May local elections filing window closes Friday

The filing window for the May 2 local elections will close on Friday, Feb. 14. After Friday, all of the races for city council, school board, hospital district and underground water district in county will be set.

There are two seats up for re-election on the Gonzales City Council: Bobby O’Neal District 3 and Dan Blakemore District 4. Both have filed for re-election and both have drawn a challenger. Jace Opiela has filed for the District 3 seat, while Rob Brown will contest for District 4.

Every other city council in county has its mayor and two other council seats up for re-election. In Nixon those seats currently belong to Mayor Dorothy Riojas, Mark Soto and Maggie Gaytan. In Waelder, Mayor Roy Tovar, Peggy Blackmon and Robert Tovar. In Smiley, Mayor Michael K. Mills, Kathy Whitehead and Willie Ann Canion. Whitehead and Canion have announced they will not be seeking re-election.

All three Gonzales ISD school board members up in May have refiled. Those include, District 3 Glenn Menking, District 5 Ross Hendershot III and District 6 Sue Gottwald. To date none of them have challengers.

Two members on the Nixon-Smiley CISD board are up in May. Those members are Place 4 William Griffin and Place 6 Aly Tschoepe.

There are also two members up on the Waelder ISD board, those being Dora Noyola and Diana Olmos. Both have refiled.

Four board members are up for reelection on the Gonzales Health Care Systems Board. Those board members are Precinct 1 Lisa Gindler, Precinct 2 Kenneth Gottwald, Precinct 3 Gregory Tieken and Precinct 4 Wayne South. 

The Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District also has three board members up for reelection. Those include Precinct 2 Bruce Patterson, Precinct 4 Barry Miller and Precinct 5 Kermit Thiele Jr.

Contact each city secretary or each group’s elections coordinator for more information on how to file.