Wrong Political Play by Congressman Reyes

If I'm reading the El Paso Times article and a quote from Congressman Reyes' office correctly, then our Congressman just made a bad political play.

And its one that will play right in to the hands of his likely primary opponent, Beto O'rourke.

According to a pretty good article written by Zahira Torres, it looks like incumbent County Commissioner Willie Gandara is claiming to have the endorsement of Congressman Silvestre Reyes. Which is weird for a couple of reasons.

Aside from being weird, it makes no political sense what so ever. So let's talk political reality. The Gandara name doesn't mean what it did four years ago in the valley. If it did, there would be no one running against Gandara instead of at least three so far, maybe more.

Willie Gandara Sr has a very serious court case with the feds that could break DURING the campaign season. Willie Gandara Jr will be answering some tough questions from constituents about purchasing property along the corridor of the new port of entry and about his company working on the Farah project after he voted in favor of both projects.

So why would the Congressman tie himself to Willie Gandara? The statement from the Congressman's Office doesn't actually say he's endorsing Gandara, but that's just semantics. His statement is an endorsement.

I've talked to a lot of people this morning about why Congressman Reyes would support Gandara and I honestly don't see an answer. The right political play would've been for the Congressman to stay out of the race entirely. Let's face it, the Congressman was in a tough position. If I'm not mistaken, the Congressman generally stays out of other races and I'm sure he's ALWAYS asked for his endorsement in El Paso. If he endorsed Vince Perez, people would say its a power play and he's getting people to run for various offices.

So to me, the right play was to wish everyone the best of luck and stay out of it.

But endorsing someone who could be used against him just doesn't make any sense.

You think Beto O'rourke isn't going to use this endorsement as a major red flag? What's worse for the Congressman is that not only can being tied to the Gandara's hurt the Congressman, the Congressman tied himself to the Gandara's for Beto.

Although I should point out that the article does say that his newbie interim Communications Director Claudia Ordaz appears to have tried to save the Congressman from this political faux paux by stating that the statement doesn't constitute an endorsement. That's a tough statement for a newbie to have to try to walk back for her boss' sake.

Which probably bother's Gandara Jr because he says he has the endorsement of the Congressman.

Like I said, its just a matter of semantics.

But now that I think about it, the Congressman has endorsed candidates in the recent past. He endorsed Sergio Coronado, Norma Chavez, Marty Reyes, and Paul Moreno.

None of those candidates won.

So what happens if Willie Gandara Sr's. who's charges are related to public corruption, case goes bad for Gandara Sr during the campaign while the Congressman is running against the uber anti-corruption crowd of Beto O'rourke?

Anybody think that's gonna turn out good for the Congressman?