Last week, the Sentinel’s Roger Black sat down with both Presidio County judge candidates to talk about the race and their visions for the future.
How’s it going?
It’s going well. The days are busy. I’m now focusing on trying to get the base here in Marfa to vote. I’ve been focusing on meeting new people in Presidio for the last two months, and that’s going pretty well. At this point, most of this is, in my estimation, relatively baked in. It’s two small towns.
In Marfa, most people don’t know Judge Portillo because he didn’t really spend any time here during his last three years. Some people know me and some people don’t. There are a lot of people in Presidio that are kind of tucked away. That block‑walking campaign I worked on for weeks and weeks helped a lot. It definitely shined some light for me on where people are at.
There are a lot of people who are obviously disengaged because they’re working. They’re busy working on living. It’s a more working‑class vibe down there. That’s obvious if you spend time there. But overall, it’s been really good.
Now I’m here trying to focus on finishing up this race. I’ve run a bunch of times for things before, but this is the first time I’ve run countywide, so it’s a little bit different.
It’s also interesting, because over the years I’ve always worked hard. I go to meetings I don’t have to go to. I’ve always taken notes. I’ve always tried to listen to people, especially people who don’t get listened to as much. I think that’s helped me a lot. It’s helped me win over people who didn’t like me when I first showed up in town in 2007. Not everybody, of course. I’ve got my haters.
Interestingly enough, it seems to me like the people who like me the least are the people who are the most powerful. That actually kind of makes sense if you look at what I try to do, which is empower people who don’t have power and not give people who already have power more power. So I think I’m doing pretty well so far. I’m happy with it.
What about the border wall?
The border wall is the biggest problem we have right now. We don’t have financial leverage. We don’t have zoning power. We don’t have regulatory power. The only leverage we have is the 500,000 people who visit Big Bend every year.
Those people are educated. Those people have influence. Those people go home and say, “I’d love to live there someday.” That’s the only leverage we have. The only hope we have is motivating those people to complain loudly enough and long enough to stop this.
That’s why I put out a statement. That’s why the Sentinel breaking this story mattered. Without that, we have nothing. At least now we have momentum. You’re not going to stop this quietly. You’re not going to stop it by being polite. You’re not going to stop it by pretending it’s not happening. The only way this stops is if enough people with influence get angry enough for long enough.
If local officials are bickering, the state walks away. They go where people can agree with themselves. They don’t go where local leaders fight over nothing. We don’t have power here. We don’t have money. We don’t have leverage. What we have is attention, and attention only works if you use it. That’s why the story mattered. That’s why the statement mattered. That’s why noise matters.
What should the priorities be for the county?
I’ve been engaged in this since 2008. I first got interested when the rail bridge burned, when I was on the City Council. At that point, if this was going to happen—for us or to us—we needed to be involved. I paid my own way to attend the binational port meeting. The judge didn’t go. I went. Mayor John Ferguson went. The state of Chihuahua has a number of ports, and they overlooked ours entirely.
If Mayor Ferguson hadn’t brought a presentation with our numbers, we wouldn’t have had any presence at all. That was in front of hundreds of diplomats and transportation officials. If you’re not prepared, you’re invisible.
People drive hours each way to make a living. I talk to people all the time who are making $75 an hour who would gladly make less if they didn’t have to leave their families.
Marfa tourism doesn’t add to the county tax base in a meaningful way. The county’s problem is future cash flow.
We have savings. We have derelict buildings. We have derelict equipment. We have no proper future planning. We don’t advertise our policies. We don’t even put them on our website.
You can’t just say, “We’re ready. Give us the bridge.” We’re not ready.
Back then, there were all these ideas about the port. People were talking in dream sequences. People were talking like it was just going to magically happen. And I kept thinking, if this is going to happen, we’d better be involved, because otherwise it’s going to happen to us.
That’s one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned. You can’t just show up and say, “We’re ready.” You have to bring something. You have to bring numbers. You have to bring a plan. If you don’t, no one listens. People talk about the port like it’s a fantasy. They talk about it like it’s a dream. But there’s no plan. There’s no book. There’s a lot of talking, but there’s no book.
That means public‑private partnerships. That means admitting that we don’t know how to do this ourselves. You need a port authority that actually meets. They haven’t met in over a year. There are meetings at the bar among people who think they’re in charge, but that’s not serious work. That’s not how you build an international port.
