Beto O'Rourke
Encyclopedia
Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke, born September 26, 1972, is an American entrepreneur, civic leader, and former member of the Paso Del Norte Group
. O'Rourke was the District 8 representative of El Paso, Texas
, from June 2005 to June 2011. He is currently running for the Democratic nomination for Congress, against incumbent Silvestre Reyes.
O'Rourke is a fourth-generation El Paso native. He is the son of former El Paso County Judge Pat O'Rourke and Melissa O'Rourke. Pat O'Rourke, was killed in a bicycling accident on July 6, 2001. His grandparents were Frank and Mildred O'Rourke and Robert and Charlotte Williams.
O'Rourke attended Mesita Elementary
and El Paso High School
, and in 1995, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature from Columbia University
in New York City
.
O'Rourke spent three years working at Internet start-ups in New York City
before his return to El Paso in 1998. In 1999, O'Rourke formed his own company with the help of a few friends in downtown El Paso, now called Stanton Street Technology Group, which does IT consulting and Web design for small to medium-size businesses. Since its creation, Stanton Street Technology Group has developed into a leading provider of web-based services in El Paso and the surrounding region.
Amy Hoover Sanders married Beto O'Rourke on September 24, 2005 in Santa Fe, New Mexico
. She is the daughter of William
and Louann Sanders of El Paso, and the granddaughter of Richard and Louann Feuille and David and Marion Sanders. She graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts
, with a major in psychology. After graduating, she spent a year teaching in Guatemala
and moved to El Paso in August 2004.
against two-term city councilman Anthony Cobos
. O'Rourke is one of the youngest representatives to have ever served the City of El Paso. Although City Council is non-partisan, O'Rourke is involved in the Democratic Party.
O'Rourke's short political career has been marked by various initiatives. Among the most publicized initiatives was an August 2005 resolution drafted by council members Steve Ortega and Beto O'Rourke, calling on city officials to discourage the anti-illegal immigrant Minutemen from patrolling the local stretch of the Texas-Mexico border and "reject civilian attempts to enforce immigration law." Essentially, making the Minutemen officially unwelcome in El Paso. The resolution opted for "cooperation and goodwill" over further militarization of the border. Minutemen spokesman Shannon McGauley
said his group planned to go ahead with October operations in El Paso, despite the resolution. "It doesn't mean anything, to me or any American who wants secure borders." McGauley said. "It's just an opinion." The resolution was supported by seven of the eight city representatives. Articles on the subject arose in the Associated Press
, Yahoo! News
, Forbes
, as well as many Spanish language
publications.
In 2006 there was a failed attempt to recall O'Rourke, over the El Paso Downtown Redevelopment plan. Because of O'Rourke's involvement in and support of the controversial Downtown Revitalization Plan
, South Side activist Carmen Felix initiated a recall petition drive against him on May 3, 2006. Those calling for the recall election raised question as to whether O'Rourke's actions in promoting the plan are in the best interest of the community he represents. Despite the threat of being recalled O'Rourke continued to strongly advocate the use of eminent domain
in conjunction with the plan to redevelop downtown El Paso. O'Rourke's emphasis on the matter seemed to change subtly as the recall drive deadline neared.
At the El Paso City Council
meeting of June 13, 2005, East-Central El Paso city Rep. José Alexandro Lozano proposed a ban on the use of eminent domain for private redevelopment downtown. "If the property owners are not satisfied, we are not going to move forward, period", Lozano said to cheers from the audience. "We have to kill this plan unless the owners give us permission to continue." Boos greeted Mayor John Cook
when he said, "If you're finished with your soapbox, I would entertain a motion to postpone this until the first meeting in July." A vote was quickly called by O'Rourke without hearing from people who had signed up to speak. The vote ended in a 4-3 decision against the proposed ban.
At the El Paso city council meeting held on July 9, 2006, O'Rourke, still under threat of recall showed a distinct change in tone toward the El Paso Downtown Revitalization Plan. O'Rourke responded to a question posed by fellow city councilman Lozano with respect to whether residents displaced by new construction "could come back to the area." O'Rourke responded in assurance that the city would make "every effort" to ensure displaced residents were allowed to remain in their same neighborhoods. O'Rourke also fronted amendments adopting a portion of an alternate Downtown Plan offered by Lozano, to encourage utilities, large businesses and public sector agencies to move Downtown; as well as a value statement to "explore arena options" -- whether an arena is needed, and where to put it.
