El Paso Politics

Dropped my phone and it broke so I got a new one. But I lost all my contacts so please call or text me your name and number please. My number is the same.

I hear the homophobes and their steady drumbeat and its getting on my nerves so I feel I have to say something about it. You can usually spot them the minute they start talking. They say something along the lines of, “I’m not prejudice against gays, but I just don’t like their lifestyle.” Its entirely possible that some of these people think it actually is a lifestyle , but somebody has to set them straight…no pun intended. Lifestyle implies a choice. Its something you choose to become a part of like lowrider culture, skiing, scrapbooking, hunting, spelunking (people who explore caves, I just like saying the word cuz it sounds dirty), or people who work out a lot. It’s a choice. Being gay isn’t a choice. I know that’s hard for some people to wrap their head around, but it’s the truth. Don’t believe me, let’s try a little test. If you are heterosexual (that means you like people from the opposite sex), how old were you when you chose to like the opposite sex? Was it in the sandbox, th...

If you read the El Paso Times yesterday then you no doubt saw a story outlining all of the bills filled in the next legislative session that will be anti-immigrant. Once again, the Republicans can't seem to get out of their own way. Just when they start making headway in to developing a strong presence in the Latino community, they show themselves to be a bunch of xenophobes with misplaced leadership priorities. There are very few people that will argue the fact that biggest issue facing the state of Texas is the $12-$25 billion budget deficit we will be facing in the next legislative session. Yet Republicans like Representative Debbie Riddle (R-Humble), are camping out to introduce anti-immigrant legislation like she was waiting for the chance to buy Willie Nelson farewell tour tickets. The Tea Party movement was supposed to be about fiscal responsibility, though I have always have doubts about how loyal its loose collection of members have been to that tenant. If that's reall...

I usually agree with City Rep Eddie Holguin, and I probably hold him to a higher standard than the other city reps because he represents the barrio. Yes, I know, Rep O'rourke and Rep Acosta have barrios in their districts, but Holguin's district is basically entirely barrio. If you don't understand why that's important to me, there's no way I can explain it to you, so go ahead and stop reading now. But Rep Holguin is wrong this time...dead wrong. He was wrong for flip-flopping. I give him credit for standing up and engaging in a debate over his flip-flop, but no matter how you slice it, Rep Holguin flip-flopped like a fish in a boat. One week he's going to propose the reversal of the controversial city ordinance that took away health benefits from domestic partners and retirees, the next week he's echoing his mentor, Jaime O. Perez who not-so-coincidentally released a statement with similar language to Rep Holguin's own “respect the will of the people” l...

I can't touch a stripper in El Paso, even though I pay the price for admission and presumably the price for the lap dance because its considered indecent... But a TSA worker can grab my package for free while going through the airport? What that hell did I miss? Oh, and speaking of airports, check out this cool video.

From ECA Candidate Forum Jaime O. Perez made some rather startling revelations in a recent open letter to city council. Perez praises city council for what they attempted to do and had some rather strong words for Pastor Tom Brown, Nacho Padilla and others. You can find the open letter on the Talk Radio 1150 website .

There has been a lot of public discussion over the El Paso Police Department and various charges of abuse, etc. Chief Greg Allen even issued a press release on the coverage. The only note I wanted to add about it that has gone largely undiscussed is the fact that we are in the sweeps period. Its not like these issues are new and suddenly happened this week. So I checked with the News Director of Canal 26 KINT, Zoltan Csanyi to find out if sweeps period had anything to do with the stories being run now as opposed to any other period. "It is 100% related to sweeps", Csanyi explained. I'm not saying that PD doesn't have issues and I realize that any organization has room for improvement. But I think part of the conversation should be the fact that we are in the middle of the sweeps period and I think it has an absolute bearing on the framing of the overall story. Canal 26 has been running stories for the sweeps period regarding escaping the violence in Juarez, robotic su...

Adrianne Riley is a local photographer and does some really great work. She's done a lot of her work at political and public events. She's the one who took that new pic I have here on my blog (look to the right) and she did this picture on Flag Day. I liked the image so much that I have a print of it hanging in my office. Check out her website for more information. She's available for hire and has great rates! From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia

From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia According to a press release from the El Paso County Sheriff's Department, Socorro City Councilman Luis Varela was arrested on drug charges. Stay tuned to Noticias 26 for more details.... Here is an excerpt from the press release: On 11-16-10 at about 5:40 pm the El Paso County Sheriff's Office conducted an operation at 10840 North Loop in Socorro Texas. The operation resulted in the arrest of four suspects for the Delivery of 43.5 lbs of marijuana. * Luis Varela (40) of Socorro Texas * Ernesto Garcia (29) of El Paso Texas * David Alarcon (19) of El Paso Texas * Jesus Palacios (49) of El Paso Texas A search of the vehicle driven by Luis Varela resulted in the locating and seizure of 27.5 grams of cocaine. Varela was charged additionally with the possession of a controlled substance/cocaine. Information on the arrests as follows: No further information will be released at this time as the investigation continues and further arrests are p...

