Judith Zaffirini

Judith Pappas Zaffirini
Zaffirini in 2009
Member of the Texas Senate from the 21st district
Incumbent
Assumed office 1987
Preceded by	John Traeger
Personal details
Born	(1946-02-13) February 13, 1946 Laredo, Webb County Texas, USA
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Carlos Zaffirini, Sr.
Relations	Charles Robert Borchers (brother-in-law)
Children	Carlos Zaffirini, Jr.
Residence	Laredo, Texas
Alma mater	Laredo Community College University of Texas at Austin
Profession	Communications business
Religion	Roman Catholic

Judith Pappas Zaffirini (born February 13, 1946) is a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from the 21st District, which includes her home city of Laredo in south Texas. On January 9, 2007, Zaffirini became the second in seniority in the 31-member Texas Senate, of which she has been a member since 1987. Zaffirini has been named among the "Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States" by Hispanic Business magazine, which has been published in California since 1979. Zaffirini is the first Mexican American woman elected to the Texas Senate.

Background

Zaffirini is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. While she and her attorney-husband, Carlos M. Zaffirini, Sr. (born 1943), were attending UT, they worked in the late 1960s on the staff of District 21 State Senator Wayne Connally, brother of Governor John B. Connally, Jr. During this time, serious attention was focused on establishing a university in Laredo. Soon the satellite campus of Texas A&M University - Kingsville, then known as Texas A&I, opened in Laredo. In 1970, Laredo State University was launched with Billy F. Cowart as the president, and in 1993, Senator Zaffirini secured legislation creating the four-year Texas A&M International University on a separate campus off the Bob Bullock Loop. Zaffirini's work in the education field led to her being named "Laredoan of the year" in 2009 by the Laredo Morning Times.

Zaffirini studied two summers at Laredo Community College (then Laredo Junior College). On December 17, 2007, she was honored by the LCC board of trustees with its inaugural "Beacon Award", a creation from the college's sixtieth anniversary. According to LCC president Juan L. Maldonado, the award recognizes individuals whose altruistic efforts have improved and advanced the welfare of the Webb County community. Maldonado said that the beacon "evokes the flame of the lamp of learning, which represents the role of the individual in bringing enlightenment and hope to others.... Senator Zaffirini embodies all of these admirable traits... and make her the ideal recipient of this award." In 2004, LCC named its new south campus library in honor of Zaffirini.

She is also honored through the Zaffirini Elementary School, 5210 Santa Claudia Lane in Laredo, one of the campuses of the United Independent School District.

Winning elections

In 1986, Zaffirini defeated the late State Representative William N. "Billy" Hall, Jr., in the Democratic runoff primary for state senator. She then defeated Republican attorney and businessman Bennie Walter Bock of San Antonio in the general election to succeed John Traeger, a Democrat from Seguin in Guadalupe County. From 1973 to 1983, before he switched parties Bock had been a Democratic member of the Texas House from New Braunfels in District 38.

Zaffirini has continued to defeat intraparty and interparty challengers in her Webb County-based district. She was to have faced San Antonio attorney Rene Barrientos (born January 25, 1954), in the Democratic primary held on March 4, 2008, but Barrientos withdrew from the race on January 9. Barrientos' name remained on the ballot, and he did some advertising. Zaffirini won the nomination, 108,572 (78.6 percent) to Barrientos' 23,262 ballots (21.4 percent).

For years, Zaffirini has used this campaign sign to promote her candidacy for the Texas State Senate. She has easily defeated her intraparty and interparty opponents.

In the general election held on November 4, 2008, Zaffirini carried all seventeen counties in the district to defeat Louis H. Bruni, the county judge from 2003 to 2006, a Laredo Democrat who switched to Republican affiliation on December 27, 2007. Though Bruni made a vigorous campaign effort, Zaffirini received 129,608 votes (68.2 percent) to his 55,363 (29.1 percent). Another 4,966 ballots (2.6 percent) were cast for Libertarian Barry L. Allison (born March 18, 1948) of San Antonio. After the loss to Zaffirini, Bruni returned to the Democratic Party and failed again in races for county judge and Precinct 1 commissioner.

In 2004, Zaffirini had easily defeated Bruni's brother, Raymond Anthony Bruni (born 1948), in the Democratic primary. In announcing his candidacy, Louis Bruni said that the historically Democratic district could be ripe for a partisan turnover. Prior to his judgeship, Bruni had been a member of the nonpartisan Laredo City Council. Bruni also said that his opposition to Zaffirini stems in part from a legal feud that he had with his brother prior to Raymond Bruni's campaign against the senator.

