El Paso Politics

This Homeboy of the Week Award goes to Liz Gonzalez. There is a special place in heaven for people who die while trying to help others. The Asshole of the Week Award goes to anyone who is eligibile to vote and who either hasn't voted in early voting, or doesn't vote this Tuesday.

I've talked about this publically on more than one occassion about how many of my family members are Republican, but the unauthorized use of some of my video footage from an interview in a Republican PAC's attack ad got me to thinking. Essentially the ad goes after Jay Kleberg, a Republican in HD 78 primary squaring off against Dee Margo and Rene Diaz, for voting for Barack Obama in the last election. Kleberg said his vote for Obama was a protest vote because he didn't like what the Republican Party had become over the last eight years. He's certainly not alone. Hell, REPUBLICANS are even reluctant to identify with their own party name. I was covering a Republican Party event last week and Bobby Ortiz, a former Congressional candidate for Congress, said he doesn't consider himself a Republican but rather a Conservative. That remark drew applause from everyone in the room (okay, except me). But some have put forth the idea that if Kleberg voted for Obama over McCain ...

I'm serious about this comment thing. I encourage comments, even the ones that disagree with me. Hell, I don't even care what haters say about me online anymore because the more they talk about me, the more controversial they make me, the more people tune in. But I've been pretty relaxed about comments lately, but I'm putting my foot down. Any comment without a name at the top, or within the body of the comment, will not be approved, no matter how harmless it is. Sorry, but I need to be consistent and put a stop to some people's crap. If you are gonna say it, you are gonna at least own it.

Holy crap! I can't believe this happened. Someone sent me a link to this video that is an anti-Kleberg ad. I'm pretty pissed about it because they used my footage without my permission. At least they credited me for it though, which is more than I can say for most mainstream media in town. I should point out that when I had Dee Margo on my show he told me that he didn't think the vote was a big deal and that he didn't plan to raise the issue. Interesting. But a Republican PAC using my stuff? I gotta go, I need to shower!

The heat is really being turned up in the race for District 76 which pits the incumbent State Representative Norma Chavez against Republican-backed Naomi Gonzalez and totally un-backed Tony San Roman. This was a mailer sent out recently by the Naomi Gonzalez campaign. As I have said from the beginning, there is nothing wrong with a rigorous debate and spirited competition. But somethings are just trash. Here is an example of something I look at as trash. Based on the text of the piece, the person with their back to the reader is supposed to be a representation of State Representative Norma Chavez. If you look closely though, the person in the photo appears to be an African-American. Draw your own conclusion was to why, but personally I'm a little torn. I don't know if the image is meant to poke fun at the fact that Representative Chavez is dark complected and her opponent isn't, or if its a sublte jab about the fact that Representative Chavez was an outspoken advocate for t...

Some people out in the field working for a candidate in another race came across some fellow campaigners this afternoon. Apparently the group they came across were rookies because they made a classic rookie mistake. Most campaigns stress to their walkers that you CAN NOT leave camapaign material in a mail boxes. Sometimes they forget.

El Paso County Commissioner Dan Haggerty made these controversial remarks while addressing the GLBT community of El Paso. Apparently Commissioner Haggerty thought he was being funny. No one laughed.

In the latest round of campaign back & forth dealing with signage, this photo was leaked to me the other day. As you can see the truck in the photo has a sign in the back, which appears to be a sign belonging to Beto Acosta, a candidate for judge. The interesting thing about this photo is that the vehicle allegedly belongs to a man named Cesar Prieto. Sources at the courthouse tell me that Mr. Prieto is the Mental Health Cooridinator for Judge Herrera, who is the incumbent that Beto Acosta is running against.

I've talked about this on air, but I think its time my reading audience new the truth about Theresa Caballero. She publicly pretends to be fighting for truth, justice, and reform and a crusader against corruption. In my opinion this is nothing more than a facade. She has talked about standing up to the establishment, about saying what needs to be said, even if it bothers some people. At the same time she's saying stuff like that, she is engaged in a clandestine operation of trying to silence one of her critics. She has made phone call after phone call to management in an attempt to silence my criticism and analysis of her argument. Her tag team partner, Stuart Leeds, is obviously along for the ride. Just recently Leeds hand delivered a letter to management. He could have at least had the decency to put in an envelope! Many people have wondered out loud what it would be like to have Theresa Caballero as a county attorney. Many have also expressed their fear that the office might...

