Denise McVea
From Ballotpedia
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Denise McVea ran for election to the San Antonio City Council to represent District 2 in Texas. She lost in the general election on May 6, 2023.
McVea completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Denise McVea earned a high school diploma from Sam Houston High School and a bachelor's degree from Texas Woman's University in 1990. Her career experience includes working as an investigative journalist and nonprofit publisher. McVea has been affiliated with the NAACP, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and Friends of San Antonio Public Library.[1]
Elections
2023
See also: City elections in San Antonio, Texas (2023)
General election
General election for San Antonio City Council District 2
The following candidates ran in the general election for San Antonio City Council District 2 on May 6, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (Nonpartisan) | 56.0 | 4,895 |
 | Denise Gutierrez (Nonpartisan) | 14.7 | 1,281 | |
| Rose Requenez Hill (Nonpartisan) | 7.6 | 666 | ||
| Carla Walker (Nonpartisan) | 6.8 | 598 | ||
| Patrick Jones (Nonpartisan) | 5.3 | 465 | ||
 | Denise McVea (Nonpartisan)  | 2.8 | 244 | |
| Edward Giles (Nonpartisan) | 2.7 | 239 | ||
| Michael Good (Nonpartisan) | 2.2 | 191 | ||
| James Guild (Nonpartisan) | 1.0 | 83 | ||
| Wendell Carson (Nonpartisan) | 0.8 | 73 | ||
| Total votes: 8,735 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Campaign themes
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Denise McVea completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McVea's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Denise McVea a social justice advocate, investigative journalist, and nonprofit publisher. She is a native of San Antonio who grew up in District 2, one of San Antonio's most disenfranchised districts. For more than a decade, she has documented the organized criminal schemes used to illegally transfer real property from struggling minority families to shady "brokers" and "investors." She is running for city council with the primary purpose of confronting corruption in city government that has facilitated the theft of millions in resources (think Promise Zone) from vulnerable communities in her district.
- City leaders have sat idly by while corrupt city employees and organized criminals rob poor neighborhoods of federal funds.
- Until city leaders address corruption in a meaningful way, our communities will remain unsafe, inflation and taxes will remain high, and organized crime will continue to grow and flourish at our communities' expense.
- Fighting public corruption is a national imperative. Our national security and democracy depend on it.
Community Question Featured local question
I think we all learned a lot about disaster preparedness. I would build on that, with a focus on better monitoring and preparing for threats.
Community Question Featured local question
We have an active neighborhood crime coalition, led by veteran community advocate Dan Martinez, that routinely provides crime stats to neighborhood associations and non profits. My main concern and focus is the unaddressed organized white collar crimes and corruption that is hampering any real public safety policy.
Community Question Featured local question
Parts of San Antonio are very healthy. The River Walk is a gem, and the Alamo is currently undergoing important renovations. Right now the place is overrun with construction as planners work to make it into a more pedestrian friendly area. Affordable housing continues to be a serious issue and budgetary oversight continues to be a concern. I would focus on strategic audits.
Community Question Featured local question
It is crucial. Currently, we have a problem in city government whereby departments involved in misconduct routinely ignore open records act requests that expose their misconduct. If elected, I would immediately begin focusing on ensuring that all open records act requests are fully and timely met and that city employees who thwart the public's right to know be held accountable.
Community Question Featured local question
Currently, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County routinely ignore open records act requests if they feel the information would expose misconduct. I would enact local laws that would discipline employees and officials who willfully withhold public information - including and up to dismissal.
Community Question Featured local question
One serious issue is the extent to which organized crime has infiltrated the police department. In Evil Corp, I document how police officers in District 2 routinely falsify police reports and how some police officers use their position in law enforcement to assist organized criminal actors. The level of corruption is so deep in SAPD that a record number of good cops have committed suicide. The city council's refusal to address the dangerous dysfunction that defines our local police department is having devastating effects not just in San Antonio but also on national security.
Community Question Featured local question
Let's get to the bottom of the current criminal frauds first.
