Blanche Darley Elected Chair of Tejano Dems

Blanche Darley, Chair of PDN Tejano Democrats
(Photo Courtesy of Don Williams)

Controversial figure best known for confrontation and racially-charged statements, Blanche Darley was elected as the new Chair of the Paso Del Norte Tejano Democrats.

Her election came with a controversy and sparked interest in taking the issue to the state-level entity of the Tejano Democrats.

I spoke to several attendees of last night's meeting, none of which want to be identified for fear of retaliation on the part of Blanche Darley.

The controversy swirls around the credentialing process.

Darley, whom I have actually recorded on video circumventing a credentialing process previously, was chair of the credentialing committee in accordance with the chapter charter.



Darley apparently held on to the credentials list and would not let the list become public and would not share the list, as required, with the other officers of the club. There was a reason she had done so according to one source close to the situation. Darley allegedly stacked the deck in her favor according to the source. The source says Darley allowed her supporters to be credentialed and turned down other members in good standing.

Sources in Tejano leadership indicated that Darley was asked for the list of credentialed membership several times but kept coming up with excuses for flat-out ignoring the requests.

The issue that may be taken to the state level is the notification process. Per charter, the elections are supposed to be held in August, but due to a private matter of a personal nature with the Chair, the election was postponed until September.

Multiple sources within the Tejano Democrats state that Darley only sent out emails notifying members of the change to her supporters. Since there are a lot of seniors that are members of the Tejano Democrats, a great number of them do not have email and they are supposed to be notified via mail.

That didn't happen. Any member in good standing can challenge that issue with the state entity.

The sources further allege that Darley, who maintained the list of credentialed members, called the members that she knew didn't have email to ensure they were present at the meeting, provided they were one of her supporters.

As I have previously written, Darley maintained a list of the email addresses of members and was famous for sending out unauthorized emails to the membership to the point that the chair had to clarify what was an official PDN Tejano email.

Some members that should have been credentialed but weren't, had to actually challenge their exclusion in order to get credentialed to be eligible to vote. That included Don Williams who was successful in his endeavor to get credentialed. (Side bar: I have previously written about allegations that Darley used the "N" word when referring to Don Williams, so the fact that he still plays nice with her is a testament to his commitment to the Democratic Party. He's a better man than I, because I would've gone postal, which is why he's a respected big shot in the party and I'm not.)

Darley also allegedly used the Tejano membership email list to target an email to her supporters to let them know of her intent to run for chair. Here is the text of the email she sent out, targeted only to her supporters:

Tejano Members,

I am announcing my candidacy for Chair, Tejano Democrats Paso del Norte Chapter.  I am asking for your vote tomorrow Tejano Democrats Paso del Norte Election of Officers.  I will be available to work with you and for you, and I will work hard to keep Tejano Democrats the Strongest Democratic organization in El Paso.I am former:

• Chair of Tejano Democrats,

• Texas Democratic National Committeewoman (DNC) 
• State Democratic Executive Committeewoman, Senatorial Districts 17th & 29th (SDEC)

• International Vice President Minority Coalition United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union, AFL-CIO.

• National LULAC Women's Affairs Coordinator

• El Paso Campaign Coordinator for Senator Ted Kennedy for United States President.

• Presently I am Precinct Chair #38.

Thank you,
blanche


What makes this email so interesting is that it appears to show a blatant level of duplicity on the party of Blanche Darley. In another piece I wrote, I mentioned an email from Robert Grijalva, who was trying to be a voice of reason and a sorely-needed statesman for the Tejanos in which he admonished Darley for her actions toward the Chair, Rebecca Robledo. 

Darley actually responded to the email and part of her response was "Frankly it's an embarrassing situation for me. I do not have an issue with the Chair, I performed my duties as Treasurer and with the Tejano Chapter. "


So apparently Darley says on the 24th of this month that she doesn't "have an issue with the Chair..." but just days later she is running for Chair.


Darley may have had this planned for quite some time. Sources indicate that Darley, her niece Yolanda Clay, and Yvonne Rodriguez all "ambushed" the chair at their recent golf tournament fundraiser and made mention of a private personal matter dealing with the Chair. The sources indicate that Darley and others basically told the Chair that she wouldn't be able to run for re-election due to the matter and then used that situation to their advantage and spread the information to other members.

Several people including Judge Angie Juarez-Barril and Robert Grijalva urged that the meeting be postponed in order to ensure fairness and that all members that were eligible to vote were properly notified.

Several members have already indicated a desire to resign from the club as a result of the debacle.


I will keep you posted as this continues to develop.