For as long as I've been in El Paso, I've watched Estela Casas. Yesterday in the middle of a news broadcast, Estela revealed that she is in a battle with thyroid cancer. I was shocked to hear it because she's probably the only television anchor that I have followed on a regular basis. I remember her giving birth, graduating from UTEP recently, and watched her sing Christmas carols on commercials. I've never met her but I always felt like she was family. God Bless You Estela and get well soon.

I don't know much about the ratings system or the way it works so all I know when it comes to ratings is what management shows me. According to what I saw, my show is Number 1 in ratings on the station. I am humbled that the audience Barbara Perez built up has stuck around, along with some new listeners, to make the program #1. It honestly wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for some mentorship I have received along the way from Paul Strelzin and Greg Freyermuth. They have given some of their wisdom to a kid from the barrio and have done their best to make me a better host. Props to them for that. I thank the loyal listeners of KHRO for tuning in, even if you tune in because you hate my guts.

Okay, I have received some complaints that its too hard to comment on my blog lately. As I have said before, I am tired of the personal crap people have thrown around on my blog too. So I guess my change in policy made it too hard to comment, which is a bad thing. So message received, I am fixing it. But I still want to have a balance of responsibility on this blog so here is my new policy. I will not approve comments if they don't have a name. Comment away, its open for everyone as long as you put your name. But if you don't put a name, it won't be approved. If you attack a family member of a candidate or public person, I will not approve the comment. Don't abuse the comment priviledge people.

Campaign signs have been quite the discussion over the last few weeks. Some candidates like Rick Ledesma, Liza Montelongo, and Theresa Caballero have only a few signs around town. Some candidates like Farouk Whats-His-Name, Connie Telles-Odom, Sergio Coronado, and Judge Rangel have signs all over the freakin' place. In one race, all the candidates in the race had their signs made by the same guy! And Larry Medina isn't running for County Judge anymore but still has a huge billboard up on I-10! The most recent developments of signs are a little more interesting. Frank Macias, a candidate for one of the judgeships against the incumbent Julie Gonzalez, has signs with a bit of a problem. The problem is that they are misleading. As you can see in this picture taken last Friday, the sign says Vote for Frank Macias, then the name of the office. It doesn't have the word “for”, which would mislead someone in to believing Macias is the incumbent. The issue was raised by his opponent,...

You should never take things personally on a campaign. Thats a lesson my dad taught me since I was old enough to walk and pass push cards. My philosophy is that if I'm working a polling place, I might as well have some fun while I'm out there. So I make friends with the other volunteers, shoot the breeze, share water and burritos, and push for my candidate. But things inevitably get a little heated on the campaign trail, which is stupid because you will never win and the only losers are the candidates. Usually its a shouting match between campaign volunteers that breaks out. Earlier today though the hostility was much different. My frequent co-host Sammy C and I hit the streets early this morning to stop by some polling places to see how things were going. We wanted to show some love to the campaign volunteers because they are the die hards. They take time out of their personal lives and walk around trying to win a few votes for their candidate. They are the unsung heroes of ca...

I'm a little pissed off at a development recently over a Twitter post I made earlier in the week. I posted a small rhetorical question about whether El Paso would follow the lead of Houston and elect its first openly lesbian state representative in light of a recent poll in the El Paso Times. For some strange reason, some idiots have turned that simple post in to something more diabolical. I thought I'd set the record straight. First of all, I never mentioned the name of the individual because Twitter only allows so many characters and since I was Tweeting from my phone I didn't know how close I was to the limit and sure in hell wasn't going to count each character. Second of all, the criticism is predicated on that person not wanting to be outed. Once again, people that don't know the whole story change the facts around or simply go on supposition. I didn't know the person in question was lesbian until they INTRODUCED me to their partner! Yes, the person in que...