I just would like to take this opportunity to publically thank the members of GOP that are pushing Sarah Palin to be the nominee for President in 2012. That will help the Democrats keep the White House. Seriously, could you possibly find a worse candidate? It wasn't enough that her daughter was on Dancing with the Stars, her daughter's baby daddy was in Playgirl, or that she quit being the Governor of one of the most sparsely populated states in the Union. She needed to have her own reality show! Which is great! Hell, maybe she'll ask Snookie to be her running mate!

A couple of days ago a couple members of the El Paso City Council attended a UTEP basketball game and were introduced...to the sound of boos from the crowd. Sources that attended the game said that State Reps Marisa Marquez and Naomi Gonzalez were also introduced, but didn't get boo'ed. Apparently City Rep Rachel Quintana, according to my source, "jumped around like a UTEP cheerleader trying to get more cheers but she got booed." Then City Rep Steve Ortega was introduced and he apparently was booed worse than Quintana. My source had this final addition to the story. "The boos weren't overwhelming or anything, but they were definitely audible, The really didn't get any cheers."

Please join us at a fundraiser for state Rep. Marisa Marquez November 11, 2010 5:30pm-7:30pm Brick and Mortar 115 S. Durango Veterans Day Veterans Day provides us with the chance to mark the debt of honor we owe to all those who have worn the uniform of the United States. We remember those who gave their lives beneath our flag, in service of our freedom. And with so many still fighting, we owe special thanks to the courageous families of those who serve. Because when our servicemen and women deploy overseas, their loved ones are left to undertake heroic battles of their own at home. The unique challenges they face in support of men and women in uniform allow us all to enjoy the freedoms of our democracy. Every time I have a chance to meet with these families, I'm struck by their strength and their quiet dignity -- they are truly some of the most selfless, courageous people I've met. And today is also a day to acknowledge the sacrifices these brave men and women make every day, ...

From Pics of Me When I was in the Army, I saw this somewhere and never did find out who the author was. You can find this in a multitude of places on the internet. It choked me up the first time I read it, but it still chokes me up to this day. Enjoy it and remember veterans on this Veteran’s Day! It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia Hector H. Lopez, who seems to have an endless supply of criticism for everyone and thing in El Paso, including saying that there are no leaders in El Paso, apparently can dish it out, but can't take it. David K and Brownfield wrote some pieces on their blogs that were critical of Hector H. Lopez's election night coverage. I linked to Brownfield's post because I thought it was funny. During Hector's on-air bitch fest the other day, he said he liked it and thought it was funny too. Which is why I can't understand why he dragged me in to his tirade. Who knows, maybe he was on his period. What Hector H. Lopez doesn't understand is the concept of team. I'm a member of Team KHRO and on election night, when Chris Bailey was having a hard time with some technical issues over at the UNITY headquarters, I helped him out and made it possible for him to broadcast with Hector H. Lopez. Know what else I did? I shared my election nu...

I’m working on a rather extensive piece that is a critique of Joe Muench, political columnist for the El Paso Times, and his latest column on Sunday. Its a conjecture piece in which he lays out scenarios for possible successors to Congressman Sylvestre Reyes. But before I post that piece, I decided I’ve give the star of Muench’s column, City Rep Steve Ortega a call to find out if he’s interested in running for Congress. Here’s Ortega’s answer, “Absolutley not, I have no desire to run.” Other than demonstrating he has very little, if any, understanding of the local political scene weren’t bad enough, apparently it never crossed the mind of Joe Muench to call any of the people who wrote about to see if they are even interested in running for the office. When I asked Ortega where Muench would get an idea like Ortega running for office, Ortega replied, “He never called me to ask me if I was interested…he never did what you are doing right now.” In fairness to Muench, his piece never actual...

You have to have a sense of humor in life sometimes, if you don't you'll go insane. Brownfield posted this hilarious critique and I thought I'd plass it on in case you haven't seen it. Check it out here .

From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia Rumors have been flying around for a while now about a possible challenger for State Rep Marisa Marquez since prominent El Paso lawyer Mike Torres decided not to run in the last election. The name that has been floating around most recently, and most often in El Paso political circles is Robert Grijalva. Grijalva is currently the right hand of State Rep Chente Quintanilla but previously worked for former State Representative Paul Moreno. Since I'd hear the talk of Grijalva as a potential candidate, I thought I'd look in to it a little more. I called Grijalva around lunch time today to get comment on the issue. Most of the conversation was centered around the fact that he's going to be really busy helping Quintanilla in this session of the legislature and he said that's his main focus and priority. But he did have this to say about the rumors... "Lots of people are asking me to run...I haven't made a decision yet. When I ...

We've made some changes on the Talk Radio 1150 website today. Go check out the changes. I wrote about election results on the website in the blog section. You can read my piece here . Also, working on a response to Tim Besco's comments here on The LionStar Blog. Stay tuned.

