Major candidate Lee Mendez and campaign speech writer Belem Lopez (Lynette Rodriguez/Borderzine.com)
EL PASO — The duties of a mayoral candidate don’t often include attending class, writing mid term papers, and studying for tests, but history major Lee Mendez, 28, is the youngest candidate in the May 9 election.
A junior at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Mendez believes this form of public service is the best way to reach out to the community. “Barack Obama says the only way to fix America is with Americans taking an active part in fixing it,” Mendez said. “You can’t just leave it the hands of few; it calls for community involvement and what better way to get involved than to apply for a job within it.”
Apart from the other six candidates that are running for mayor, Mendez is the only candidate who is not a small business owner or lacks experience in city politics. But he still believes that he has the plenty of management experience and fresh ideas to shine as the city’s mayor.
“I was in the Navy for five years where I gained leadership experience [such as] delegation, prioritizing, and making sure objectives are met while working with limited resources,” Mendez said. “I was a manager for a local eyeglass company, Sunland Optical so I worked with multi-million dollar contracts, I’ve always been able to rise up to any challenges that come my way.”
In his campaign Mendez focuses on industry, infrastructure, innovation and UTEP students. “UTEP has many talented and smart people graduating every year, and too many times we lose those graduates to the brain drain. There are not opportunities for them in El Paso,” Mendez said. “I’m reaching out UTEP students and organizations to hear their concerns and opinions, which the other candidates tend to forget about, I want students to know that I’m looking out for them, I don’t want them to leave.”
Mendez recently visited with Students for Reform, the UTEP organization that promotes progressive change within campus and the community, to answer questions and discuss what they would want in a future mayor. Students for Reform president Priscilla Moreno, a junior in political science said she believes that Mendez is a smart, motivated person, but she isn’t sure she agrees with his ideas for El Paso. “I think his focus for the economy in bringing in companies to better employ UTEP graduates is good, but the issue is focusing more on education in El Paso not bringing in companies,” she said. Moreno believes John Cook still has a very good chance because he has a lot of support in El Paso, but thinks Mendez’s greatest advantage is that he is well versed in city issues and he may be able to propose fresh ideas.
Since resigning from Sunland Optical in 2007, Mendez has committed himself to working toward his bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in secondary education. Like many UTEP students, Mendez works part time as the men’s stylist/sales lead for Banana Republic at Cielo Vista Mall. Although school is important to Mendez, he does admit that if elected mayor, he will have to cut back on school to focus his attention to the city.
“I don’t think me attending school is any greater of a challenge than these business men with businesses to run and want to be mayor, I think I would have much less on my plate. If anything I wouldn’t be distracted by business associations,” Mendez said.
Claudia Avalos, a junior majoring in management and Mendez’s campaign manager, said Mendez would be a good mayor because he has always been driven toward politics. “I’ve known Lee for seven years. Outside of work he’s the funniest person to be around but when it comes to work he’s fair, driven, smart,” Avalos said. “He should be mayor because he is somebody who’s going to make El Paso progress. We need change and his age is an advantage to him because he’s innovative, knowledgeable and he has the energy to finish what he starts.”
Mendez’s co-worker from Banana Republic, Belem Lopez, a senior psychology major, volunteered to be his primary speech writer because he has an edge as the youngest candidate. “Lee looks at the situation in El Paso differently from the other candidates. His ideas are different and he reaches out to UTEP students, which not many of the other candidates do,” Lopez said. Lopez believes what makes Lee different from the rest of the candidates is that he’s financing the campaign himself and doesn’t have resources other candidates have.
Mendez agrees that his biggest obstacle in the campaign is the lack of money. He doesn’t have the same resources the other candidates have, but isn’t too worried that will have a big impact on the campaign. “Mayor Cook had the same issue when he ran against Moody in the last mayor election, but he still won! I think that goes to show that money isn’t everything in a campaign as long as my message gets across to people it will sell itself,” Mendez said.
Outside of work and the campaign Mendez describes himself as any regular UTEP student that hangs out on Cincinnati St. or downtown on the weekends, watching movies at the local theater, and enjoying a concert every once in a while. “A lot of the activities I engage in are similar to the majority of the populous, I don’t hang out at Café Central every week because I can’t afford to eat there. I don’t rub elbows with the city elite because my socio-economic status has not allowed me to engage with them until recently,” Mendez said. “If I become mayor I have no intention of separating myself from common people, I live in the lower valley, the poorest sections in El Paso, and I have no intention of leaving my neighborhood.”
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