Race to the primary promises to heat up in House District 117

Philip Cortez takes to the neighborhoods on the west side of San Antonio campaigning for the Texas House seat in District 117 on April 5, 2012. Philip Cortez takes to the neighborhoods on the west side of San Antonio campaigning for the Texas House seat in District 117 on April 5, 2012. Photo: TOM REEL, San Antonio Express-News Photo: TOM REEL, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Race to the primary promises to heat up in House District 117 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

All three are “good Democrats,” Philip Cortez says of himself and the other two Texas House District 117 candidates.

And the overarching goal, of course, is to unseat Rep. John Garza, the Republican freshman incumbent who was swept into office as part of the conservative tea party wave in 2010.

But until Cortez, a former city councilman, attorney Tina Torres or former Clinton appointee Ken Mireles wins the Democratic primary on May 29, the intraparty feuding among them will likely only get uglier.

Because they largely agree on the issues — all three say restoring funding that was cut from education and dealing with school finance will be their top priorities in the next legislative session — they must distinguish themselves on style, temperament and background.

They're working overtime to do it, too, block-walking most afternoons in the district that stretches from the Bandera and Kendall county lines south, in a strip between the western edge of Bexar County and Loop 1604, before widening eastward below U.S. 90 and dipping below Interstate 35.

More than half of District 117 overlaps with Cortez's former City Council district, and he's made “I'm from here” the centerpiece of his campaign.

Torres was recruited to run by Annie's List, a statewide organization that works to boost the number of Texas women holding elective office. The group offered her a $50,000 matching grant, which Torres raised in just a week, making her a formidable opponent.

Mireles, a small-business owner and an educator, ran for the seat in 2004. He won a majority of votes in the primary but lost to David Liebowitz in the runoff.

Conventional wisdom gives Cortez a presumptive edge.

The former two-term councilman says he can point to a series of kept promises in the district, including the Willie M. Cortez Senior Center on Southwest Military Drive, increased money for graffiti abatement and animal control.

“Cortez has the most establishment support,” said County Judge Nelson Wolff, including Mayor Julián Castro and law enforcement unions. “But Leticia Cantu did too, and (Rey) Saldaña beat her.”

Wolff is sitting the primary out, and says he'll endorse whoever wins.

More Information Philip Cortez, 33 City Councilman, District 4, 2007-11 Community Resource Advocate, South Texas Blood and Tissue Center Adjunct faculty, Texas A&M University-San Antonio Captain, U.S. Air Force Reserve University of Texas at San Antonio; master's from UTSA; second-year Ph.D. student, UT Austin Ken Mireles, 44 Founder/co-owner of marketing firm Public Alliance Adjunct professor, Northwest Vista College Graduated from Texas A&M; master's from Georgetown University Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Fellow, 1994-95 Tina Torres, 44 Consumer litigation and family law attorney Graduated UT Austin; law degree from St. Mary's Law School Past president, Mexican American Bar Association Member, Texas Trial Lawyers Association

Cantu is Cortez's wife, and her unexpected loss to Saldaña, a political novice, isn't lost on Cortez, who says he's taking nothing for granted.

“Voters know me,” he said one afternoon in a neighborhood near Lackland AFB, where he's been knocking on doors for more than a decade since he worked as an aide to then-Mayor Ed Garza.

Indeed, neighborhood activist Mary Mabry greets Cortez with a warm embrace and an invitation to sit and chat.

Other voters remember Cortez's “missteps,” as he calls them, like saying he'd earned his master's degree before it was completed.

He also said the Air Force called him up unexpectedly for additional training, which allowed him to recommend Cantu take his seat, giving her an incumbent's boost before she ran. It turned out he'd applied for the out-of-state training months before.

“Lie to me once, shame on me,” said Sybil Kane, a Mireles supporter who says she can't trust Cortez anymore.

Cortez says he took full responsibility for his mistakes and was re-elected with 78 percent of the vote.

Torres and Mireles warn that his history makes Cortez vulnerable to Republican attacks in the fall.

Cortez, in turn, calls it “a slap in the face to women in the 117” that Annie's List couldn't find someone from the district to support; Mireles agrees.

The charge of carpetbagger exasperates Torres, who was born and raised in San Antonio.

She moved into District 117, she said, because that's where she believes she can do the most good.

Torres says she's spent her career fighting for regular people, women and children. She grew up watching her parents serve.

Her father, Pete Torres Jr., practiced consumer litigation and civil rights law, and was the first Hispanic to take on the Good Government League and independently win a seat on the City Council. Her mother, teacher Yolanda P. Torres, was the first Hispanic woman to serve on the State Board of Education.

Robert Jones, Annie's List executive director, scoffs at the idea that the group is some sort of outside interest group.

“Annie's List has 23,000 supporters across the state and 7,000 in San Antonio,” he said, and the money for Torres' matching grant was raised here.

When looking for a qualified female candidate, “Tina's name came up over and over again,” Jones said.

Torres may have money, and Cortez, name recognition, but Mireles believes he's quietly gaining ground with his grasp of the issues.

He's not particularly charismatic, which may have hurt him in the 2004 runoff against Liebowitz. It's a charge he dismisses.

“I may be understated, but I am effective,” he says.

His campaign slogan — emblazoned on the back of the T-shirt he wears over his dress shirt while block-walking — is “Serious Leadership for Serious Times.”

After serving as the national Hispanic outreach coordinator for President Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign, he was a presidential appointee for the Department of Energy, then the Interior.

Eloy Laque, a former Liebowitz aide who also worked for Cortez “way back,” is a campaign aide.

After he lost the election, “Ken always came by the office, he stayed involved,” Laque said.

Without much money, Mireles is relying on a cadre of volunteers to keep the campaign going. Frances Nava, a longtime supporter, is among them.

“He's not a politician,” Nava says. “And we on the South Side cannot be bought.”

thamilton@express-news.net