Don Williams Fundraiser

The Don of the Democratic Party, Don Williams held a fundraiser and campaign kick-off event this evening that was well-attended by several judges, prominent attorneys, a couple of members of El Paso's legislative delegation, and a large number of the Democratic Party leadership.

Biggest surprise attendee of the evening was State Democratic Executive Committee Woman Yolanda Clay. The fact that she showed up for the event was important for Williams.

Conspicuously (but not at all a surprise) absent was El Paso County Democratic Chair Danny Anchondo. Its a major dis for the Chair of the Party to not show up to an event involving one of the SDEC's. But again its not a surprise given the fact that so many people within the party were supportive of Don Williams to be the next Chair of the El Paso Democratic Party. In fact, many in the part believe Don Williams has done more for the Democratic Party in one year than Anchondo has during his entire tenure as the Chair.

There were several officers from the various Democratic Clubs in attendance as well including the El Paso Young Democrats, Stonewall Democrats of El Paso, West El Paso Democrats, and the El Paso Young Stonewall Democrats.

There was not a single member of leadership from the Paso Del Norte Tejano Democrats in attendance.

This race is one of the judicial races that people will be paying attention to. I am interested in this race for a couple of reasons. First, because I think the two front-runners are very compelling. And by front-runners I mean Don Williams and Yvonne Rodriguez.

The other reason I am paying attention to this race is because the candidates are showing some class. That is a refreshing change from the past. I've seen judicial races get pretty rough and this one is all class. So take notes future judicial candidates, this is how adults act.

Yvonne Rodriguez made an appearance to his fundraiser, reciprocating Williams attendance to her fundraiser earlier this month.

But there was one thing that bothered me about the event. There were some people that weren't in attendance that I think are ungrateful.

I'm not taking a side in public on this race because I like both of the front-runners, but I can't pretend that I don't acknowledge the work Williams has done not only for covering Democratic Party events, but for covering just about any major political event in town.

He sends out emails to over 3000 people that feature announcements about future events and photo slide shows of the events. Those slideshows are not only fun, but they are a valuable political resource. And frankly its not his job to do any of it, but he does it anyway.

To be honest, its the Chair of the Democratic Party that should be ensuring that there is some sort of historian to compile photos of events. But Danny Anchondo in my opinion doesn't appear to be too concerned with that. And from my first-hand experience, he doesn't appear capable of even managing the El Paso County Democratic Party's Facebook page. (Yeah I said it, y que?).

I'll tell that story some other day...

Anyway, Don Williams covers a lot. He's a one man political archive. Between my videos and his pictures, if it ain't covered, it didn't happen. (Okay thats an exaggeration, but you get my point).

Just last week, Don covered to events on opposites sides of town in one night. He went from his opponents announcement to Vince Perez's fundraiser, took care of his large family commitments, went home, edited the photo show and had it out to people before they woke up the next morning.

Frankly, politicos have been spoiled by the coverage. Hell I've heard people say that they wanted to attend an event but couldn't for whatever reason but said, "Oh well, I'm sure Don went and I'll see the slide show".

He not only talks the talk, but he walks the walk.

So to conclude my rant...I think its pretty shitty that some of you out there, especially Democrats, didn't show up to his fundraiser. He supports just about everyone else's events, and the thanks he gets is people not showing up?

You know who you are (and so do I) and I hope you feel pretty shitty about yourselves. If it were me, I'd just say screw it and cut you people off.

You're lucky Don Williams is a better man than I, because we both know he's still gonna show up, still take and publish the pictures, and never ask for an explanation why you didn't show up.

...but I might...