SAN ANTONIO (AP) — San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will stay on the job for at least another two years after sweeping to an easy victory over six challengers.
Castro collected two-thirds of the vote Saturday, which was less than the more than 80 percent he received two years ago but was nonetheless a strong show of support by voters.
Castro, whose twin brother is Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, also of San Antonio, was first elected in 2009 to what’s officially a nonpartisan office. He gained national prominence with his keynote address at last summer’s Democratic National Convention.
In the Houston area, a nearly $498 million bond issue sought by the Lone Star College System was defeated. Voters from Harris, Montgomery and San Jacinto counties also ousted two of three incumbents from the college system board.
Backers of the bond said it would have paid for improvements to numerous campuses.
In the Dallas suburb of Plano, a former city councilman, Harry LaRosiliere, claimed victory over Collin County Republican Chair Fred Moses to become the city’s first black mayor.
Voters also cleared the way for sale of liquor in stores within city limits. Previously, only beer and wine could be sold legally in Plano.
Also in Dallas, Jennifer Staubach Gates, whose father is former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, won a seat on the City Council.
In Fort Worth, a normally obscure water district board election attracted more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from wealthy landowners trying to take control of the board.
It failed when two incumbents on the Tarrant Regional Water District Board won re-election.
Opponents had focused on the $2.3 billion Integrated Pipeline, a joint project between the Tarrant Regional Water District and Dallas that would bring water from Lake Palestine to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The Tarrant Regional Water District is one of the largest raw-water suppliers in Texas, with operations spanning 11 counties. Ranchers have been trying to stop one of its pipeline projects in East Texas that cuts across their land.
Voters in the Austin school district rejected two of four bond proposals, marking the first time bond issues there have failed in 25 years. The $892 million package was the largest bond proposal ever put before voters in Central Texas.
One of the failed proposals would have included money for a 500-seat performing arts center at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, which opponents portrayed as a luxury the city couldn’t afford. The other failed proposal would have created an all-boys school.
In El Paso, car dealer Oscar Leeser and City Councilman Steve Ortega will vie in a runoff election next month for the mayor’s job.
Leeser just missed getting 50 percent of the vote, which would have won him the seat outright. Orgeta, who has served on the City Council since 2005, finished second in a crowded field, with less than 25 percent of the votes cast.
Voters also narrowly approved an amendment to the El Paso city charter to expand the city’s nondiscrimination policy to also cover homosexuality.