If we want economic growth in Presidio County, it’s going to be in Presidio. Marfa tourism doesn’t add to the county tax base in a meaningful way. I like the Palace Theater redevelopment. I like cultural growth. But the county’s problem is future cash flow.
Are the budget fights inevitable?
No one disagreed that the county budget couldn’t keep taking hits from parks. That was never in question. The question was how you do it. You don’t abandon an asset and lose its value. That’s not fiscally prudent. The golf course could have been sold or leased. Instead, volunteers are trying to save it. Portillo being a jerk actually lit a fire under stakeholders. That may be a good thing, but it’s not how you manage assets.
When did you come to the Big Bend?
I first came out here as a kid. In eighth grade, my school took us on a 10‑day trip to Big Bend National Park. We did science projects. We studied rocks and plants. We did the hikes. We did the river back when you could ride the river easily. I remember thinking, ‘Man, I’ve got to come back here someday.’
I grew up in Houston. I worked in the music business. I ran the No. 1 rock club in Houston when I was 25 years old. I toured. I worked nonstop. And I burned out. I knew it was going to kill me if I stayed.
So in 1998, I quit my job and booked a three‑week primitive camping trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park. No cell service. I promised my mom I’d call her every four days from the pay phone at Lajitas just to tell her I was still alive.
I camped alone. My Suburban had no cell service. I drove out here and spent three weeks camping by myself. That’s when I really knew that I wanted to live here someday. This is the greatest place to live if you can live here.
I would still be in downtown Houston if I hadn’t come out here and seen that. I spent those three weeks camping alone at Big Bend Ranch State Park. That’s when I knew.
How do you get traction?
I don’t operate off the record. I give out my phone number. I give out my email. I encourage people to call me. A long time ago, I learned that if you don’t open yourself up to direct criticism—and not just criticism, but direction—then you get anonymous criticism. Anonymous criticism doesn’t help much because you never know where it’s coming from or what the motivations are.
There’s a lot of activity on Facebook. I don’t have Facebook on my phone. I disengaged from Facebook years ago, as best as I could, because as an elected official, you still have to check it occasionally. There is a constituency that communicates that way. To me, it’s mostly negative.
What I try to do is post only positive things there. I don’t respond to negative criticism. It’s not productive. It’s not a place where you actually get anything done. I think people on Facebook think they’re broadcasting to more people than they are. That algorithm keeps getting smaller and smaller. You follow a thousand people and you see a feed of maybe 40. It’s a really small box.
One thing I have that my opponent does not is a website where I put out what I actually think and want to do. I took the time, the effort and the money to actually put something out. I think there’s a stark difference in approach between the incumbent and me.
I return phone calls, texts and emails. He might return yours depending on who you are and who your friends are, but he doesn’t return other people’s calls or emails. That’s a stark difference. I don’t talk about transparency. I talk about accessibility. Accessibility. Can anybody talk to you? Are you accessible? Are you the king? What are you?
Your communication style?
When I first started going to county meetings, people didn’t like it. I was still on the City Council and I started showing up at county meetings. They gave it to me. I was the outsider. I was the guy asking questions. But over time, people started talking to each other. We were able to hash some things out and understand each other. That’s how government actually works when it works.
Being a county official is not a part‑time job. If you’re the county judge, the county clerk, the justice of the peace—that’s a full‑time job. Most of what you’re dealing with is not glamorous. No one comes into a county office without a problem. No one comes in saying everything’s great. That’s the job.
I can sit through an eight‑hour budget meeting without looking at my phone. That’s just me. I like this stuff. I’m a geek about it.
Where is power leading here?
In my first two years as commissioner, Joe and I worked together trying to get this port thing done and other projects that looked good at the time. I’m actually glad none of them happened because the leadership in place right now is not equipped to handle them.
I’m not saying anybody’s trying to steal any money, but there is corruption. With corruption, that’s not a good recipe for success. One of Joe’s problems is that he thinks he’s the expert on everything. He’s not. If you’re going to enable the takeover of an international port, you need to hire people who have actually done this before in a real sense. You need a port authority that actually meets. They haven’t met in over a year.
I know there are meetings at the bar among people who think they’re in charge, but that’s not serious work. That’s not serious effort.