The Power of the Precinct Chair

(This is a long one, so strap in)

In a very meaningful way, El Paso County Democratic Precinct Chairs may end up making a couple of key decisions this year that you should know about.

I’ve written previously about the PC’s nominating a replacement for a judge if the vacancy occurs before August 19th, 2010.

They also could’ve picked the nominee for one of the Justice of the Peace Courts as well, but I’ll get to that later.

I will admit, this piece is more of an inside baseball thing for the Democratic Party, so not all of you will find this of interest, but you should at the very least understand the process and how things work in this town considering the cast of characters involved.

The El Paso County Democratic Party Chair is Danny Anchondo. Anchondo is a guy that has been eyeing a seat on the bench for quite some time now. As I previously mentioned, he would like to be the person to fill a vacancy should one arise on the bench. According to at least one member of Commissioner’s Court, he’s openly asked for a commitment of support for the appointment. A source at the County Courthouse confirmed that he was there to meet with Commissioner Gandara today, though there was no indication as to why he was wanting to speak with Commissioner Gandara.

Back when Jose Rodriguez resigned as County Attorney to run for State Senate sources within the Democratic Party and at the Courthouse say that Anchondo was seeking appointment as the interim County Attorney.

One of the critiques that has plagued Anchondo’s term as chair has been allegations that he’s not fair to those in the minority. That being said, there has been no other Democratic Party Chair in recent history in this county that has had to take on the job Anchondo has. Like him or not, it was a tough job to oversee the El Paso County Convention and the State Convention during the Presidential election.

Since there has been discussion that Anchondo might end up on the bench, or as at least expressed his desire to be there, lets entertain a discussion about who would replace him as County Chair.

If you were to ask yourself who you think might be someone who would naturally want to step up to be the next Chair, what names would come to mind.

The first name that came to my mind was his long-time political ally, Yolanda Clay. But given Clay’s relation to her uncle and aunt (Paul Moreno & Blanche Darly) and several incidents of political infighting, along with low name ID outside of Democratic Party powdered wigs, it’s doubtful that Clay could win a countywide election. (I’d expect to see a name change if she did run, something like Yolanda Moreno-Clay.)

If people whispered critiques about Anchondo’s fairness, they would probably scream critiques about Clay’s. Clay has been known to be VERY factionalized and territorial.

The other name that comes to mind is Don Williams. Williams has a good reputation for fairness and is a member of every single Democratic Party Club in town, so it would be difficult to tag him as factionalized. It would however, be equally difficult for Williams to win countywide, for some of the same reasons, low name ID , etc. Only he doesn’t have the advantage of using Don Moreno-Williams.

The two are natural choices as successors because they are both SDEC’s, they both know how to operate the machine, and they both have really solid credentials as Democrats. Williams is the Chair of the Black El Paso Democrats, Clay is an officer in the PDN Tejanos and a senior officer in the state entity of the Tejano Democrats.

If you are Anchondo and planning a run for a judgeship if the appointment process doesn’t work out, you will need an ally as the County Chair. So how do you get your ally in to the seat in time to help you out in your possible election?

Simple.

You resign early, because guess who picks your successor?

The Precinct Chairs.

As I previously wrote, Christina Fenstermacher, has previously remarked about the urgency of getting precinct chairs in place. She’s even formed a group in the Northeast part of town to help facilitate such a plan.

Sidebar About JP in the NE

Remember when I mentioned earlier that there was a scenario in which the Precinct Chairs could’ve selected the Democratic Party Nominee for Justice of the Peace? Well here’s how that could’ve worked. If you remember during the primary election in the Northeast, there was a field of candidates lined up to take on the incumbent Sissy Hernandez.

At one point during the campaign, Yolanda Clay sent out an email urging people to support Hernandez, along with State Rep-Elect, then candidate, Naomi Gonzalez. The text of the email, sent on Tuesday April 6th at 9:59am reads “Friends,
i know you may not live in these areas but you have family, friends, co-workers who do, please pass the word.
PUNCH 5
FOR
NAOMI GONZALEZ
STATE REP DISTRICT 76
AND


PUNCH 15
FOR
SISSY HERNANDEZ
JP PRECINCT 4”

This bothered several people in the party and at least one elected official sent Clay a response admonishing Clay for urging people to support a candidate that was under indictment.

