SAN ANTONIO – After walking blocks and blocks in an abbreviated election, four candidates for State Senate District 26 and State House District 123 will have to keep on walking.
Trey Martinez Fischer will face Jose Menendez for the Senate seat and Diego Bernal will battle Nunzio Previtera in the House race.
In the Senate race, both are friends and longtime Democratic State Representatives, but there is one big difference between Fischer and Menendez: the desire to fight.
"Senate District 26 is a Senate District that has a legacy of fighters, people who will stand up for this community, so in continuing that tradition that's what I bring," Fischer said. "I've always stood up for the voiceless, I've always defended those that needed a voice on the floor of the house."
He said what is important in this race is standing up to Republicans, who have majorities in the State House and Senate.
"With a very divisive Senate and a very, very, very, you know, antagonistic leader in Dan Patrick, this community will need a voice and I'm happy to be that voice," Fischer said.
Menendez, meanwhile, questioned the value of antagonizing those in power needlessly.
"How do you fight when they don't recognize you to speak," Menendez asked.
He said he would focus on getting things done.
"Is it really the smartest thing in the world to say that I'm going to go and fight against the guy that's running the place?," Menendez asked. "It might get you headlines, it might get you press releases, it might get you on television more often."
There are big differences too in the house race.
Diego Bernal is a Democrat, Nunzio Previtera is a Republican who favors doubling the homestead exemption, helping small businesses and keeping taxes low.
"The folks in this district are hardworking, paycheck to paycheck people," Previtera said. "They can't afford taxes. The tax base and the taxes that we have here are, the revenue is sufficient to do all the things that we need to do."
Bernal was unavailable but said he is looking forward to the runoff and hearing what's important to voters in the district.
The date for the runoff election will probably be in February.
That makes the 2014 election slate with eight separate elections one of the longest in memory. Menendez said he already has the support of two former opponents in his runoff race: Al Suarez and Joan Pedrotti.