On July 25, 2006, The El Paso Times
as well as local news stations reported that Felix et al. had failed to file the recall petition with the city attorney's office by the legal deadline. Felix rebutted that the petition would be ready to hand in on Monday July 27. Critics speculated Felix failed to acquire all 978 signatures of registered voters in O'Rourke's district to call the election. Opponents of O'Rourke deemed much of the petition's failure was largely due to the reluctance among lower-income people to challenge the powers that be.
"Now that they actually decided not to follow through on their commitment to turn the petitions in, I feel it's really over," O'Rourke said. "To me, it was heartening that after ... all their claims of popular opposition to me and this plan, that they were unable on Friday or again on Monday to turn in a petition that validated any of their claims."
On September 5, 2006, lawyers for the Land Grab Opponents of El Paso filed an ethics complaint with the City of El Paso alleging that South-West Rep. Beto O'Rourke “violated his fiduciary duty to the citizens of El Paso.” According to the complaint, O'Rourke stands to benefit from his relationship with the Paso del Norte Group because his firm does business with the group. It states that “O'Rourke is impermissibly entangled in the Paso del Norte Group's Downtown Revitalization Plan, through both family and business ties.” The complaint alleges that O'Rourke's company, Stanton Street Technology Group, provides Internet and Information Technology services to the Paso del Norte Group. Despite these ties, O'Rourke voted to extend the group's contract with the city last year and to accept the group's redevelopment proposal in March, according to the complaint. The El Paso municipal code demands that council members and city officials avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest. The city's Ethics Review Commission summarily dismissed the first ethics complaint on October 12, 2006. The second complaint was dismissed on October 18, 2006. O'rourke issued the following statement: "These actions are not isolated events... They are part of a much larger process of character assassination
and political intimidation
that has involved recall petitions, public smear campaigns and not one but two formal ethics complaints." The Land Grab Opponents' lawyer Blaugrund said his intent in filing the ethics complaints was to make O'Rourke recuse himself from debating and voting on the Downtown plan because his father-in-law, William "Bill" Sanders, is a leader in the Paso del Norte Group that advanced the plan. Blaugrund also cited the business relationship between Paso del Norte Group and O'Rourke's Stanton Street Technologies. In the second ethics complaint, Blaugrund pointed to evidence he said suggests that the chief financial officer of Sanders' company, The Verde Group, prepared O'Rourke's income tax return this year. O'Rourke abstained at Tuesday's City Council meeting from voting on the establishment of a Downtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which is to be the city's mechanism for investing in the redevelopment plan, and he left council chambers during the discussion. O'Rourke said he abstained because his wife's employer, Clinica Familiar de Salud La Fe, owns property in the reinvestment zone and could benefit from new development. That advice came from the city attorney's office. Blaugrund said O'Rourke's decision "to finally recuse himself from voting on issues relating to Downtown redevelopment is a victory for advocates of open and transparent government." Mayor John Cook voted for O'Rourkes in his absence. Blaugrund stated that, "His ridiculous assertions show that he is perfectly capable of destroying his political career all by himself."
O'Rourke ran for re-election in 2007 and was re-elected on May 12, 2007. Voter turnout in District 8 was 10.1 percent, and he took 70 percent of the 3,350 votes cast, winning all but one of the 19 precincts in the district, including precinct 35, commonly referred to as "Segundo Barrio" or the Second Ward.
During the 2007 campaign a prominently placed billboard
featuring his campaign slogan "One Agenda. El Paso." was vandalized shortly after being erected. The vandal(s) used black spray paint to write the word "OWN" between the words "agenda." and "El".
In January 2009, O'Rourke sponsored a resolution asking the federal government to rethink the war on drugs and initiate an "open and honest debate" about ending the prohibition of illegal drugs. The resolution, which was unanimously supported by his colleagues on the El Paso City Council and later vetoed by the Mayor, spurred a larger national discussion on the topic. He told reporters that the reason he decided to speak up about what he called the failed war on drugs was the thousands of people who have been killed in the drug war in the adjoining city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
"I hope it has all had its intended affect of starting the national discussion of the wisdom of the war on drugs … and probably more importantly, helping to bring about a better solution than the status quo, which has led to the terror and tragedy in Juarez," he said at the time.
His efforts to encourage a national conversation have been picked up in articles and broadcasts in the New York Times, Time, the BBC, CNN, NPR and many other media outlets.
O'Rourke's current term will end in 2011.
O'Rourke considered running against Congressman Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary in 2010, but decided not to. He will, however, run against Reyes in 2012.
entertainment weekly circulated throughout El Paso. Each year the reader publishes a special issue titled "Best of El Paso." This issue consists of a compilation of various businesses, people, and events deemed "best of" by readers of the periodical who participate in a vote. Runners-up included Mayor John Cook
in second place, and Congressman Silvestre Reyes
in third.
descent.