You aren't going to believe this email, so take your time reading it, it's certainly worth the read. I'll let you know one thing that will make you want to keep reading, it ends with FUCK YOU! I HOPE YOU'LL ROT IN HELL! From Burges Candidate Forum The following is an email sent out via an mass email communications program. I obtained this email just a few moments ago and checked with one source in the Republican Party to verify its authenticity. To the best of their knowledge, this came from Tim Besco's Campaign: THANKS FOR NOTHING All of you who are getting this email should know why. From the very start of my campaign - I have had nothing but criticism from many of you. All I'd hear was, "You don't speak well." or "You can't do this or that." I'd even ask for your help at different events, but I'd get very little or no help. Then when I hired someone who is a professional consultant - I would get nothing but even more hatred...

I'm super busy today and really tired since I was at UNITY HQ going over election results with the future of the party, so I am butt ass tired. I will post stuff later. Trust me, I have a lot to say.

From Burges Candidate Forum From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia Alright, the follow piece needs to be written. I pride myself in speaking truth to power, so here goes. State Representative Norma Chavez is not helpful to any Democratic Party candidate unless she is endorsing their opponent . I'm sorry, but it has to be said. There is a reason she didn't run for state senator last year when there was all that buzz about who would be running. Remember how she had everyone guess whether or not she was going to run for the open seat? When she eventually made her decision it didn't take long for word to get out as to why she didn't run. She didn't run for the seat because there was polling done that showed that she had very high negative numbers among likely Democratic voters in the west side. The bottom line is she's not popular and not liked on the west side. Hell, the fact that she lost to a candidate that has no experience and didn't go anywhere near anyt...

The Democratic Party had a big final push last night at the Unity HQ over on the near-east side. Here's a quick slide show of the inside of UNITY HQ. As you can see, Elena White, Bill White's daughter was in El Paso last night making phone calls for her father.

For a guy who wrote a pretty interesting comment on my blog last week, you'd think he'd come up with a better nickname thant "el" or "the" for the bilingually impared. The problem with Dorado's campaign, other than what appears to be a pretty consistent lack of effort, has been messaging. I doubt there was ever really a substantive discussion about campaign messaging and I think Dorado basically came up with things on the fly. Most of the time that I've heard him speak, which isn't very often because he really hasn't been around at too many events, he simply rambles on and on. Campaign highlights included a big argument with another canididate during the primary, Sergio Coronado, at a west side forum, and saying that it was time for change at another forum because his opponent is old. I don't disagree. Bruce King is old and I'm pretty sure he's been the JP on the westside since Texas was in the Confederacy. But Dorado is no spring...

State Rep Joe Moody’s last big door-to-door push was over the weekend and some of the El Paso delegation joined him to lend their support to his candidacy. Moody was joined by State Representatives Joe Pickett, Trey Martinez, and Marisa Marquez. From Moody Mega Walk From a campaign perspective, the work that is going to matter in terms of the outcome of the election is mostly done. Whoever wins the race, will probably have won the race based on the work they put in over this last weekend. But having a good structure of volunteers in place for Election Day to take voters to the polls will be pivotal as well. One thing is for sure, Moody’s campaign has had the right proxy’s helping out, good safe choices with credibility and appeal. Here's a slideshow of some of the people that attended to help out the Moody campaign.

Ha! Just kidding. A Republican will win a county-wide election before that happens! But "Senator Shapleigh" did make an appearance at The Bayou last night to do what he does best, hand out Adelante Con Ganas Awards (ACGA). Sources close to "Senator Shapleigh" indicate that he gave ACGA's to several people that evening including someone who successfully parallel parked, a guy who washed his hands after using the restroom, "Tiny" the bouncer for exceeding average height for Latinos, etc... "Senator Shapleigh" is pictured here awarding Mike G, from The Fox Jukebox on Classic Hits 92.3 The Fox an ACGA for playing a song the "Senator" liked. From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia Okay, by now you know that its not actually Senator Eliot Shapleigh. Its Vincent Perez from Congressman Reyes' office. As you can see, he took time getting the details put together. The campaign button, the trademark orange UTEP hat, and even one of Shaple...

From Burges Candidate Forum Its pretty much a foregone conclusion how this race is going to end. I know my friends on the right are very hopeful that this race won't be impacted by the fact that there are so many more Democrats in this town than there are Republicans, but this race was over on March the 3rd, as was the race for the State Senate, County Judge,and Congressional seats. Antcliff is a great guy and a qualified jurist. No doubt about it and no argument from me. But in the State of Texas, we elect our judges and they serve at the discretion of the people. The People make the decision of who's values best represent the communities. Antcliff has been appointed before. He's run and lost before and will likely be appointed again if Perry holds on to the Governor's Mansion. Now let me correct some people that are making a very bad comparison between this race and that of Manny Barraza and Don Minton. First of all, stop doing that because the races are a totally dif...