Last week, Vic Kolenc of the El Paso Times published a report on Ivan Niño’s victory over Richard Genera in the race for City District 5. Niño got 11,920 votes (69%) to Genera’s 5,337 votes (31%).
Of the four City Council incumbents, Niño was the only candidate who won outright. The other three incumbents have been forced into a runoff election, scheduled for December 12.
Kolenc interviewed Mayor Renard Johnson about the significance of Niño’s victory. “He understands the direction we want to go,” Johnson said. “It’s a nice victory. It reinforces that we’re doing the right thing.”
Kolenc noted Niño raised his contributions “mostly from the El Paso business and development community and from three large local political action committees, or PACs.”
We conducted our own analysis of Niño’s three campaign finance reports (January 15, October 5, and October 26) and found that he raised a total of $71,200 from only 38 contributors.
Of this figure, 95.5% of his funds came from outside District 5, mostly from the Westside, with 33 of his 38 contributors giving $1,000 or more.
During the entire election cycle, only three people who reside in District 5 gave him money.
The largest donor was Woody Hunt ($6,500), who gave more than triple what Genera raised in total ($2,113.26). He is followed by the Realtors PAC ($5,000), Richard Castro ($4,000), Rick Francis ($4,000), Stanley Jobe ($3,000), Douglas Schwartz ($3,000), and Alfredo Corral ($3,000).
We asked Martin Paredes of El Paso News and the El Paso Herald-Post to assess Niño’s campaign contributions: “The amount of money flowing into city council elections is nothing more than buying influence. This especially becomes obvious when you look at who is donating to the campaigns, the amounts of money being contributed, and who is making the big contributions.”
According to Niño, the money does not make him beholden to his donors. He told Kolenc, “At the end of the day, all of my decisions are always going to be reflective of how it’s impacting District 5 residents.”
Of really? This comes from a man who voted to increase our property twice in less than two years in office, by a total of 11.5%, and who never saw a municipal expenditure he did not like.
Niño is your standard thirty-something mediocre politician, who has no career prospects other than public office and must rely upon powerful donors to win elections and hold on to his salary.
His campaign finance reports indicate, beyond any doubt, that he will continue to support the interests of the Westside elites rather than the constituents of District 5, no matter what comes out of his mouth.
District 5 residents and El Pasoans at large will have to suffer under Niño for another four years.
CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS TO IVAN NIÑO, 7/1/25-10/24/26
*Individuals in bold reside within District 5
6,500 Woody Hunt
5,000 Realtors PAC
4,000 Richard Castro
4,000 Rick Francis
3,000 Stanley Jobe
3,000 Douglas Schwartz
3,000 Alfredo Corral
2,500 Randall Bowling
2,500 EP Electric PAC
2,500 Edward Escudero
2,500 Miguel Fernandez
2,500 Ted Houghton
2,500 IBEW PAC
2,000 Richard Aguilar
2,000 Kelly Tomblin
2,000 El Paso Police PAC
1,500 Anderson Blake
1,500 Steve & Nancy Fox
1,500 Adam Frank
1,500 Lane Gaddy
1,500 Rogelio Lopez
1,500 Raymond Palacios
1,500 Linda Troncoso
1,000 Benjamin Arriola
1,000 Ruben Chavez
1,000 El Paso Assoc. of Contractors
1,000 Martha Hunt
1,000 Dee Margo
1,000 Ryan McCrory
1,000 Ricardo Mora
1,000 Law Office of Steve Ortega
1,000 Gerald Rubin
1,000 Sandra Salinas
500 Raul Ordaz
400 Yancey Garrett
100 Cinco Houghton
100 Jackson Carl
100 David Van Winkle
IVAN NIÑO’S CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS