Samaniego, 77, took about 69% of the vote to roughly 31% for Minerva Torres Shelton, the 58-year-old Republican nominee and Army veteran who served as an El Paso police officer and an FBI supervisory agent. She campaigned on ordering an audit that would go through the county budget line by line in search of duplicate or unneeded spending.
Samaniego ran on economic development, arguing that drawing more employers and better-paying jobs would widen the commercial tax base and ease the load on homeowners. He has also said cutting the jail population is the way to rein in overtime costs. For his next term he listed growing the film industry, closer ties with Mexico and better access to health and mental health care.
In Precinct 2, which covers the city’s central neighborhoods and a portion of the Lower Valley, Democrat Miguel Mike Teran took 77% of the early vote over Republican Thomas M. Matt Sistrunk. In Precinct 4, covering West and Northeast El Paso plus Vinton, Westway, Canutillo and Anthony, nurse practitioner Annette Griego won about 65% against Republican Leonard Arcos.
The new commissioners take office Jan. 1. The court they join is facing a nearly $8 million overtime shortfall in the Sheriff’s Office budget for the county jails. Teran, a construction project management executive, had knocked off longtime Commissioner David Stout in March to win the Democratic nomination, and Griego unseated Commissioner Sergio Coronado. The county judge earns $152,725 a year and commissioners earn $133,466.
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