In the November 6, 2012, general election, Zaffirini handily defeated the Republican candidate, Grant Elliot Rostig (born c. 1958) of Lockhart, a supporter of the Ron Paul presidential campaign, 2012, who was endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus. Zaffirini received 129,894 votes (67.6 percent) to Rostig's 56,032 (29.2 percent). The remaining 3.2 percent of the vote went to the Libertarian nominee, Joseph Morse.

Veteran legislator

Despite her Democratic heritage, Zaffirini is known for her ability to work across party lines, particularly her friendship with Republican former Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, the presiding officer of the state Senate, who lost the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in 2012 to Ted Cruz and subsequently failed to win re-nomination in 2014 at the hands of State Senator Dan Patrick. Zaffirini had a similar close tie to the late Democratic Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, for whom the Laredo Loop 20 interchange is named. Undefeated at the polls, Zaffirini declared "voters are always well informed, and I believe they will decide to support me based on my record and seniority."

The Senator Judith Zaffirini Library at Laredo Community College South Campus in Laredo, Texas.

The Senator Judith Zaffirini Student Success Center at Texas A&M International University in Laredo was dedicated in September 2012, with Governor Rick Perry and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in attendance.

The Senator Judith Zaffirini Elementary School is located off Texas State Highway 359 in east Laredo.

Zaffirini has a 100 percent voting record, having through 2013 cast more than fifty thousand consecutive votes since January 1987. She even once missed her son's graduation to maintain the record. She would also have a career perfect attendance record too except for of the monthJuly 2003, when she joined her fellow Democrats who fled to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to prevent a quorum to halt Republican plans to re-redistrict the Texas congressional map. After three special legislative sessions, the GOP plan was adopted, but it was later altered by the United States Supreme Court. That change resulted in the defeat in 2006 of Republican U.S. Representative Henry Bonilla of San Antonio.

In 2007, Zaffirini led a successful movement to restore $154 million in community college funds vetoed by Governor Rick Perry.

In 2011, Zaffirini voted against the state appropriations bill because it reduced funding for public education by $5.4 billion, including $1.4 billion for targeted programs, such as pre-kindergarten expansion grants, one of her favorite programs. In 2013, Zaffirini will push for the issuance of tuition revenue bonds to fund capital construction projects on state college and university campuses, including TAMIU in Laredo.

In 2012, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst removed Zaffirini from the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Higher Education in favor of Kel Seliger, a Republican from Amarillo. Instead Zaffirni chairs the Senate Committee on Government Organization. She will remain a member of the higher education committee under Seliger and will continue as the co-chair of the Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance Excellence and Transparency. Zaffirini said that she will continue to influence higher education policy "but the only difference is that the gavel won't be in my hand."

In July 2013, Zaffirini joined her Democrat colleagues in voting against Republican-sponsored legislation which passed the Senate, 19 to 11, to reduce from twenty-six to twenty weeks of gestation the maximum time limit during which a woman can procure an abortion. Zaffirini, who identifies herself as "pro-life", describes the new law as not pro-life per se but one that limits a woman's access to health care and fails to address the question of unintended pregnancies. Zaffirini said that she does "not believe that an unborn child can feel pain at twenty weeks. Nevertheless that had nothing to do with my position. ..." Zaffirini said, "Like it or not abortion is the law of the land, and because it is we must insure that women have access to safe and legal abortions. If they do not, then they will resort to coat hangers and self-aborting and illegal abortions, and that is wrong." Opponents of the abortion-limits law, such as Senator Royce West of Dallas, have vowed a court challenge.