At first glance, many might wonder why Clay would stick her neck out for someone under indictment. That is until you consider the fact that if Hernandez won election, but had to be removed from office before the election, the responsibility for selecting a successor would fall to, you guessed it, the Precinct Chairs.

Several Democrats in the Northeast said that Clay was toying with the idea of nominating Christina Fenstermacher to replace Hernandez should the situation arise.

I haven’t been able to confirm whether or not that is actually the case, but it’s an interesting scenario nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

The Moreno Faction might make its last stand against Don Williams. Turns out the Moreno clan has been upset with Don Williams for quite some time. It goes back to the 2008 election in which State Rep, then candidate Marissa Marquez defeated long-time State Rep and Moreno patriarch Paul Moreno. For the first time in almost 20 years, Paul Moreno did not get the endorsement of the Black El Paso Democrats.

In an 18-2 vote, the endorsement went to Marquez.

The Moreno clan was miffed at not receiving the endorsement. It didn’t matter to them that not one voting member of the Black El Paso Democrats actually lived in the District and could vote in that particular election, they were just upset that Moreno didn’t secure the endorsement.

During the same campaign cycle, the controversial challenge to the El Paso County Democratic Party’s awarding of delegates went to the state committee. The Moreno faction had the majority were the ones that decided how many delegates the Clinton and Obama supporters received. Don Williams was the public face of the Obama delegation’s challenge.

When the challenge went to the state committee, they voted unanimously in favor of the Don Williams challenge.

The Black El Paso Democrats traditionally have their banquet in February because it’s Black History Month. The Tejano Democrats have only had a couple of banquets over the last decade but recently tried to plan a banquet in February. It was only because of the intervention of Chairman Anchondo that they event was rescheduled to the end of January. From what I understand, the PDN Tejanos made around $8000 from their banquet. The BEPD made around $12,000.

In fact, though the Black El Paso Democrats is the second-smallest club in town, they raise more money and give out more money to Democrats than any other club in town.

Email Trail

In a series of emails I recently obtained, the infighting is starting to peak. The email alludes to a conversation between Don Williams and Yolanda Clay in which Williams said he let Clay know that regardless of how she felt about him, he would be willing to support Clay for El Paso County Democratic Party Chair if the situation arose and on the condition that Yolanda Clay support Joann Robles, head of the West Tejano Democrats, for the position of SDEC that would be vacated by Clay. Clay and Robles faced one another at the Democratic Convention earlier this summer for the SDEC position.

According to the emails, Williams said that he wanted to support Clay’s Chair ship in order to alleviate any rumors that he was going to challenge Clay for the position. But based on situations outlined in another email, Williams said, “I now reserve the right to change my mind about that due to these and some other recent developments.“

So what are the other developments? Well, at least one of the apparent developments Williams referred to was an email from Yolanda Clay in which she takes issue with an email sent out by Williams to his email listserve which includes over 3000 local Democrats. Specifically Clay says, “It appears by your email as if this very worthy event is being sponsored or backed by Unity 2010 – and that is not the purpose of the committee. I feel that by wording it this way, you are attempting to use the strength and momentum (and possibly funders?) we have built for Unity 2010 to save the McCall Center – and this is simply not done. We do not use the Unity name for ANY OTHER entity/occasion/event – no matter how worthy the cause may be. Otherwise, everyone would go around in the name of Unity to raise funds for their own pet projects. “

Clay was referring to an email Williams sent out that was an invitation to an Obama Birthday Celebration. The apparently offending line in the email reads, “Please join us in the spirit of DEMOCRATIC UNITY to the OBAMA BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION on Wednesday, August 4th, 6pm at the McCall Neighborhood Center.”

In her email to Williams complaining about the invitation, Clay said that she was giving Williams a “heads up” because she was raising the issue with the Chairman and the Unity Committee.

There was even a bit of a dust-up between Anchondo and Williams in the emails in which Williams referred a complaint lodged by Anchondo as “chicken shit”.



Anchondo’s beef was apparently over an email that was sent out originally by Glenn “Butch” Maya and forwarded to Williams’ email listserve.

The offense?

Butch accidently left Anchondo’s signature block under Butch’s name in the email.