Republican Congressional Wanna-Be Raising Profile

The Republicans aren't exactly competitive in many races and that has led to some pretty interesting and eccentric candidates over the last couple of years from the El Paso GOP.

But there are plans in motion within the Republican party to have more party discipline. Personally, I think its a little too Big Brother for me, but the GOP doesn't like having absolute control over candidates and circumstances. I understand their argument too, they aren't very competitive and certainly want to save their powder for winnable battles.

So when a member of the College Republicans took Tim Besco to task during a candidate forum near the end of the general election campaign season, he was “spoken to” about it.

Apparently there has also been some discussion about people that they don't want to see run for office again under the GOP banner like Tim Besco, Dan Chavez and Jaime O. Perez. I think that's a mistake for two reasons. Number one, in the long run some people will rebel against that much control over who can and can't run. That's going to turn off some people and they aren't likely to remain silent. The other reason its a mistake is because the future viability of the El Paso Republican Party, and possibly even nationwide, is having active participation by Latinos.

I don't know if Barbara Carrasco's name has been added to the Do Not Run List, but in my opinion, they might want to add it.

Carrasco is a member of the El Paso Latino National Republican Coalition, which is a group that has probably made the biggest splash in the last round of elections of any political club in town. She has deep pockets and owns a business here in town. She's not afraid to spend her money on political causes either. In addition to a few political contributions, Carrasco has also shelled out some big feria for billboards along I-10 during the last election.

She also believes that carpet-bombing the El Paso Times with letters to the editor will matter, but nonetheless the Times seems to publish them on a regular basis.

Carrasco has stated in a few circles that she would like to run for Congress. Her letters to the editor published in the El Paso Times will be great resources for people to get an idea of what she's like. Point blank, in my opinion, she's pretty much a right-wing extremist with all the credibility and viability of Tim Besco.

The letters to the editor will ultimately hurt Carrasco because it will be hard to walk-back some of the comments she's written.