Community Question Featured local question
Exposure of the forces that are preying on and preventing the equitable development of our community.
Community Question Featured local question
Many. I argue that the city's rising crime rates are a direct result of lack of transparency and accountability, false reporting, and the infiltration of organized crime into important institutions. If elected, I would aggressively tackle the underlying causes of poor public safety.
Community Question Featured local question
I would have to consult with state regulators, oversight agencies, environmentalists, and business owners in order to answer this question adequately.
Community Question Featured local question
I would focus on accountability and transparency in terms of allocation of resources. We have a serious oversight problem in this town, which contributes to waste, inflation, and inequity.
Community Question Featured local question
Yes. Based on his performance in rooting out bad cops and his inability to protect good cops from a corrupted culture, it may be time for the current chief of police to retire. The city should look for a candidate who has proven experience SUCCESSFULLY rooting out corruption within a police department. Having lived in Mexico for more than 10 years, I cannot stress enough how critical this issue is.
I believe meaningful police reform is important, especially in San Antonio, which is fast becoming a hub for Mexican cartels and other organized criminal actors. In my book EVIL CORP: Allstate Insurance, Shadow Networks, and the Corruption of a Major American City, I discuss how corrupt SAPD police officers routinely falsify police reports to hide criminal activity in vulnerable neighborhoods. As a city council member, I would advocate for more accountability and transparency in law enforcement and city departments.
Secondly, I believe that corrupt actors have been allowed to game the city budget to the tune of millions, manipulating program data and avoiding the oversight necessary to ensure that public dollars are spent equitably and honestly. If elected, I would use my place on the city council to root out mismanagement and graft, and eject city employees involved in illegal and unethical activities.
Secondly, I believe that corrupt actors have been allowed to game the city budget to the tune of millions, manipulating program data and avoiding the oversight necessary to ensure that public dollars are spent equitably and honestly. If elected, I would use my place on the city council to root out mismanagement and graft, and eject city employees involved in illegal and unethical activities.
Integrity, honesty, and the ability to withstand the seductive enticements offered by organized white collar criminals and others who pose a threat to our democratic institutions.
I was probably most influenced by Ida B Wells, a fearless black female journalist who exposed the vile practice of lynching in America at great personal sacrifice.
McVea, Denise. Evil Corp: Allstate Insurance, Shadow Networks, and the Corruption of a Major American City, Auris Press, (ISBN: 978-1-948955-35-5).
https://www.bit.ly/conspiracytheater
https://www.bit.ly/conspiracytheater
Integrity, the ability to withstand attractive enticements that are constantly being thrown at elected officials to make them forsake their commitment to their constituents.
I have always been a fierce advocate for my class, someone willing to take on powerful interests. I lack the fear gene that makes other people capitulate to wrongdoing by powerful entities.
The protection of the most vulnerable among us.
My most vivid historical memory is the day my father came home from Vietnam. I was a toddler and I remember how happy and loud the house was as he tried to scoop up all of his six clambering children at once.
My very first job was a local nursery, which I kept for about six months before leaving to wait tables.
The ability to open up the inner workings of the government to the people and to hold responsible those officials and employees who are undermining our communities.
It is beneficial. However, no one ever started in politics with experience in politics. It is more important that office holders understand the grave duty that comes with holding public office.
I am a trained investigative journalist who has spent decades exposing unethical and criminal misconduct in government.
A news reporter visited a candidate on the Northside, who pointed to an unfinished road. "Look at that road over there," the candidate said. "Ninety percent of the money to build it went into someone's pocket."
The reporter then visited a candidate on the Southside, who pointed to another unfinished road. "Look at that road over there," the candidate said. "Seventy five percent of the money to build it went into someone's pocket."
Then the reporter visited the candidate on the Eastside. "Look at that road over there," the candidate said.
I am not seeking endorsements. The organizations offering endorsements to city council candidates have done little to protect the communities in San Antonio's District 2. Their endorsement would mean little to my beleaguered constituents. Accordingly, they mean little to me.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.
See also
2023 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 11, 2023
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