Races I'm interested in

Even for a total wonk like me, not all the races interest me. Yes, I know they are all important. But some of them are really hard for me to give a shit about, like JP races in parts of town I don't live in. Unless Monica Teran is running. Any race she runs in is interesting to me because a) I think she's unqualified even by El Paso standards, and b) I've never seen someone that rude win an election.

But here are a few races that I am interested in.

Commissioner's Court – Perez is running for re-election, putting rumors to bed that she was running for a judicial position. (Told ya so, by the way.) She runs an efficient campaign and I will be surprised if she draws a viable opponent.

Gandara's seat will be a very interesting race to watch, and for many reasons. First, there have been all manner of rumors about his race. Some have said he's not going to run for re-election and his staffer Dora Oaxaca will run for the seat. That particular buzz says that he will leave commissioner's court in favor of running for the state house against long-time rival Chente Quintanilla, whom Oaxaca also worked for. Another version of the rumor is that Oaxaca will run for that state rep seat.

But Gandara has made no indications one way or another so far. The Tornillo Bridge is someone that he made a big deal about and he held a REALLY long ceremony in which he gave everyone who showed up an award a few months ago. The ground-breaking was done on that project earlier this week and I would expect that would be a major selling point towards re-election. But then again, he has a lot of baggage. Papa Willie just got trounced out of office after a recall. Then there's the indictment of his father as well.

And whoever started this shit that they are the Kennedy's of the valley must be smokin' some Soco Loco weed. Other than being rich and maybe Catholic, they have nothing in common with the Kennedy's. The Kennedy's were fiercely loyal to their family.  Can anyone honestly say that about the Gandaras? Papa Willie had his nephew kicked off the ballot when he first ran for Mayor of Socorro. Jesse Gandara's faction of the Socorro City Council led the revolt against Papa Willie which led to the recall.

But Commissioner Gandara is probably the most-polished of the Gandara gene pool and if there is one that can “make-it” in politics from that family, its Willie Jr. Rich, young, decent looking guys usually do pretty well. For the most part, Commissioner Gandara hasn't had any of the political mud stain his suits. He'd be tough to beat, though its not impossible.

Judicial seats – All of them. Its time to turn up the heat on these people. You'd be surprised at some of the shit that goes on in the courthouse because they feel like they don't have to answer to anyone. Want to see what I mean? Conduct your own little experiment. Go to the courthouse and see how few courts are operating in the late afternoons. Go see how few of the judges are even at the courthouse in the late afternoon. Better yet, go on a Friday, you'll see even fewer of them. Hell, there's even one judge who doesn't even come in to court some days and has hearings...over the damn phone!

For the freaking money we pay these people, you'd think they would get their entitled asses out of bed and go to the courthouse. I don't give a damn if its routine. If I were in trouble there’s no way they would let me phone it in!

Judge’s make important decisions and it would be really scary if one person who is talking about running for a gavel ended up winning, so it’s important that they are vetted properly. Especially now that I know that there are judges are the purchasing board.

The state rep races will be very interesting. Will they draw challengers? As a Democrat, I hope Rep Quintanilla gets a challenger. I’d like to see a Democrat who votes and acts like a Democrat get that seat. Will Rep Gonzalez or Rep Marquez draw opponents? Will Joe Moody go after his old seat? I sure hope so. Rep Margo made some bad votes and would've made more bad votes if members of our delegation didn't literally take him by the hand to change his vote when he was mistakenly going to make a vote that would hurt his district.

But for me, the most interesting race will be if Beto O’rourke takes on the Congressman. My ample gut says Beto is going to do it, despite saying things that will get him in trouble with the base…