Race for Commissioners Court could see Wolff’s seat in play

If you’re a San Antonio Republican with political aspirations, Kevin Wolff’s Commissioners Court seat is the plum elective office.

For one thing, Precinct 3 is solidly in the GOP column, a beet-red dot in a sea of Bexar County blue. For another, the job pays more than $130,000 — three times as much as a City Council post and four times what state lawmakers make (even counting the per diems they get during legislative sessions).

The job comes with no fundraising limitations and no term limits and it enables you to be a member of a governing body that includes only five members. And it doesn’t require you to spend long stretches away from your family in Austin or Washington, D.C.

Keeping all that in mind, it should surprise no one that within hours of

Wolff’s surprise announcement last Thursday that he will not seek re-election next year, several potential contenders emerged for next March’s GOP primary.

At least two candidates are certain.

Genie Wright, the former two-term county court-at-law judge, was already considering challenging Wolff before he decided to step aside and she now says she’s definitely in the race. Wright will build her campaign on the premise that much of the Commissioners Court’s work involves overseeing judicial issues and that she will be uniquely qualified to make those evaluations.

Mitch Meyer, a developer who owns the Loopy Limited real-estate company, also says his candidacy is a sure thing. Meyer said he’s been eyeing the Precinct 3 seat for a couple of years. He will cast himself as a business-oriented moderate who is independent of party orthodoxy.

The list of color-meinterested (but not yet committed) contenders is longer and highly intriguing.

Former Councilman Greg Brockhouse, only two months after dropping a close mayoral runoff to Ron Nirenberg, said he is giving Precinct 3 a “good look.” Brockhouse added that he’s “been approached” by people in the community to consider running and he’s “not ruling anything out.”

Councilman Clayton Perry, whose Northeast Side council district overlaps with Precinct 3, said, “I’m going to look at everything closely.”

Perry emphasized that he enjoys serving on the council, but added, “When other opportunities come up, you take a look at it.”

It’s also worth keeping an eye on Jonathan Gurwitz, the vice president of KGBTexas, a high-powered communications firm. Gurwitz, a former ExpressNews columnist, is a conservative intellectual with a long family history in the San Antonio area.

The Democratic side has seen less activity, but Sarah Sepeda-Garcia, a local community activist, recently launched her campaign for Wolff’s seat.

If the Precinct 3 seat is so coveted, the obvious question is why Wolff would give it up. Wolff, a former title company executive, said he missed working in the private sector and wanted to spend more time with his family.

At the same time, it’s easy to see his departure as the third shoe to drop for pragmatic San Antonioarea Republicans over the past two years.

In 2017, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus decided not to seek another term. Three weeks ago, Congressman Will Hurd announced that he was stepping down.

Straus and Hurd, like Wolff, are old-school Republicans who value entrepreneurship and have little tolerance for culturewar battles or social crusades. As a result, all three periodically found themselves uncomfortable with the direction their party was taking.

Wolff encountered his share of controversies during his three terms on the Commissioners Court. In July 2016, he was charged with driving under the influence after his vehicle twice rear-ended the car in front of him at a Whataburger drive-thru lane. Acknowledging that he had mixed vodka with prescription drugs, he pleaded no contest.

As the court’s military liaison, Wolff, a Navy vet, was accused last year by former Veterans Service Officer Queta Rodriguez of reneging on a promise to maintain a position for her in the veterans office, presumably to punish her for challenging then-County Commissioner Paul Elizondo in the 2018 Democratic primary. (Wolff denied making that promise.)

All in all, however, Wolff built an admirable record on the court, particularly in the area of transportation. Over the past two years, he has served as chairman of the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and he played a key role in the completion of Wurzbach Parkway and the expansion of 281 north of 1604.

In 2014, he took control of a scandal-plagued Alamo Area Council of Governments. Using strategies he learned during his business career, he revamped the organization, stabilized it and helped put new leadership in place.

“I was doing somebody’s $170,000 job for free,” Wolff joked Friday.

Wolff always has advocated for limited government. But he also believes in the power of government to marshal its resources to do big things for the people it serves. Hopefully, whoever succeeds him will share that faith.