Get ready for an onslaught. At least four political action committees are raising money to influence voters’ decisions on policing reforms known as Prop A on San Antonio’s May 6 municipal election ballot.
The proposed City Charter amendment, referred to by supporters as the Justice Charter, seeks to decriminalize marijuana and abortion, further restrict police officers’ use of no-knock warrants, ban chokeholds, expand the city’s cite-and-release policy for some low-level, nonviolent crimes and establish a justice director position within the city’s administration.
That array of issues contained in Prop A has drawn interest from a plethora of similarly named groups trying to defeat it, including a PAC aligned with the San Antonio Police Officers Association and one funded by members of the business community. A third new outside group, started by business and commercial real estate leaders, is campaigning against just the cite-and-release provision as part of a larger economic development platform.
Meanwhile, pro-Prop A forces are largely consolidated under the group ACT 4 SA — which stands for Accountability, Compassion and Transparency for San Antonio. The nonprofit has started its own political action committee, SA Justice Charter PAC.
ACT 4 SA was created by leaders of a failed 2021 police accountability proposal known as Prop B, which would have would have taken away the police union’s right to collectively bargain its contract with the city. ACT 4 SA members collected roughly 40,000 signatures to get Prop A on the ballot this May.
As ads hit the airwaves and mailboxes, here’s a look at who is supporting and opposing Prop A and why.
Protect SA
This political action committee is aligned with San Antonio’s police union and is already on TV with ads saying Prop A will destroy the local economy.
In 2021 the union spent $600,000 defeating Prop B. Since then, its leadership has changed, as has its political consultants.
The union declined to estimate how much it would spend opposing Prop A. It reported roughly $400,000 on hand at the end of February.
Union President Danny Diaz has been rallying support from local Republican groups to aid the opposition effort.
Last month the union conducted a poll of registered voters to gauge public opinion of the charter amendment’s various potential effects.
Questions from the unscientific, text message poll gauged people’s reactions to statements that Prop A “would allow churches to be vandalized without repercussion” and “would prevent police from responding to dine and dash incidents.”
The statements appear to refer to a provision in Prop A that would require police officers to issue citations for certain nonviolent crimes and adds graffiti to the list of misdemeanors eligible for cite-and-release. But citations would still be issued, and Prop A would not prohibit police response.
San Antonio SAFE PAC
This single-issue PAC, allied with the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, plans to stress provisions of Prop A its leaders believe will make San Antonio less favorable for business.
The group plans to kick off its fundraising with a reception at the private Club Giraud Tuesday night, according to an invitation from the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
Sponsorship levels for the event range from $1,000 to $50,000. The event’s host committee includes prominent names like San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Marina Gonzales, developer Mike Lynd, former Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade, trucking tycoon Adam Blanchard and KGBTexas CEO and San Antonio chamber Chair Katie Harvey, among others.
“A lot of us spend a lot of time, energy and effort selling San Antonio as a great place to do business,” said Eddie Aldrete, a former senior vice president at IBC Bank and co-host of Tuesday’s fundraiser.
“If the job creators and the paycheck providers think we’re going down the same path as Austin, they’re going to think twice about coming here,” Aldrete said.
The PAC has tested messaging strategies for opposing the Prop A provision that would require police to issue citations instead of arresting people for some nonviolent crimes, such as graffiti and property damage under $2,500 and theft under $750.
“When people understand this means you don’t arrest people who rob and steal from them, who shoplift or vandalize their property … then they are very much against this,” said the PAC’s political consultant, Kelton Morgan.
The group’s plans include potential digital, radio, TV and direct mail ads, depending on how much money is raised, according to Aldrete.
Better SA
This group was launched in September by Blanchard and two past presidents of the Real Estate Council of San Antonio, Brad Carson and Greg Gibson, to help City Council candidates who support economic development.
Better SA is asking council hopefuls to sign a pledge saying they’ll oppose changes to the City Charter that would limit police officers’ discretion to arrest people for theft and graffiti.
The group is already knocking doors in District 2, where Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez — a vocal proponent of Prop A — is seeking reelection. Better SA plans to be involved in the majority of council races this municipal election and active in local issues beyond 2023.
SA Justice Charter PAC
Texas Organizing Project, which spends big on progressive causes, was the top donor for the Fix SAPD PAC, which supported 2021’s Prop B, through the nonprofit’s Education Fund. ACT 4 SA founder and Executive Director Ananda Tomas, who was also involved in that ballot initiative, said she hopes the statewide group will make significant contributions to this one.
The first round of required campaign finance reports aren’t due until later this week, but Tomas said the SA Justice Charter PAC has raised and spent a comfortable amount so far.
“We’re going to get some ads out there,” she said, but she doesn’t expect to buy television advertisements. “We don’t have the budget for that.”
When ACT 4 SA began collecting petitions for the charter amendment in October, Tomas didn’t think spending would match that of Prop B, which reached nearly $1 million. Now that the opposition to Prop A has sparked two PACs in addition to the police union’s, she’s not so sure.
“I would hope that we could raise as much money as we did for Fix SAPD and be able to deploy it, but right now costs have actually been less,” she said, because they aren’t experiencing the barriers of the pandemic seen in 2021.
Tomas doesn’t expect additional PACs to form in support of Prop A, but she knows that elected officials and organizations who have endorsed the measure — including Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, Planned Parenthood Texas’ political advisor and former state Sen. Wendy Davis, SA 2020, MOVE Texas and the San Antonio AFL-CIO — will speak out in favor of the Justice Charter.
She did not anticipate such a passionate response from business leaders and developers against Prop A, particularly about the cite-and-release component of the proposed charter amendment.
“[Cite-and-release] has actually been happening for almost four years now, and … people didn’t know it was happening, I guess,” she said.
Opponents say the expansion of cite-and-release will lead to lawlessness, but Tomas said the goal is to offer offenders a chance at restorative justice.
“Fear is a much easier sell and tends to be a really big motivator — and that’s what our opposition is running on,” she said, recalling the words of one of her mentors. “We’re running on hope.”
