Raul G. Salinas

Raúl González Salinas (born November 8, 1947) is a private security consultant, a businessman, and a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who is the former mayor of Laredo, Texas.

Elected to the first of two terms on June 17, 2006, Salinas described himself as a self-styled "political outsider." In that election, he defeated the eight-year city council member John Clifford Galo (born 1958) in a low-turnout election: 9,665 votes (52.75 percent) to 8,657 (47.25 percent).^[2] In 2012, Galo was handily elected to the Webb County commissioner's court for Precinct 3, a position which he still holds.

Biography

A native of Alice, the county seat of Jim Wells County east of Laredo, Salinas is a graduate of the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

Salinas opposed the construction of the border wall along the Rio Grande. He claims that the wall would devastate Laredo economically because Mexican laborers sustain the local economy by as much as 40 percent.^[3]

Salinas's first term was extended to four and one-half years so that city elections henceforth coincide with the November general election of non-presidential even years. Salinas led in the first round of voting and then defeated the outgoing 8-year city council member Gene Belmares (born 1963) by a 2-1 margin in the runoff election held on December 11, 2010. Salinas successfully used the slogan "Still, The Right Man" in his reelection campaign. Belmares carried the backing of the Laredo Morning Times but finished with only 34 percent of the vote in a low-turnout election. At times the campaign bogged down in trivia, as each candidate attempted to take credit for the installation of speed bumps in a particular neighborhood. Salinas polled 12,783 votes to Belmares' 6,575.^[4]

Belmares was succeeded on the 8-member city council in District 6 by Charlie San Miguel, who vowed to make traffic congestion in north Laredo a priority.^[5]

Salinas was term-limited and is ineligible to have sought a third term in 2014. Meanwhile, his former wife, Yolanda Salinas, who once owned a beauty supply store in Laredo, was an unsuccessful candidate for the District 7 seat on the Laredo City Council in the November 6, 2012 municipal elections, which were held concurrently with the contests for U.S. President and Congress.^[6] She finished third in a four-candidate race.^[7]

Salinas was an unsuccessful candidate for Webb County treasurer in the Democratic runoff election held on May 27, 2014. In the primary election on March 4, 2014, he led by 250 votes the incumbent treasurer, Delia Perales, who finished second in the balloting.^[8] Several other candidates were eliminated in the primary, including Cynthia Mares, president of the board of trustees of Laredo Community College and an appointed county official; she carried the endorsement of the Laredo Morning Times.^[9]However, Salinas lost the runoff to Perales, who polled 7,394 votes (61.5 percent). He received 4, 628 (38.5 percent). With no Republican opposition, Perales will begin her fourth term in the office on January 1, 2015.^[10][11]

References