Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the nature of the relationship between Councilman Mario Bravo and former council member Ana Sandoval.
Shortly after 7 p.m. last Saturday, as the early voting results for District 1 city council runoff filed in, Councilman Mario Bravo knew that he'd lost — and by a sizable margin at that.
"They're saying I have a 2% chance," a visibly disappointed Bravo told an elderly couple attending his watch party at Backyard on Broadway.
In most other elections, one-term incumbent Bravo's 41%-59% loss to education consultant and political newcomer Sukh Kaur would have come as a surprise. After all, Bravo was no stranger to politics, having previously worked other local elections, including his own unsuccessful 2018 run for a seat on Bexar County Commissioners Court.
"I've gotta tell you, I thought Sukh would win, but that's a pretty big margin of victory," San Antonio political strategist Christian Archer said of the outcome. "The way that she won and the domination of an incumbent is pretty impressive. Incumbents don't lose in San Antonio; it's very rare."
However, Bravo's tenure was also mired in more controversy than that of most first-time council incumbents.
First, he inherited the never-ending construction project along the St. Mary's Strip, a major irritant for both residents and the businesses operating in the popular nightlife destination. He also took plenty of heat for a pilot project that barred overnight parking in the Tobin Hill neighborhood except for residents — thus further drawing the ire of Strip businesses and customers.
What's more, Bravo faced a high-profile scandal over an outburst at his one-time girlfriend, former District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, during a city budget meeting in November. A no-confidence vote from the council followed, and Bravo was temporarily stripped of committee assignments, leaving the district with limited representation.
At his watch party, Bravo, an environmental activist prior to his time on the dais, told reporters he wished the media had done more extensive coverage of his successes, including efforts to reform CPS Energy and his leadership of a working group that used money from the city's Tree Mitigation Fund to plant more vegetation in District 1.
"The thing with Mario's tenure is that there were just a lot of unenforced errors," Archer said. "Obviously, the thing that got the most attention was what happened between him and Ana Sandoval, but St. Mary's Street, that's the thing that cost him the election."
Going sideways
In an interview with the Current last week, Bravo acknowledged that his term started going sideways during a hastily organized community meeting in September to discuss the details of the year-long residential pilot program that would grant free parking permits to residents near the Strip.
Bravo said he and his office initially tried to come up with a parking solution that benefited everyone. However, he said City Manager Erik Walsh's office told him that it wasn't his job to work on parking enforcement. Instead, the office contracted civil engineering company Pape-Dawson to come up with a solution.
"[Pape-Dawson] made the recommendations, and then the city manager's office told me that this was going to a vote in two weeks for city council to approve this new residential parking program," Bravo said. "And I said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hit the brakes. You can't take this to city council without a town hall meeting, without sharing this with the public, and so I called a meeting to do that."
Although San Antonio Parking Enforcement Manager Martin Ruiz attended the meeting, he didn't share much detail about the proposed recommendations that the council would be voting on because, at that point, the city manager hadn't yet seen the Pape-Dawson study. That led some business owners to speculate that Bravo himself was hiding what the engineering firm recommended.
Bravo also denied that the pilot parking program was scheduled for a council vote during a public meeting with residents and business owners, even though such a vote was scheduled for Oct. 20, as reported by the Current.
Mere weeks after the parking meeting, Bravo was again in the news, this time over his outburst at Sandoval during the council meeting.
Then, shortly before the May election, Bravo's office was again at the center of controversy after an undercover police visit to McIntyre's Southtown ended up with 15 officers descending on the popular sports bar.
Blame game
Bravo initially said his office had nothing to do with the police visit that critics, including other local bar owners, called a raid. However, emails obtained by Current showed that District 1 staff had sent multiple inquiries about the nightspot's permits and approvals to other city departments before the incident.
Two weeks later, Bravo responded to the Current's inquiries about the police visit, finally saying that District 1 Senior Director of Downtown Affairs Stacy Jones had relayed resident complaints about alleged underage drinking and over-serving of patrons at McIntyre's to SAPD.
Bravo admitted that Jones' actions "may have" played a role in the police visit. While the councilman was adamant that residents sparked the incident, already leery bar owners complained on social media that the incident showed Bravo had it out for them.
Bravo did inherit difficult problems, and District 1 is a hard part of town to lead due to its array of conflicting interest groups, Archer said. But, in politics, voters elect someone to step up and take accountability.
"I don't think everything is Mario's fault," Archer said. "But, he's the councilman. So, he's gotta solve the problems, and they didn't get solved."
He added: "With all the things that it takes to be a District 1 council member, if you make a mistake, you're going to pay for it and you'll lose."
Even though Kaur won by capitalizing on Bravo's failures, Archer said she would be wise to take stock of what cost him the contest.
"I think this election was a lot more anti-Mario than it was pro-Sukh," he said. "Now she's gotta go earn those credentials by hearing those issues and delivering for them. Next, she needs to build a strong relationship with the business community. And in those scenarios, she needs to be about delivering results and not about political promises and talk."
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