In the early 1990s, Beto O'Rourke was a singer and guitarist in the band Foss. Foss included Cedric Bixler-Zavala
(vocalist for At the Drive-In
and The Mars Volta
) on vocals and drums, Arlo Klahr (vocalist for Fragile Gang) on vocals and guitar, and Mike Stevens on vocals and guitar. They released a self-titled demo and a 7" record entitled The El Paso Pussycats on Western Breed Records in 1993. They released a subsequent album entitled "Fewel St." in 1994, also on Western Breed Records. Foss toured the U.S. and Canada in the summer of 1993 and again, along with Bixler's concurrent band, Los Dregtones, in the summer of 1994.
Paso Del Norte Group
The Paso Del Norte Group is a private organization of approximately 360 business and civic leaders of El Paso, Texas, United States. The group, meant to be representative of the El Paso region, also includes members from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and Southern New Mexico.Patterned after similar...
. O'Rourke was the District 8 representative of El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, from June 2005 to June 2011. He is currently running for the Democratic nomination for Congress, against incumbent Silvestre Reyes.
O'Rourke is a fourth-generation El Paso native. He is the son of former El Paso County Judge Pat O'Rourke and Melissa O'Rourke. Pat O'Rourke, was killed in a bicycling accident on July 6, 2001. His grandparents were Frank and Mildred O'Rourke and Robert and Charlotte Williams.
O'Rourke attended Mesita Elementary
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
and El Paso High School
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, and in 1995, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
O'Rourke spent three years working at Internet start-ups in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
before his return to El Paso in 1998. In 1999, O'Rourke formed his own company with the help of a few friends in downtown El Paso, now called Stanton Street Technology Group, which does IT consulting and Web design for small to medium-size businesses. Since its creation, Stanton Street Technology Group has developed into a leading provider of web-based services in El Paso and the surrounding region.
Amy Hoover Sanders married Beto O'Rourke on September 24, 2005 in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. She is the daughter of William
William Sanders
William Sanders may refer to:* William Sanders * William Sanders * William Sanders * William David Sanders , U.S. teacher and victim of Columbine High School massacre...
and Louann Sanders of El Paso, and the granddaughter of Richard and Louann Feuille and David and Marion Sanders. She graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, with a major in psychology. After graduating, she spent a year teaching in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and moved to El Paso in August 2004.
Political career
In mid-2005, O'Rourke won a seat on the El Paso city councilEl Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
against two-term city councilman Anthony Cobos
Anthony Cobos
Anthony Cobos is a politician from the State of Texas in the United States. He served as the El Paso County Judge from 2007 - 2011. Judge Cobos is also a former member of the El Paso City Council. El Paso County, Texas is located on the border of the United States and Mexico...
. O'Rourke is one of the youngest representatives to have ever served the City of El Paso. Although City Council is non-partisan, O'Rourke is involved in the Democratic Party.
O'Rourke's short political career has been marked by various initiatives. Among the most publicized initiatives was an August 2005 resolution drafted by council members Steve Ortega and Beto O'Rourke, calling on city officials to discourage the anti-illegal immigrant Minutemen from patrolling the local stretch of the Texas-Mexico border and "reject civilian attempts to enforce immigration law." Essentially, making the Minutemen officially unwelcome in El Paso. The resolution opted for "cooperation and goodwill" over further militarization of the border. Minutemen spokesman Shannon McGauley
Shannon McGauley
Shannon McGauley is the co-founder, spokesman, and president of the Texas Minuteman Inc., USA, the Official Texas Minutemen Texas.....
said his group planned to go ahead with October operations in El Paso, despite the resolution. "It doesn't mean anything, to me or any American who wants secure borders." McGauley said. "It's just an opinion." The resolution was supported by seven of the eight city representatives. Articles on the subject arose in the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, Yahoo! News
Yahoo! News
Yahoo! News is an Internet-based news aggregator provided by Yahoo!. It features Top Stories, U.S. National, World, Business, Entertainment, Science, Health, Weather, Most Popular, News Photos, Op/Ed, and Local news....
, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, as well as many Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
publications.
In 2006 there was a failed attempt to recall O'Rourke, over the El Paso Downtown Redevelopment plan. Because of O'Rourke's involvement in and support of the controversial Downtown Revitalization Plan
Paso Del Norte Group
The Paso Del Norte Group is a private organization of approximately 360 business and civic leaders of El Paso, Texas, United States. The group, meant to be representative of the El Paso region, also includes members from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and Southern New Mexico.Patterned after similar...
