Kaur drew nine challengers, many of whom are throwing thousands of dollars into their campaigns against the first-term councilwoman
The race to represent downtown and near the North Side is the most crowded and cutthroat among all San Antonio City Council contests this year. First-term councilwoman Sukh Kaur , 36, drew nine challengers frustrated with her leadership — more than any of her five council colleagues also seeking reelection.
Many of her opponents are throwing thousands of their own dollars into their campaigns to knock Kaur out of office. Julisa Medrano-Guerra, 27, has been Kaur’s most vocal and aggressive opponent. The bar owner lobbed a lengthy ethics complaint at the councilwoman, attacked her in mailers, issued several news releases with allegations of wrongdoing, and hired a private investigator to look into Kaur. Two years ago, Kaur was an insurgent who succeeded in unseating then-District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo. Kaur, who was one of six challengers, surprised some local politicos who had seen marketing executive Jeremy Roberts as Bravo’s greatest threat. Now two neighborhood leaders are trying to take down Kaur: Patty Gibbons and Susan Strawn, the top fundraisers among all challengers, according to campaign finance reports filed in March. Most of her opponents claim Kaur is unresponsive and frequently absent from her post when they need assistance, which she denies. “Everyone has my cell phone number — everyone knows how to get a hold of me,” Kaur said. “Sometimes there are a couple of neighborhood meetings that happen back to back, but our office is always represented.” READ MORE: Voter Guide 2025 — May 3 San Antonio-area election District 1 covers most of downtown and stretches just past North Loop 410. It’s roughly bounded by Interstate 10 and U.S. 281. The winner in this year’s race will potentially oversee some of the city’s most hotly debated projects. VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Green Line bus rapid transit line will traverse San Pedro Avenue, passing through the heart of District 1 — a $466 million project that's drawn fierce opposition from Monte Vista and Alta Vista residents because it would remove a traffic lane from San Pedro, potentially sending more vehicles through their neighborhood. Two of the projects would sit squarely in District 1 downtown: a baseball stadium for the minor-league Missions that would force downtown residents out of their apartments, and a proposed downtown sports and entertainment district that could cost billions of dollars. Early voting for the May 3 election runs through Tuesday. Figuring it out Kaur highlights several initiatives from the last two years: an upcoming designation on North Main Avenue to honor the city’s LGBTQ+ community, which is slated to go to City Council for a vote; an effort to create denser development near San Pedro Avenue through a controversial transit-oriented development policy; and a recent agreement with San Antonio Water System and the city meant to speed up construction projects. In a second term, Kaur said she would call for an audit of all construction projects overseen by the city’s Public Works Department, which is often criticized for poor or insufficient communications with residents and business owners affected by street work and for falling behind schedule. But the first-term councilwoman struggled to find her footing after her election. Five aides resigned in the past two years — two of whom were her chiefs of staff. Kaur brushed off the matter at a Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio forum when she was asked about the high turnover in her office, choosing to only talk about the chiefs of staff who left. “We have a really great culture in our office,” Kaur said in a recent interview. “I think when you’re working on figuring out a startup, especially when working on figuring out which team members work well together, it takes time to form the right team.” Kaur founded the education consulting firm EDreimagined. She recently completed a contract with Edgewood ISD and has no upcoming projects in the upcoming school year. Incumbents always have a major advantage in City Council races, so there’s a chance Kaur could hold onto her seat with little more than a bruised ego at the end of the gnarly campaign season. Still, Kaur could have to fight for re-election in a June 7 runoff. Candidates in crowded races are rarely able to garner more than 50% of the vote in the initial election. Ruthless campaigning Medrano-Guerra said her only interaction she had with Kaur before deciding to run for office left her frustrated. The challenger co-owns Paramour Bar on the River Walk with her husband, controversial attorney Martin Phipps. Not long before Medrano-Guerra became co-owner, the rooftop bar was nearly shut down because of a lengthy, ongoing brawl between Phipps and the landlord because of Phipps’ failure to pay rent. Medrano-Guerra said the bar's revenue dropped significantly as construction along Lower Broadway crept along. Medrano-Guerra said she called Kaur about a year ago to ask if the city could provide any assistance to help Paramour cope with the disturbance to its business, but she never got very far. She said other business owners have had similar experiences. “She made me feel incompetent,” Medrano-Guerra said. “And then after that, it was radio silence. I couldn’t get through to her or anyone. And it just kept nagging at me.” Medrano-Guerra said she’s running because she would be a better listener to community concerns than Kaur. Medrano-Guerra is using her own funds to power her campaign. She threw $36,000 into the effort between January and late March. She's issued numerous news releases bashing Kaur’s absences, policy proposals and what she describes as a lack of transparency about Kaur's arrest for driving while intoxicated in Houston 12 years ago. Her campaign’s mailers attack Kaur but do little to explain who Medrano-Guerra is and what she stands for. In one recent flyer, Kaur’s face was on a milk carton. “Have you seen this council member,” the ad reads. “Vanished right after the 2023 runoff — along with her promises to listen. Last seen refusing to answer SAEN questions about DUI.” READ MORE: District 6 race is one of San Antonio's most crowded, competitive Most of the ethics complaint that Medrano-Guerra filed against Kaur was scrapped by a third-party attorney hired by the city, but the Ethics Review Board might look into a claim that Kaur’s chief of staff campaigned for her when he was on city time, which is prohibited. Kaur has also been asked to review personal financial reports after the campaign alleged that she did not include properties she owned in the filings. Medrano-Guerra spent more than $14,000 on services