Two civil suits

In July 2013, Zaffirini was twice sued in Bexar County for alleged "gross mismanagement" of an estate valued at $150 million. The sisters, Josefina Alexander Gonzalez (1914-2014) and Delfina E. Alexander (died 2008), together owned about one thousand acres in South Texas. Between 1995 and 2002, five companies were organized to develop the property, but some of the businesses have long been inactive. The sisters further formed the Delfina and Josephina Alexander Family Trust designed to pass the proceeds of the holdings to Gonzalez's daughter, Rocio G. Guerra, and Gonzalez's two grandchildren. The second suit alleges that Zaffirini and two co-defendants, David H. Arredondo and Clarissa N. Chapa, committed tax fraud, forged documents, and paid themselves excessive fees in the amount of $420,000 for management of the Alexander holdings. The defendants are also accused of withholding money from the trust. Zaffirini's attorney-husband, Carlos Zaffirini, Sr., said that Guerra and her children, have tried to break the trust on four occasions and that the basic issue centers on squabbling among the heirs over the collection of the money.Josefina Alexander Gonzales died in December 2014, five days before her 100th birthday. A temporary injunction against Zaffirini, Arredondo, and Chapa imposed by a trial court was reversed in November 2014 by the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio in an opinion written by Chief Justice Catherine Stone. Further resolution of the case remains on hold while Zaffirini tends to her duties in the regular session of the legislature which extends until late May 2015.

Criticism of Donald Trump

On the occasion of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's visit to Laredo on July 23, 2015, Zaffrini wrote the lead column on the editorial page the next day in the Laredo Morning Times to question Trump's commitment to border issues:

The divisive billionaire may be familiar with the border between New York and New Jersey, but ... outrageous comments that he has made - in addition to being terribly offensive - demonstrate his alarming lack of knowledge about the issues facing the Texas-Mexico border region today.

His visit to Laredo should be a living lesson not only about our real border security challenges, but also about the important relationship between the United States and Mexico. If he opens his mind to the truth and to reality, then his trip should be the equivalent of taking a course in binational trade, relations, and friendship.

The reality of our southern border is far different from the one Trump has painted on the campaign trail, and I hope his visit yesterday will help him correct his misperceptions and eliminate his irrational fears. Most important, Texans hope he takes the opportunity to learn and listen. They may be a new approach for him. ... Through communication we understand one another. The people of Laredo are too welcoming and friendly to become a chapter in Trump's efforts to divide. It's time to show him our South Texas hospitality and our brand of entrepreneurial spirit that continue to make our city great. ...

Election history

Election history of Zaffirini since 1992.

2008

Texas General Election, 2008: Senate District 21
Candidate		Votes	%	±%
	Republican - Louis H. Bruni	55,363	29.15
	Libertarian - Barry L. Allison	4,966	2.61
✓	Democrat - Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	129,608	68.24
Turnout		189,937

Democratic primary, 2008: Senate District 21
Candidate		Votes	%	±%
	Rene Barrientos	23,262	21.4
✓	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	108,572	78.6
Turnout		131,834

Previous Elections

2004

Texas general election, 2004: Texas Senate, District 21

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	127,573	100.00	+10.89
Majority			127,573	100.00	+21.78
Turnout			127,573		+18.86
	Democratic hold

Democratic primary, 2004: Senate District 21
Candidate		Votes	%	±%
	Raymond Bruni	17,089	21.35
✓	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	62,960	78.65
Majority		45,871	57.30
Turnout		80,049

2002

Texas general election, 2002: Senate District 21

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	95,644	89.11	+22.65
	Libertarian	Jeff Carruthers	11,688	10.89	+10.89
Majority			83,956	78.22	+45.31
Turnout			107,332		-32.76
	Democratic hold

2000

Texas general election, 2000: Senate District 21

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	David Swift	53,547	33.54	-0.14
	Democratic	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	106,089	66.46	+0.14
Majority			52,542	32.91	+0.27
Turnout			159,636		+15.13
	Democratic hold

1996

Texas general election, 1996: Senate District 21

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	James C. Whitworth	46,698	33.68	+2.21
	Democratic	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	91,956	66.32	-2.21
Majority			45,258	32.64	-4.41
Turnout			138,654		+33.77
	Democratic hold

1994

Texas general election, 1994: Senate District 21

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	71,029	68.53	-31.47
	Republican	Fernando Cantu	32,624	31.47	+31.47
Majority			38,405	37.05	-62.95
Turnout			103,653		-6.95
	Democratic hold

1992

Texas general election, 1992: Senate District 21

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Judith Zaffirini (Incumbent)	111,398	100.00
Majority			111,398	100.00
Turnout			111,398
	Democratic hold

See also

• History of the Mexican-Americans in Texas

External links

• Senate of Texas - Senator Judith Zaffirini official TX Senate website
• Project Vote Smart - Senator Judith Zaffirini (TX) profile
• Follow the Money - Judith Zaffirini
  • 2006 2004 2002 2000 campaign contributions

Texas Senate
Preceded by John Traeger	Texas State Senator from District 21 (Laredo) 1987-present	Incumbent