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Friday, July 30, 2010 | Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County: Since 1929
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Owens, Fernandez local Democratic winners
Published March 3, 2010
Unofficial results from Tuesday’s Democratic Primary Election show Lewis G. Owens Jr. and James Fernandez won two contested local races.
Votes in the Democratic Party Primary Election that had been counted as of 6 a.m. Wednesday also show a slim margin of victory for Jesus “Cheo” Ortiz.
When the long night of counting at the Val Verde County Courthouse was over, Ortiz had posted 24 more votes than Gustavo “Gus” Flores in the race for Val Verde County Commissioner Precinct 4.
Ortiz had a total of 546 votes, and Flores had posted 522 votes.
But a number of provisional and overseas ballots in the Democratic Party Primary Election had not been counted as of this morning. The number of uncounted ballots will not be released until later today, election officials said.
Val Verde County Clerk Janie Ramon said the provisional ballots – ballots cast by voters who claimed they were registered, but whose name did not appear on precinct voting lists – must be reviewed by Bea Muñoz, the county voter registrar, within the next two days.
Ramon also said ballots cast by registered voters working overseas or out of the county because of military service can be received by her office until March 8.
Additionally, the number of votes separating Ortiz and Flores is so slight, Flores’ campaign manager, Lucas Gilliam, said Flores may request a recount.
No recount is likely in the race for Val Verde County Commissioner Precinct 2, in which Owens, the challenger, handily defeated the incumbent Musquiz by 183 votes.
With the votes that have been counted as of Wednesday morning, Owens had a total of 478 votes to Musquiz’s 295.
Fernandez posted the widest margin of victory in the Democratic Party Primary, trouncing the incumbent Aaron Rodriguez by 238 votes.
As of Wednesday morning, Fernandez had posted a total of 612 votes to Rodriguez’s 374 votes.
The eventual winners of these three races are as yet unopposed in the November General Election.
As he was congratulated by his friends and supporters and hugged by his wife and mother, Owens said he is ready to go to work for the county.
“I’m excited. This was a team effort. We had a lot of people helping, people from all walks of life. It was really good to get my family back involved, and we got to spend time together. This was good for all of us. It was as family and team effort,” Owens said.
“I think we’re going to start visiting with some people tomorrow. I know I still have to go through November and everything. But I think tomorrow I’ll call Mr. Musquiz and see if there is something I can do for him, and just try to begin to help. I’m extremely excited,” Owens said.
Owens said he was prompted to enter into the public arena.
“We’ve been talking about this for a while. We served on this committee with the city. That helped, because you begin to listen to some of the problems and situations that people have. And that was it. It was just a matter of wanting to help.
“We’d talked to Mr. Musquiz, and he told me if I wanted to run, right now was probably a pretty good time to do it, and he’s one of the reasons we decided to do it now. He was real positive when I visited with him, and I thank him for taking the time to visit with me. There are issues that need to be resolved, that need to be taken on. Let’s just go do ’em, let’s solve ’em. And that was really my main reason,” Owens said.
Owens was one of only a handful of candidates who were waited at the Val Verde County Courthouse as the results of early voting, then those from election day, were read and posted.
Ortiz and Fernandez were not present at the courthouse.
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