Okay damn it. I fully realize that it bothers many of you when I curse on my blog and I have been trying to be better about cleaning up my language. But sometimes its the best and most effective way of conveying a sentiment. So here goes: For supporters of Naomi Gonzalez and Norma Chavez that comment on my blog...CUT YOUR SHIT! I'm sending this message out to supporters of both candidates to be fair, but to be accurate, its coming mostly from Gonzalez's supporters. Stop writing bad shit about family members of the opposing candidates. They are off limits. Leave family out of it. I know, Gonzalez's family was heckling Chavez, but it doesn't matter. Family should be left out of the discussion. Some people have written some bad stuff about Chavez's family. Critique the incumbent all you want, she's a public person and its completely fair to go after her. But stop the attacks on family. You are supposed to be adults! Its your kind of bullshit that turns off people f...

The El Paso Times released polling data about the two state rep primaries and I'll dedicate this post to some analysis of the State Rep 76 race. The race consists of the incumbent State Rep Norma Chavez, Naomi Gonzalez, and Tony San Roman. The poll indicates that Chavez has 41.6% of the vote, Gonzalez has 30%, and San Roman 8.1%. Undecided voters made up 20.3% of the vote. For some reason, people are wanting to write Chavez's political obituary already. It may be premature. Lets take a look at political reality. Chavez had a bad session in terms of public relations. In fact, to say it was bad is an understatement. It was Hall of Fame bad publicity, most of which was her fault. But lets continue with reality for a moment shall we? The poll shows Chavez with a comfortable lead of more than 11% in a multi-horse race. Thats a pretty sigficant lead in any race, but very significant in a multi-horse race. Clearly she is not as strong as she was the last time she faced an opponent. Bu...

Okay, I'm not 100% sure on these numbers but I am sure enough to post it. Word on the street is that the Times polling numbers for the race for County Attorney and County Judge are in. I made a bet with a friend of mine who is going to owe me lunch. County Judge: Escobar : 47.1% Coronado: 15.2% Ledesma: 14.7% Medina: 6.3% Undecided: 16% County Attorney: Joan Bernal 49.7% Theresa Caballero 35.3% Undecided 15% More scoops tomorrow. Call me the palatero!

There are winners and losers in every candidate forum, even though we try to put things more delicately than that sometimos. The bottom line is that some people do a better job in front of an audience than others. Some candidates are more qualified than others and some candidates are better able to articulate their argument than others. Thats what happened last night. Here’s my take on the performance of the candidates, which may or may not be what my colleagues Greg Freyermuth and Hector H. Lopez think. Winners State Rep 78 Republicans – Dee Margo. Margo displayed a depth of the issues that was not shown from Diaz. Margo also demonstrated a full understanding of the political machinations to a degree that would put him on par with any member of the legislature. I don’t agree with his policy, but I measuring up the candidates side by side was pretty easy on this one. Diaz displays a ton of good intentions and plenty of passion, but it doesn’t translate in to a strong understanding of t...

Due to the ugliness and craziness of the County Judge and County Attorney Races the race for District Clerk is going under the radar. The reason thats surprising is because the race involves the incumbent Gilbert Sanchez, who still has a couple of charges from the FBI hanging over his head. Its a crowded field that have thrown their hats in the ring to take on Sanchez including Norma Favela, Jeremiah McCrimmon, Connie Telles-Odom, Rosa Cervantes, and Gilbert Pinon. There are basically two tiers of candidates in this race. The top tier consists of the candidates that have the best chance of winning based on money, infrastructure, name ID, and campaign work put in. My list of top-tier candidates include Gilbert Sanchez, Connie Telles-Odom, and Norma Favela. The second tier candidates are Rosa Cervantes, Gilbert Pinon, and Jeremiah McCrimmon. The thing the second-tier candidates have in common is the fact that they all jumped in the race later than the rest. They also have less qualificat...

