At 5:00 pm on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023, filing for municipal seats was finalized, with the exception of Brownfield ISD’s District 1 seat. After the filing ended, there will be two elections that take place and one will be countywide.
Beginning with the City of Brownfield, there were four seats to be voted on. Districts 4, & 5, plus the two at-large districts. Councilwoman (Mayor Pro-Tem) Michelle Cooper who currently holds District 4 and Councilman Eric Horton who currently holds District 5 cannot file for these positions due to term limits. In Districts 4 and 5, only one person filed in each district and will automatically be placed. Marshall Martell will become the District 4 Councilman and Mark Williams will be the District 5 Councilman. Both will take the oath of office in May.
Currently, the two at-large positions are held by Councilmen Isaiah Bautista and Michael Tackitt, which both could refile to run for these seats. Four have filed for the At-large positions, which are incumbent Michael Tackitt, former City Councilman Leon Pope, Don Bishop, and Jimmy Garza. With four vying for two positions, there will be an election and it will be the top two who will take the seats.
In the City of Meadow, there are three at-large positions to be voted on. Councilmembers Kandace Welch (Mayor Pro Tem), Everett McArthur, and Lynn Carroll currently hold these seats and can refile if they decide to. Three people have filed the three at-large positions, two of them are incumbents Kandace Welch and Everett McArthur and the other is Nettie Ticer. All three will take the oath of office in May.
In the City of Wellman, there will not be any change. The Mayor’s positions, Seat 2 and Seat 4 are up with Mayor Eddie Garza as the current mayor, Councilwoman Rachel Escobar currently holding Seat 2, and Councilman Seth Hollowell holding Seat 4. All three filed for the same positions, and there will not be an election. Mayor Garza, Councilwoman Escobar, and Councilman Hollowell will take the oath of office in May.
Moving on to the school districts, again not much changed. Brownfield ISD will have three seats to vote on. Currently, Trustee District 1 is vacant and filing for BISD District 1 will end at 5:00 PM on March 6, 2023. Trustee District 4 is up, which is currently held by Geoff Cooper who is the current President of the School Board and he has filed for this position. Trustee District 5 is coming up as well and is currently held by Tim Swaringen, which has also filed for the same position. There will be no election for Districts 4 and 5.
Meadow ISD has two Trustee At-Large seats to vote on. Currently, Rusty Day, who is the board president and Jim Ticer hold those two positions, and both have filed for those positions. The same goes for Wellman-Union ISD. At WUISD, there are also two Trustee At-Large positions coming up which are held by Board President James Harlan and Board Vice President Barrett Brown. Both have filed for the same positions.
This leaves one more municipal entity that will have an election. Brownfield Regional Medical Center has two Directors At-Large seats coming up. Those two are currently held by Silvia Dingus and Joe Silva. Director Dingus opted to not run, however, Director Silva did file and two others also filed who is Jeffrey Michael Davis Jr and Erasmo “Raz” Gonzales. There will be an election and the top two will take those positions.
The South Plains Underground Water Conservation District does not have any seats open this election cycle.
Other information from the Terry County Joint Elections Office:
Filing for BISD District 1 will end at 5:00 PM on March 6, 2023. If someone wants to file as a write-in they must do so by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, February 21, 2023. The Elections Office will be closed on Monday, February 20, 2023, for Presidents Day. Ballot Drawing and Elections 101 meeting for the candidates and the public will be on March 8, 2023, at 6:00 P.M. Last day to register to vote is April 6, 2023, and the last day to request to vote by mail is April 25, 2023. Early Voting begins April 24, 2023, and runs through May 2, 2023. Election Day is May 6, 2023
