The Illusion of Inclusion: The Political Story of San Antonio, Texas

7. Style and Strategy in San Antonio Politics

/ 7 / Style and Strategy in San Antonio Politics The analysis in this chapter focuses on the consequences of change in how political representatives are elected to city council. In particular, how politics is negotiated at the electoral level and how that impacts the ability of communities to voice their interests in the decision-making process is looked at. Accountability as well as the ability of communities to define the policy issues facing the city in the context of a dynamic and demanding market economy are the major issues. Stated in a more succinct manner, the analysis explores whether single-member districts, and the advent of independent representation , empower the Chicano community or set the stage for politicians who simply serve as brokers for the business community.1 The analysis begins by describing the consequences of the demise of organizational agendas as the dominant form of political access. It then focuses on the consequences of institutional change on political representation and, more importantly, on the style of politics. A Political Environment in Flux The city council elections of 1975 were the first elections in this century in which no group was able to capture a majority of the council seats. The traditionally dominant force in post–World War ii San Antonio politics, the ggl, had been in disarray since the elections of 1973, when it failed to win a majority of the city council seats for the first time since 1955. The cause of the 1973 defeat was a split in the ggl over whether to continue developing the affluent north side or to redevelop the central city. The so-called new northside money ran an independent slate that won a majority of the seats and thus selected the mayor, who was chosen by the city council from among its members . Significantly, this split in the ggl also reflected a split in the Anglo voting precincts. In November of 1974, San Antonio voters approved an amendment that established a system for the direct election of the mayor by the electorate. This represented the final crack in the ggl’s dominance of city politics. In the 1975 elections, the ggl won the mayoral race, but managed to win only one city council seat. Lila Cockrell, the ggl mayoral candidate, was the first woman elected mayor in San Antonio’s history. The other ggl candidate elected was a relatively unknown young Chicano, Henry G. Cisneros.2 After these elections, different business groups tried to reorganize, but they were unsuccessful. Thus, no organizational discipline or agenda encumbered any particular candidate’s political outlook. The dominant business interests in San Antonio now surfaced in the personal agendas of individual candidates rather than in a slate governed by an organizational agenda. The liberal strategy shifted to community organizing and the use of legal and other nonelectoral means.3 Especially in the Chicano community, Chicano political activists, caught in the rising expectations of this more open environment , were mobilizing forces to fight the still intact at-large system of electing city council members.4 Thus, with the dominant political forces in disarray, the elections of 1975 took place within the first seemingly pluralistic political environment that San Antonio had ever had. More profoundly, however, the emergence of community and neighborhood organizations signalled a changing infrastructure of politics. As pointed out in the preceding chapter, various organizations emerged from and because of the Chicano movement. The most significant of these organizations, Communities Organized for Public Service (cops), was formally organized when it held its first citywide convention in 1974.5 Its grassroots style of organizing melded local Catholic Church parish organizations into a communitywide organization based in the west and southwest sides of San Antonio. This proved to be a very effective strategy by which to force attention to the neglected conditions of its neighborhoods. More importantly, cops provided a community organization model that would be followed by a myriad of emerging community organizations in the 1980s. 142 The Illusion of Inclusion / This model, based on the Industrial Areas Foundation’s grassroots style of organizing, established an infrastructure of politics that eschewed direct electoral participation in favor of a grassroots lobbying style of politics. It aimed at holding individual politicians accountable to the particular needs and interests of their communities, such as better lighting and drainage in their neighborhoods, as well as greater access to library and health care services in...