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Donna Independent School District elections (2014)

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2014 Donna Independent School District Elections

General Election date:
November 4, 2014
Table of Contents
About the district
Method of election
Elections
What was at stake?
Key deadlines
Additional elections
External links
See also
Texas
Donna Independent School District
Hidalgo County, Texas ballot measures
Local ballot measures, Texas
Flag of Texas.png

Four seats on the Donna Independent School District Board of Trustees were up for general election on November 4, 2014. The election was for Places 5, 6 and 7, in addition to a special election in Place 3 for an unexpired term.

Only one of the three incumbents running in the election won re-election. The Place 3 race saw Tammy Ramos defeat Rodolfo Perez. Place 5 incumbent Reynaldo Alegria lost to challenger Eloy Infante. Incumbent Angeles Magallanes lost the Place 6 seat to challenger Elpidio Yanez Jr. In the Place 7 race, incumbent Efren Ceniceros retained his seat by defeating challenger Juan Francisco de los Rios.

See also: What was at stake in the Donna Independent School District 2014 election?

About the district

See also: Donna Independent School District, Texas
Donna Independent School District is located in Hidalgo County, Texas.

Donna Independent School District is located in Hidalgo County, Texas. The county seat is Edinburg. Hidalgo County was home to 818,942 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.[1] In the 2012-2013 school year, Donna Independent School District was the 73rd-largest school district in Texas and served 15,276 students.[2]

Demographics

Hidalgo County underperformed in comparison to the rest of Texas in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 15.9 percent of Hidalgo County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 26.7 percent for Texas as a whole. The median household income in Hidalgo County was $34,146 compared to $51,900 for the state of Texas. The poverty rate in Hidalgo County was 34.8 percent compared to 17.6 percent for the entire state.[1]

Racial Demographics, 2013[1]
Race Hidalgo County (%) Texas (%)
White 97.1 80.3
Black or African American 0.8 12.4
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5 1.0
Asian 1.1 4.3
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.0 0.1
Two or More Races 0.4 1.8
Hispanic or Latino 91.0 38.4

Presidential Voting Pattern,
Hidalgo County[3]
Year Democratic Vote (%) Republican Vote (%) Other Vote (%)
2012 70.3 28.6 1.1
2008 68.9 30.3 0.8
2004 54.9 44.8 0.3

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Voter and candidate information

The Donna ISD Board of Trustees consists of seven members elected to four-year terms, and serve the district at-large. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on November 4, 2014. Four seats, including the unexpired term in Place 3, were up for election in 2014.[4]

Candidates began filing nominating petitions on July 19, 2014. The filing deadline for school board candidates to get on the ballot in the general election was August 18, 2014.[5]

Elections

2014

Place 3

Place 5

Place 6

Place 7

Election results

Place 3
Donna Independent School District, Place 3 General Election, 2-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngTammy Ramos 59.2% 3,212
     Nonpartisan Rodolfo Perez 40.8% 2,218
Total Votes 5,430
Source: Hidalgo County Clerk, "Official Results," accessed December 29, 2014
Place 5
Donna Independent School District, Place 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngEloy Infante 60.9% 3,314
     Nonpartisan Reynaldo Alegria Incumbent 39.1% 2,130
Total Votes 5,444
Source: Hidalgo County Clerk, "Official Results," accessed December 29, 2014
Place 6
Donna Independent School District, Place 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngElpidio Yanez Jr. 56.6% 3,063
     Nonpartisan Angeles Magallanes Incumbent 43.4% 2,352
Total Votes 5,415
Source: Hidalgo County Clerk, "Official Results," accessed December 29, 2014
Place 7
Donna Independent School District, Place 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Nonpartisan Green check mark transparent.pngEfren Ceniceros Incumbent 50.1% 2,728
     Nonpartisan Juan Francisco de los Rios 49.9% 2,713
Total Votes 5,441
Source: Hidalgo County Clerk, "Official Results," accessed December 29, 2014

Endorsements

No candidate publicly received an endorsement in this election.

Campaign finance

Candidates must file reports with the Texas Ethics Commission or the appropriate county clerk. They must disclose the amount of each contribution (or the value and nature of any in-kind contribution), the name and address of the individual or political committee making the contribution and the date of the contribution. Filers must also report all expenditures, including the date of an expenditure, the name and address of the person to whom the expenditure is made and the purpose of the expenditure.[6]

Past elections

What was at stake?

Issues in the district

2012 vote-buying scandal

Following the 2012 school board election in Donna ISD, it was discovered that several individuals were offering voters cash, cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes in exchange for votes. As of October 2014, the federal investigation was still under way, with four suspects being convicted of conspiracy and voter fraud charges. Despite the election being local, federal law enforcement may conduct an investigation if federal candidates were also on the ballot. Francisco "Frankie" Garcia, Rebecca Gonzalez and Diana Castañeda, all of Donna, and Guadalupe Escamilla, of Weslaco, were arrested in connection with the scheme. According to authorities, Garcia offered voters either a “dime bag” of cocaine or $10 per vote; Castañeda, Gonzalez and Escamilla bought votes with cash, beer and cigarettes. The four individuals were allegedly all employed by the same slate of candidates, though Assistant U.S. Attorney James Leo, who is serving prosecutor, declined to name the suspected candidates.[7][8]

The FBI also arrested two other women in August 2014, Veronica Saldivar and Belinda Solis, on suspicion that the two had traded cash and cocaine in the 2012 Democratic primary for Hidalgo County Precinct 1 commissioner and the 2012 Donna school board race.[7]

Castañeda and Garcia were sentenced to 8 and 18 months in federal prison, respectively, in February 2015. The judge described it as a “whole corruption" of the election process.[9] Likewise in May 2015, Gonzalez was sentenced to four months in federal prison, while Saldivar was sentenced to eight months and two years supervision.[10]

Board president suicide

Alfredo Lugo

Amid an FBI investigation regarding vote-buying in the 2012 election, Donna school board President Alfredo Lugo committed suicide by hanging himself on January 1, 2014. Though it isn't clear whether the investigation prompted the act, Lugo and the three incumbents he ran with as a slate were re-elected in 2012. The criminal complaints against those charged with conspiracy and voter fraud do not name Lugo or any other Donna school board member.[11]

Conversely, incumbent Michael Flores, who was part of the 2012 slate, said that he remembered three of the convicted women helping out with the campaign. Since this could be taken as a suggestion that one of his fellow incumbents had hired the women, Flores went on to deny the charges, saying, “I don’t think we’re that stupid.” Flores also said that he would not comment on anything having to do with Lugo, out of respect for his family. As of October 2014, the investigation was still under way.[11]

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Donna Independent School District election in 2014:[5]

Deadline Event
July 19, 2014 First day to file for place on general election ballot
August 18, 2014 Last day to file for place on general election ballot
October 6, 2014 Voter registration deadline
October 20, 2014 Early voting begins
October 31, 2014 Last day of early voting
November 4, 2014 Election day

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Texas elections, 2014

This election shared the ballot with general elections for U.S. House seats, Texas state executive offices and one seat in the U.S. House Senate. It also shared the ballot with other county and municipal elections. There was one statewide measure on the ballot regarding the diversion of oil and gasoline tax revenues from the state's "Rainy Day Fund" into transportation funding.[5]

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Donna + Independent + School + District + Texas"

See also

External links

Footnotes