Sandy Garcia Makes Experience the Centerpiece of Her Campaign for Lubbock County Clerk

Sandy Garcia Makes Experience the Centerpiece of Her Campaign for Lubbock County Clerk

LUBBOCK, Texas — When Lubbock County voters choose their next County Clerk on November 3, Republican nominee Sandy Garcia will enter the general election with one qualification at the center of her campaign: she has already spent more than two decades working inside the office she wants to lead.

Garcia has more than 24 years of experience with the Lubbock County Clerk’s Office, beginning as a deputy clerk in the Criminal Department in August 2001. She became office manager in 2015 and has spent more than a decade helping oversee the office’s daily operations.

That experience has become Garcia’s central argument to voters.

The County Clerk is responsible for an extensive collection of government records and services, making the position considerably more administrative than its title may suggest. The office deals with records connected to criminal and civil cases, property, marriage licenses and other official county documents.

Garcia argues that knowing those operations from the inside would allow her to enter the elected position with an understanding of the employees, procedures and day to day demands of the office.

She has also acknowledged that experience does not mean she knows every aspect of the elected position. During a candidate questionnaire earlier this year, Garcia said that while her years in the office have given her extensive knowledge of its general functions, she still needs to expand her knowledge in areas including budgeting.

That acknowledgment became part of an important distinction in her campaign: Garcia has presented herself as someone who wants to build upon the existing operation rather than completely reinvent it.

Among her stated priorities are maintaining adequate staffing and continuing the modernization and digitization of county records. Garcia has said she wants to expand the digitization of property, criminal, marriage and civil records to improve public access, accuracy and efficiency while continuing to protect Lubbock County’s historical records.

The Republican primary also tested Garcia’s candidacy.

Garcia finished first in the March 3 Republican primary with 45.9% of the vote. Jim Baxa finished second with approximately 37%, while Rebeca Gonzales received about 17.1%. Because Garcia initially fell short of the majority required to avoid a runoff, she and Baxa were expected to face each other again.

That runoff never happened.

Baxa withdrew from the race days later and endorsed Garcia, saying he was stepping aside in the interest of Republican Party unity. Baxa, who had challenged the operation and spending of the Clerk’s Office during the campaign, said Garcia had indicated plans to pursue reforms important to him.

Baxa said he believed Garcia would be a “hardworking and honest County Clerk.”

His withdrawal made Garcia the Republican nominee.

One of the clearest differences during the Republican primary concerned how the Clerk’s Office should approach legally valid marriage licenses.

Baxa said he personally would not execute a clerk’s certificate for a same sex couple because of his religious beliefs, although he said another employee could handle the application.

Garcia took a different approach.

“Number one, we’re going to follow the law,” Garcia told Lubbock Lights during the primary.

She also said she did not want a Lubbock County resident walking into the Clerk’s Office and feeling ashamed, adding, “Everyone is welcome.”

For Garcia, the argument heading into November is ultimately less about learning what the Clerk’s Office does and more about whether voters believe someone who has spent 24 years inside it should now be entrusted with leading it.

Her record provides voters with something concrete to evaluate: more than two decades working in the office, more than a decade as office manager, stated plans to continue digitizing records and a commitment to maintaining staffing and public service.

But voters will have a choice.

Garcia will face Democratic nominee Kerri Poeling Padilla in the November 3 general election. Padilla, a lifelong Lubbock resident and nurse, was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

The question for voters will be what type of background and approach they want in the person responsible for one of Lubbock County government’s most important record keeping offices.

Garcia is making her case on experience.

After 24 years working inside the Lubbock County Clerk’s Office, she is asking voters to give her the opportunity to lead it.