from Hatch Consulting Group, a firm in Buda with ties to political consultant Colin Strother, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with Congressman Henry Cuellar to launder bribes from a Mexican financial institution. A source with knowledge of the Medrano-Guerra campaign said Strother has helped the team with its marketing strategy, which campaign spokesman Roger Legrand denies. He said, however, that Strother and Phipps are friends. Medrano-Guerra also spent $6,000 on Potomac Strategy Group, which is run by former Travis County Republican Party chair Matt Mackowiak, a friend of Strother’s. Medrano-Guerra raised $75 in donations at the beginning of the year. Conservative voices Gibbons, 65, ran Surveying and Mapping Inc. with her husband for 30 years. She was the Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association President for six years and has served on the city’s Zoning Commission and the San Antonio Housing Trust board. She ran unsuccessfully for the District 9 City Council seat in 2017. In 2022, Gibbons was a vocal opponent of the city’s decision to redistrict her neighborhood out of District 9, the city’s most conservative, and into District 1. And she fought against against transit-oriented development, a type of zoning meant to encourage construction of housing, businesses and amenities near rapid transit lines, which Kaur strongly supports. Gibbons, a staunch conservative, was among several neighborhood leaders who expressed frustration that they'd been left out of city-guided task force of neighborhood associations about the potential zoning overhaul, and instead had to speak out at public meetings late in the process. READ MORE: Spending floods race to replace Manny Pelaez in San Antonio’s District 8 If elected, Gibbons said she wants to work closely with neighborhood associations to hear what they want from the city. “I’m a little more grounded, a little more experienced in life,” Gibbons said, comparing herself to Kaur. “I’m more boots on the ground. I like to get out there.” Gibbons raised about $18,000 and put $25,000 of her own money into the race. Anita Marie Kegley, 68, is another conservative running for the seat. She has four decades of experience as a contractor, and is the founder of KEGLEY Inc., a home inspection company. She ran unsuccessfully in the 2020 Republican primary for Texas' 20th Congressional District. Kegley, who often talks about her Christian faith at candidate forums, said she wants to put “God in our city” so that there will be no more homelessness or crime. Full slate of challengers Strawn, 63, investigated fraud in government contracts and programs for 26 years as a federal prosecutor. She served twice on the River Road Neighborhood Association's board and is a member of the Brackenridge Park Stakeholder Committee, which participates in discussions about proposed park changes. Strawn tried to convince city officials to keep dozens of Brackenridge Park trees slated for removal as part of a 2017 bond project to upgrade and restore park facilities. Strawn and other protestors brought the project to a temporary halt, but ultimately it moved ahead in 2023. Strawn wants to improve public engagement to keep residents from being blindsided by major projects and to speed up city construction projects. “I would like to serve you and listen to you and put your ideas into action,” she told forum attendees in March. Strawn raised close to $12,000 and loaned her campaign $10,0000. Kaur reported having more than $110,000 on hand at the end of a March campaign-finance reporting period. Ramiro Gonzales, 44, founded and runs Mission Affordable, a consulting firm focused on helping developers build affordable housing. He is the former CEO of Prosper West San Antonio, an economic development nonprofit for the West Side. He worked for the city from 2002 through 2017, including stints as a special projects manager over redevelopment in the city center and assistant director of downtown operations. “I know City Hall,” Gonzales said at a forum last month. “I know how it works. I know how things get done, and I also know what it takes to be an effective council member.” READ MORE: City Hall outsiders vying for mayor see support climb in latest UTSA poll Maureen Galindo, 37, is a single mom, clinical marriage and family therapist, and grassroots activist who helped organize multiple tenants unions, including one at the downtown Soap Factory Apartments in 2018, where she used to live. The Missions ownership group and developer Weston Urban plan to demolish the Soap Factory Apartments, one of the few affordable places to live downtown, to make way for a new minor-league baseball stadium. Galindo joined Soap Factory residents to call for a moving stipend for displaced tenants. Days before the vote, Weston Urban agreed to put up a total of $250,000 for moving expenses, with the city committing to match that with another $250,000 using unspent federal pandemic relief dollars. That money will go toward a $2,500 “rental relocation package” for individual tenants. Other challengers include Matthew Gauna, who studies environmental science at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dominique “Domingo” Littwitz, 27, has a business selling pizza-size quesadillas. Arnulfo Ortiz has operated a law firm for 40 years. He often gets laughs at candidate forums for colorful, sometimes off-topic, remarks. His catch phrase: “I’m here to fire somebody to get something done.”
San Antonio City Council Public Works Department Potomac Strategy Group Ethics Review Board Edreimagined Brackenridge Park Stakeholder Committee Hatch Consulting Group Bravo Weston Urban VIA Metropolitan Transit District 6 San Antonio Water System KEGLEY Inc. Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association Conservative Republican Party Stonewall Democrats Edgewood ISD River Road Neighborhood Association SAEN Congressional District UTSA Zoning Commission San Antonio Housing Trust Julisa Medrano-Guerra Patty Gibbons Sukh Kaur Colin Strother Susan Strawn Mario Bravo Jeremy Roberts Martin Phipps Matt Mackowiak Arnulfo Ortiz Anita Marie Kegley Henry Cuellar Roger Legrand Matthew Gauna Trump Ramiro Gonzales Paramour Missions God Graham Weston Maureen Galindo Dominique ``Domingo'' Littwitz Weston Urban Randy Smith Manny Pelaez Christian San Antonio District 1 North Side Soap Factory Apartments San Pedro Avenue Interstate 10 San Pedro North Main Avenue Travis County Monte Vista Alta Vista North Loop U.S. 281 Houston Prosper West San Antonio River Walk Lower Broadway Brackenridge Park Buda Mexican West Side City Hall District 9 Soap Factory District 8 Texas Surveying And Mapping Inc. Voter Guide 2025 Green Line LGBTQ+ DUI Mission Affordable
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