Alexander F. “AlFrank” Catucci
A bar owner with various business interests and a former professional baseball player, Alfrank Catucci is well-known in El Paso’s entertainment circles but never dabbled in politics, until now.
At 42, Catucci has good looks, Tarzan hair and a knack for creating a buzz, which he was counting on when he jumped into the mayor’s race – now a seven-way contest.
But an arrest in October on a misdemeanor charge of operating an illegal security company and a second arrest by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on a felony charge last week created the kind of buzz no politician wants.
He denies both charges and has said he thinks someone has sought to discredit him.
Catucci’s priorities as a candidate are economic development, education, streamlining government, “getting rid of the tax and spend” mentality on City Council and creating wealth in El Paso, he said.
He thinks El Pasoans are too heavily taxed and that the city spends too much money on consultants, a common theme among mayoral candidates.
“I am looking to give back to the city of El Paso, which has been good to me,” he said. “I am tired of politics as usual.”
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John Cook
John Cook, El Paso’s mayor for the past four years, served three, two-year terms before that on City Council as the District 4-Northeast city representative.
He will be running on his record and facing six challengers, none of whom has won an election or is well known in El Paso politics.
Cook, 63, lost his first election challenging then-state Rep. Pat Haggerty for his house seat in the late ‘90s and learned two lessons in that race that he has been practicing ever since: image and name recognition.
“My image is a suit with a white shirt and tie, which I wear everywhere I go, even if I’m working on a house,” he said.
After 10 years in office, Cook is a household name in El Paso but he works hard to stay in the public eye.
He said he has worked to keep the city tax rate down, though city spending has risen sharply with revenues from rising home values and higher fees for services.
The city, he said, has brought in thousands of new jobs and dozens of companies through the efforts of REDCo, is building new parks and requiring developers to build theirs, has a Downtown plan in place and has vastly improved the city’s mass transit system, Sun Metro, on his watch.
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Gus Haddad
One candidate who might give Mayor John Cook a run for his money in the May 9 election is Gus Haddad, who has experience specific to city affairs through years of activity.
His parents came to America from Syria in the early 1900s and, if elected, he would be the second mayor from the influential Arab-American community that has thrived and built businesses in El Paso for generations. [Editor's note: This paragraph was corrected at 4 p.m., March 17]
Haddad, 57, spent 4-1/2 years on the City Plan Commission, the most powerful and demanding board at City Hall, and left as its president last year.
He was deeply involved in the long process of rewriting the city’s subdivision code that will, as a result of City Council passage, reshape the look and feel of development for years.
While there are many changes he would like to see at City Hall, he thinks the stormwater utility should remain with the Public Service Board.
But Haddad said the PSB needs to be more accountable to City Council and to the citizenry.
“I come from small business,” he said. “I believe small business is the economic engine of a community. We need to be very business friendly.”
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David E. Henderson
David E. Henderson is a 62-year-old lawyer who came to El Paso from Austin in 1995 and who is running in his first election.
“I have a huge mountain to climb because name recognition is about 80 percent of it in politics,” he said.
He has not been active in political affairs in the city or watched City Council closely and is campaigning for a series of sharp increases in the minimum wage in El Paso and for a monorail system to Juarez.
“I think we should have an $8 minimum wage immediately and I want to see it at $10 by 2011,” he said. “I think a monorail is the way to go.
“Mayor Cook has said it’s too expensive to do light rail in El Paso, but he should know there’s a monorail that works in Downtown Miami."
Henderson talks a lot about his 11 years with the U.S. State Department, a career that he said ended in 1981 after he ran into trouble with his superiors over the Iran hostage crisis that resulted in the election of President Reagan.
“Now, the government thinks I’m a drug dealer and a terrorist,” he said.
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Alejandro Mendoza
Alejandro Mendoza is a 58-year-old real estate broker and accountant who ran for the East Side city representative seat in 2007 and for county commissioner before that.
He said his only other political experience has come from working with the local Republican Party.
“I want to be the mayor because I have seen a lot of indifference in people about elections,” he said. “When Mayor Cook won, only 25,000 people voted out of 380,000 registered voters.
“I have been encouraged to stay in the race because this many candidates means people are very dissatisfied.”
Mendoza said he wants to see changes in city government, to ensure that the city is getting the money it should be receiving from the federal government and that it is properly distributed.
“I don’t believe so many people in the city should be in poverty, like I am myself,” he said. “It’s going to take me some time and research to know what to do about it, but I would like to see some other forms of raising revenue, not just property taxes.”
Mendoza said he is not familiar with the issues surrounding the Public Service Board but knows the storm water utility is very controversial.
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Lee Mendez
Lee Mendez is a 28-year-old UTEP student majoring in history who returned to school after spending five years in the Navy.
“I’ve always been interested in politics,” he said “It’s been a passion of mine since I was very, very young.
“I just want to see El Paso reach the potential that it has been waiting on for so long.”
He said he is tired of seeing family members and friends leaving town, a trend known as the brain drain in El Paso.
“We have graduates from UTEP and community college who would love to stay here and be productive participants in the community, but because of the lack of opportunities here, they have no choice but to leave.”
Mendez said he would like to see the membership of the PSB upped from five to nine, and then to have those members elected by voters.
"City's should have the vote so they don't feel like victims of the system," he said.
He does not support the proposal on the may 9 ballot to move the stormwater utility from the PSB to City Council control.
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Carlos Rivera
Carlos Rivera, 57, holds a master’s degree from UT Austin and is retired from a career in the federal government with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the EPA and as the foreign affairs officer with the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Although he has worked on other people’s election campaigns, he has never run for office before.
“I just figured it was a good time for me,” he said. “I have been talking about the need for leadership, transparency and accountability in city government, taxes, economic development and jobs.”
He said he wants to see city spending cut back and would reduce or eliminate the city’s dependence on outside consultants to evaluate and analyze complex issues for the city.
“Every policy issue that comes up is a reason to hire a consultant,” he said.
He said he would like to see the Public Service Board restructured and put under a board with nine members appointed directly by the mayor and city representatives.
Rivera said he would like to see the emphasis on economic development shifted from importing companies to El Paso to growing the city’s small businesses.
“If that’s going on, I don’t see the job creation as a result of city involvement.”
And he said he would like to see the city explore new, more innovative ways of informing taxpayers about city government and decisions.
“I know public meetings are held out there, but they’re not reaching the citizens,” he said. “I know we can do it. We need to increase public participation.”