, South Side activist Carmen Felix initiated a recall petition drive against him on May 3, 2006. Those calling for the recall election raised question as to whether O'Rourke's actions in promoting the plan are in the best interest of the community he represents. Despite the threat of being recalled O'Rourke continued to strongly advocate the use of eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
in conjunction with the plan to redevelop downtown El Paso. O'Rourke's emphasis on the matter seemed to change subtly as the recall drive deadline neared.
At the El Paso City Council
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
meeting of June 13, 2005, East-Central El Paso city Rep. José Alexandro Lozano proposed a ban on the use of eminent domain for private redevelopment downtown. "If the property owners are not satisfied, we are not going to move forward, period", Lozano said to cheers from the audience. "We have to kill this plan unless the owners give us permission to continue." Boos greeted Mayor John Cook
John Cook (El Paso)
John Cook is an American teacher, businessman, veteran, civic leader, and member of the Paso Del Norte Group. Cook has been Mayor of El Paso, Texas since defeating incumbent Joe Wardy in June 2005, and was reelected in 2009 to a second four-year term...
when he said, "If you're finished with your soapbox, I would entertain a motion to postpone this until the first meeting in July." A vote was quickly called by O'Rourke without hearing from people who had signed up to speak. The vote ended in a 4-3 decision against the proposed ban.
At the El Paso city council meeting held on July 9, 2006, O'Rourke, still under threat of recall showed a distinct change in tone toward the El Paso Downtown Revitalization Plan. O'Rourke responded to a question posed by fellow city councilman Lozano with respect to whether residents displaced by new construction "could come back to the area." O'Rourke responded in assurance that the city would make "every effort" to ensure displaced residents were allowed to remain in their same neighborhoods. O'Rourke also fronted amendments adopting a portion of an alternate Downtown Plan offered by Lozano, to encourage utilities, large businesses and public sector agencies to move Downtown; as well as a value statement to "explore arena options" -- whether an arena is needed, and where to put it.
On July 25, 2006, The El Paso Times
El Paso Times
The El Paso Times is the English-language newspaper for the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas. The paper was founded in 1881 by Marcellus Washington Carrico. It originally started out as a weekly but within a year's time, it became the daily newspaper for the frontier town.The newspaper has a daily...
as well as local news stations reported that Felix et al. had failed to file the recall petition with the city attorney's office by the legal deadline. Felix rebutted that the petition would be ready to hand in on Monday July 27. Critics speculated Felix failed to acquire all 978 signatures of registered voters in O'Rourke's district to call the election. Opponents of O'Rourke deemed much of the petition's failure was largely due to the reluctance among lower-income people to challenge the powers that be.
"Now that they actually decided not to follow through on their commitment to turn the petitions in, I feel it's really over," O'Rourke said. "To me, it was heartening that after ... all their claims of popular opposition to me and this plan, that they were unable on Friday or again on Monday to turn in a petition that validated any of their claims."
On September 5, 2006, lawyers for the Land Grab Opponents of El Paso filed an ethics complaint with the City of El Paso alleging that South-West Rep. Beto O'Rourke “violated his fiduciary duty to the citizens of El Paso.” According to the complaint, O'Rourke stands to benefit from his relationship with the Paso del Norte Group because his firm does business with the group. It states that “O'Rourke is impermissibly entangled in the Paso del Norte Group's Downtown Revitalization Plan, through both family and business ties.” The complaint alleges that O'Rourke's company, Stanton Street Technology Group, provides Internet and Information Technology services to the Paso del Norte Group. Despite these ties, O'Rourke voted to extend the group's contract with the city last year and to accept the group's redevelopment proposal in March, according to the complaint. The El Paso municipal code demands that council members and city officials avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest. The city's Ethics Review Commission summarily dismissed the first ethics complaint on October 12, 2006. The second complaint was dismissed on October 18, 2006. O'rourke issued the following statement: "These actions are not isolated events... They are part of a much larger process of character assassination
Character assassination
Character assassination is an attempt to tarnish a person's reputation. It may involve exaggeration, misleading half-truths, or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person...
and political intimidation
Intimidation
Intimidation is intentional behavior "which would cause a person of ordinary sensibilities" fear of injury or harm. It's not necessary to prove that the behavior was so violent as to cause terror or that the victim was actually frightened.Criminal threatening is the crime of intentionally or...