The Mexican American Bar Association recently gave out their endorsements. I got a little heat from a few commentors here on my blog the last time I wrote about this. So I went back and did a little homework. The bottom line is that the immediate past President of MABA, Naomi Gonzalez, didn't get the endorsement of MABA in her bid to unseat State Representative Norma Chavez. Some will say that its no big deal because MABA didn't endorse anyone in that race. True. It actually takes 2/3 majority of votes to win the endorsement of the organization. But it is telling that the immediate past President of the organization wasn't able to secure the votes needed for the endorsement. I spoke with a few members of MABA and they told me that they had some reservations about their immediate past president receiving the amount of donations she has received from Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR). Its made a lot of the membership uncomfortable. The TLR money is also bothering some of the pa...

Here is a pic of Jeremiah McCrimmon who is a candidate for District Clerk. He did some visibility this weekend dressed as a lion. This being TheLionStarBlog, it was easy for me to want to post this pic. Enjoy!

Yes, I have legal issue I need to deal with regarding back child support. I don't deny it. Its a long and complicated story and since its a family issue and not political, its really none of your business. I have an attorney dealing with it and hopefully it will be taken care of soon. That being said, I made a mistake. I'll own that. I'm a human being and I screwed up. I don't offer an excuse or want to place blame on anyone but myself. If I let you down, I apologize. Anyone who's ever been through a divorce knows how complicated and nasty things can get. There's way more to this story than what people are saying. People that I am reasonably sure don't know me and have probably never met me. I'm embarrassed at my mistake, but also the embarrassment this causes my family. Especially my children. But there is another side of this story that is political and should be discussed. Since I do what I do, I've picked up a lot of enemies along the way. So its...

Okay, back to politics. I hate to admit it but Jaime O. Perez actually impressed me at Saturday's informational session sponsored by City Rep Emma Acosta. The forum was set up for all the candidates for County Judge and all four were in attendance. It was about half way through his opening statement that I caught myself nodding my head in agreement with him. Yes, I know, crazy huh? About halfway through the forum, I sent a text message to one of my homies that basically said, “WTF? Is it me or does JOP sound really good today?” Later over lunch I turned to a colleague and asked what who he thought did the best at the forum. Reluctantly the colleague admitted JOP too. He still won't win, mostly because he's a Republican now and partially because of a lack of money and a base. But something my colleague said resonated with me. He said “if I didn't know who he was or his past...” Jaime O. Perez has done what he has said he was going to do. He has stuck to issues. He had an...

Thanks to Janet Jackson's little wardrobe malfunction a few years ago, we've had to put up with old geezer bands during the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The Who were boring the crap out of me. I actually changed the channel to watch the city channel. That's how incredibly BORING their performance was. A band made up of senior citizens from England? Did the Rolling Stones already play halftime at the Super Bowl? What are they going to do next year, book the Glenn Miller Band?

Couple of interesting developments on the endorsement front that I thought were worth mentioning. I was surprised that he results of the Mexican American Democrats (MAD) endorsements when it came to the race involving Barbara Perez. Apparently Perez won the endorsement by only one vote, which is really interesting when you consider that her first major fundraiser was a who's who of El Paso politics. I happen to be a member of MAD as is my daughter and her friend. We weren't in attendance and did not have the opportunity to cast a vote. The Mexican American Bar Association also had some interviews and a recommendation from the Executive committee as to who should receive their endorsement. Naomi Gonzalez, who is challenging State Rep Norma Chavez for her seat in the state legislature, is a member of MABA and the immediate past president. Sources in MABA tell me that she did not win the recommendation of the Executive Committee and the recommendation was made for the incumbent, S...

Its crunch time in this election. If you are a candidate now is the time you should be really hitting the grassroots campaigning really hard. This means making the campaign for your next job your full-time job. There are several candidates that are full-timers and several that are part-timers. The incumbents almost have to be part-timers, but the challengers choose to be part-timers. They could take time off or quit their job to run full time if they chose to. The point I'm making is that if you aren't viewing the campaign as a full time job, don't be surprised if you don't end up getting the job you are seeking. A few candidates would be much stronger if they put aside their jobs and focused only on campaigning.

Larry Medina will file papers against Danny Anchondo, Chair of the El Paso Democratic Party, to compel the party to remove his name from the ballot. More details to follow.