(C) El Paso Matters.org This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Who is funding campaigns in races for sheriff, district attorney and state representative races in El Paso [1] ['El Paso Matters Staff', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] Date: 2024-05-22 Donors have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the May 28 runoff election that could determine the future of county law enforcement and El Paso’s representation in the Texas Legislature. Early voting began Monday, May 20, and runs through Friday, May 24. Two Democratic district attorney candidates are running to face appointed Republican incumbent Bill Hicks in the November general election: Alma Trejo, 59, who served as judge for El Paso County Criminal Court No. 1 from 2002 until she resigned last fall to run for DA, and James Montoya, a 33-year-old El Paso County public defender. Since entering the race last summer, Montoya has raised just over $114,000 as of May 19 – $45,000 of that since the March primary. He’s taken out $75,000 in loans and has spent nearly $194,000 on the race, including $94,000 of his own money either with credit cards or his personal funds. Trejo, meanwhile, has mostly self-funded her campaign after entering the DA race last October, months after Montoya. Trejo has raised nearly $66,000 in campaign donations, and about $31,000 since the March primary. Trejo took out $12,500 in loans, and she’s outspent Montoya by pouring $262,000 in the race – including $191,000 of her own money as of May 19. Montoya’s top donors during the campaign include Steve Ortega, a lawyer and former city representative, who contributed $2,500 last year and another $2,500 in April. Noe Valles, a Lubbock-based attorney with the Glasheen, Valles & Inderman injury law firm, gave Montoya $5,000 last month. Valles also donated $5,000 to candidate Nancy Casas’ campaign in February before she lost in the March primary. Casas subsequently endorsed Montoya. Attorney Eduardo Solis has given four donations to Montoya’s campaign since last summer totaling $3,500. And Linda Estrada, a magistrate judge, gave Montoya $3,000 last July. Rebecca Tarango, a current prosecutor in the DA’s office working on the Walmart case, donated $500 to Montoya in March after giving $240 to his campaign last year. Democratic state Rep. Joe Moody has been Trejo’s biggest donor so far after he gave her campaign a total of $5,000 in four donations since last October, plus his law firm Moody & Sahualla donated another $1,000 to Trejo. Other significant donors include attorney Sam Legate, who gave Trejo $2,500 earlier this month, and the Lozano Meza Law Firm, which contributed $3,000. Businessman Juan Mimbela, owner of the construction firm Mimbela Contractors, also gave $3,000 to Trejo’s campaign. Mimbela’s donations to Trejo are notable because Mimbela has helped support Daniel Villegas, who served 18 years in prison before his conviction on capital murder charges related to a 1993 shooting was overturned in 2018. Montoya was the prosecutor in the 2018 trial against Villegas, who argued in a recent op-ed that Montoya wrongly fought to keep an innocent man jailed. Montoya has said there was probable cause to proceed with that trial, but he respected the verdict. Earlier this year, Trejo also received $1,100 combined from the three lawyers defending the suspect in the 2019 racist mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart against the state’s death penalty case. Moody, meanwhile, is a vocal opponent of the death penalty. Hicks, 54, was named district attorney by Gov. Greg Abbott in late 2022 after the region’s previous DA resigned in disgrace. Hicks has not had to file campaign finance reports this year because he was unopposed in the Republican primary race. In 2023, Hicks generated just under $11,300 from 39 donations. That included a $2,500 donation from Salvador Perches, owner of Perches Funeral Homes. Hicks, who spent about $8,850 in political expenditures last year, will have to submit updated campaign finance reports in July. Fundraising in the sheriff’s race In the race for the next El Paso County sheriff, Robert “Bobby” Flores outraised his competitor Oscar Ugarte by about $37,000 ahead of the runoff election. Flores raised $90,887, including $15,000 he loaned his campaign, $6,400 in pledges and $3,000 of in-kind contributions. Ugarte raised about $54,000 ahead of the runoff including about $2,300 in in-kind donations. Ugarte has loaned his campaign $35,000. Key contributors to Flores include $1,000 donations from individuals such as real-estate developer Robert Foster, developer Douglas Schwartz and co-owner of Tropicana Homes Randall Bowling. Flores received a $2,000 donation from local businessman Stanley Jobe. He also received thousands from political action committees including $5,000 from the Texas Association of Realtors, $8,000 from the El Paso Municipal Police Officers Association and $5,000 from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Officers Association. The sheriff’s association also contributed to Ugarte’s campaign with a $10,000 contribution. Ugarte received several $1,000 donations from individuals such as Mayor Oscar Leeser, city Rep. Brian Kennedy, Lane Gaddy, CEO of W Silver Recycling, and Rick Francis, chair of WestStar Bank. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, contributed $2,000 and he also received $2,500 from Woody and Gayle Hunt. State representative race In the race to represent Texas House District 77 – which covers much of El Paso – in the Texas Legislature, Democratic candidate Norma Chávez reported receiving more than $55,100, according to a campaign finance report filed Monday. She received multiple donations from law enforcement-related organizations including several from the El Paso Sheriff’s Officers Association totaling $12,000, $2,500 from the El Paso Association Of Fire Fighters, $2,000 from the Combined Law Enforcement Agencies of Texas PAC and $2,000 from the El Paso Municipal Police Officers PAC. The candidate also got several donations from local business owners and developers such as $5,000 from Jobe, the owner of Jobe Materials, and $3,000 from Enrique Escobar, a developer with ESCO Properties. Chávez also received $2,500 from the Citizens for Agricultural Development PAC, $1,000 from the Charter Schools Now PAC, $1,000 from the Texas Consumer Finance Association PAC, and $1,000 from the Texas Cornerstone Credit Union League PAC. Her opponent, Vincent Perez, collected nearly double what Chávez did, raising more than $100,600 in contributions, according to a campaign finance report filed Tuesday. Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC, a tort reform organization that aims to limit lawsuits against corporations, was his largest contributor making several donations totaling $35,000. He received several donations from local business owners and well-known entrepreneurs, including real estate developers Paul Foster and Woody Hunt, who gave $17,500 and $7,500, respectively. Additionally, Perez received $10,500 from the Texas Association of Realtors PAC, $2,500 from the Texas Lobby Partners and $1,000 from the El Paso Electric Employee PAC. 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