that has involved recall petitions, public smear campaigns and not one but two formal ethics complaints." The Land Grab Opponents' lawyer Blaugrund said his intent in filing the ethics complaints was to make O'Rourke recuse himself from debating and voting on the Downtown plan because his father-in-law, William "Bill" Sanders, is a leader in the Paso del Norte Group that advanced the plan. Blaugrund also cited the business relationship between Paso del Norte Group and O'Rourke's Stanton Street Technologies. In the second ethics complaint, Blaugrund pointed to evidence he said suggests that the chief financial officer of Sanders' company, The Verde Group, prepared O'Rourke's income tax return this year. O'Rourke abstained at Tuesday's City Council meeting from voting on the establishment of a Downtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which is to be the city's mechanism for investing in the redevelopment plan, and he left council chambers during the discussion. O'Rourke said he abstained because his wife's employer, Clinica Familiar de Salud La Fe, owns property in the reinvestment zone and could benefit from new development. That advice came from the city attorney's office. Blaugrund said O'Rourke's decision "to finally recuse himself from voting on issues relating to Downtown redevelopment is a victory for advocates of open and transparent government." Mayor John Cook voted for O'Rourkes in his absence. Blaugrund stated that, "His ridiculous assertions show that he is perfectly capable of destroying his political career all by himself."
O'Rourke ran for re-election in 2007 and was re-elected on May 12, 2007. Voter turnout in District 8 was 10.1 percent, and he took 70 percent of the 3,350 votes cast, winning all but one of the 19 precincts in the district, including precinct 35, commonly referred to as "Segundo Barrio" or the Second Ward.
During the 2007 campaign a prominently placed billboard
Billboard (advertising)
A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
featuring his campaign slogan "One Agenda. El Paso." was vandalized shortly after being erected. The vandal(s) used black spray paint to write the word "OWN" between the words "agenda." and "El".
In January 2009, O'Rourke sponsored a resolution asking the federal government to rethink the war on drugs and initiate an "open and honest debate" about ending the prohibition of illegal drugs. The resolution, which was unanimously supported by his colleagues on the El Paso City Council and later vetoed by the Mayor, spurred a larger national discussion on the topic. He told reporters that the reason he decided to speak up about what he called the failed war on drugs was the thousands of people who have been killed in the drug war in the adjoining city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
"I hope it has all had its intended affect of starting the national discussion of the wisdom of the war on drugs … and probably more importantly, helping to bring about a better solution than the status quo, which has led to the terror and tragedy in Juarez," he said at the time.
His efforts to encourage a national conversation have been picked up in articles and broadcasts in the New York Times, Time, the BBC, CNN, NPR and many other media outlets.
O'Rourke's current term will end in 2011.
O'Rourke considered running against Congressman Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary in 2010, but decided not to. He will, however, run against Reyes in 2012.
Achievements
O'Rourke was voted "Best Elected Official" in the July 12–18, 2006 edition (Vol. 7. No.41) of "What's Up", an English languageEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
entertainment weekly circulated throughout El Paso. Each year the reader publishes a special issue titled "Best of El Paso." This issue consists of a compilation of various businesses, people, and events deemed "best of" by readers of the periodical who participate in a vote. Runners-up included Mayor John Cook
John Cook (El Paso)
John Cook is an American teacher, businessman, veteran, civic leader, and member of the Paso Del Norte Group. Cook has been Mayor of El Paso, Texas since defeating incumbent Joe Wardy in June 2005, and was reelected in 2009 to a second four-year term...
in second place, and Congressman Silvestre Reyes
Silvestre Reyes
Silvestre "Silver" Reyes is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997, and the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the primary Committee in the U.S...
in third.
Miscellaneous
O'Rourke is of IrishIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
descent.
In the early 1990s, Beto O'Rourke was a singer and guitarist in the band Foss. Foss included Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Cedric Bixler-Zavala is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American musician known for his work as frontman and lyricist of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta, and previously as frontman and occasional guitarist of the post-hardcore punk group At the Drive-In...
(vocalist for At the Drive-In
At the Drive-In
At the Drive-In was an American rock band from El Paso, Texas, considered part of the post-hardcore genre and active from 1993 to 2001. They were known for their extremely energetic stage shows which hearkened back to the 1980s hardcore scene...
and The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta is a Grammy award winning American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and...
) on vocals and drums, Arlo Klahr (vocalist for Fragile Gang) on vocals and guitar, and Mike Stevens on vocals and guitar. They released a self-titled demo and a 7" record entitled The El Paso Pussycats on Western Breed Records in 1993. They released a subsequent album entitled "Fewel St." in 1994, also on Western Breed Records. Foss toured the U.S. and Canada in the summer of 1993 and again, along with Bixler's concurrent band, Los Dregtones, in the summer of 1994.