El Paso Politics

The Tiguas will choose a Governor tonight. They gather at the Tusla and will be checked for electronic devices. Only adult males are eligible to vote.

There was a piece in El Diaro de El Paso that reported that Mayor Cook was resigning from office. Here is a link to the piece . I contacted Mayor Cook to see if this was the case and he said, "No, I'm not resigning. I'm gonna beat this recall." Mayor Cook also indicated that he did not even have a press conference yesterday. I checked all the major media outlets in El Paso and none of them had a related story on their websites. Mayor Cook expressed surprise at a story that inaccurate would be coming El Diario and said he'd always had a good relationship with the publication. So far, I can't see where this information came from and the piece goes so far as to even quote the Mayor. When contacted to verify the quote, the Mayor laughed about the part about spending more time with his music, and said indicated that he never said that. Turns out there is a very good reason why. It was part of the Mexican version of April Fool's Day. Its  día de los Santos Inoce...

Occupy El Paso 19th Anniversary of NAFTA 19 years of corporate domination over the people of the United States and Mexico What: Demonstration and teach-in at the foot of the Santa Fe Bridge, El Paso When: Jan. 1, 2012, 3-4 PM **Press Conference 3:15 PM Who: Occupy El Paso and members of Occupy Las Cruces Why: On Jan. 1, 1994, NAFTA went into effect. After 18 years of “free trade” between the United States and Mexico, we have massive unemployment and underemployment, and poverty and human suffering in both countries. Corporations benefit while the 99% suffer. The public is invited! Press contact: Joe or Merlyn Heyman jheyman@elp.rr.com 915-351-8392 Key points: Who has benefitted? The corporate elite, the “1%,” of both Mexico and the US. Who has lost? The workers, middle class, peasants (campesinos), and family farmers of both Mexico and the US. The “99%.” NAFTA provides for “freedom” of capital investment, ownership of property, and trade in commodities. Freedom for the rich! It does no...

Invite_lm

Aaron Barraza is challenging State Rep Marisa Marquez for her seat in HD 77. Marquez famously defeated long-time State Rep Paul Moreno four years ago. Barraza just moved back from Austin and was profiled in the El Paso Times recently. Barraza reached out to me and asked to meet with me so I could get to know him a little better. I agreed and I met with him, his campaign manager, and a couple of other people who were interested in vetting his candidacy. Here's how it went (and I'm not telling you anything I didn't tell him): First impressions - Barraza is 23 years old, which is young. And he doesn't even look 23, he looks younger. He's a good looking young man. He's somewhere between an Abercrombie & Finch model and Edward from Twilight. I think it was the hair that made me think of the Twilight reference. So far, my first impression of him was the same as pretty much everyone else I know that has met him so far, which admittedly isn't very many. He come...

Not only is their membership down under the new chair, Blanche Darley, but a lot of prominent elected officials are not going to renew their membership. And if that wasn't bad enough, it looks like the Chair of the Tejano Dems is forcing out some leadership that aren't doing what she wants them to do. Sources in the Tejano Dems indicate that one of the Vice Presidents of the Tejanos, Jan Engels, was asked to resign as Vice President because she was supporting Mike Cervantes, who is a candidate for the 41st Court. Apparently that didn't sit well with Darley, who is apparently spearheading support among the Tejanos for another candidate for the race. I doubt they are supporting County Commissioner Anna Perez, so I guess that leaves Dolores Reyes as the preferred Tejano candidate. So, Engels was asked to resign. For some reason, Tejanos really seem to focus on judicial races, which is weird because judges generally keep a low profile and they don't generally want to be ass...

One drops out, another wants in. A day after one candidate dropped out of the race for County Commissioner in Precinct 1, another candidate is likely to throw his hat in the ring. That is, if he can. That all depends on the courts in San Antonio. But Carlos Leon, former Chief of Police for El Paso is likely to file for candidacy when and if the courts open the filing window again. Leon, who has recovered from a very bad accident not too long ago, has already filed a treasurer and will have Mayela Mejia as his campaign manager. Mejia's name has come up several times in this race as a potential candidate and in connection as a potential supporter to Liza Montelongo and Ray Graham. Montelongo is a candidate for the seat and Graham was rumored to be a candidate as well, but may be more interested in running for city council for Ortega's seat when it becomes open again. Leon's entrance in to the race is interesting because he is a wild card. He's a name people have heard bef...

In a weird twist, SBOE Rep Charlie Garza, who is a Republican, has been shopping around HD 75 Democratic candidate Hector Enriquez to the teachers' union for support according to sources within the teachers' union. Its weird for several reasons. #1 Garza is a Republican shopping around a Democrat. #2 Garza ran for that seat previously and got his ass kicked. #3. Garza, who was in administration, is shopping him to union people. That's the exact WRONG person to try to shop someone around. #4, Garza has an uneasy alliance right now with the Ysleta Teacher's union because of some issue involving alleged retaliation against his wife who was a librarian at one of the middle schools and so he has beef with YISD administration, but there is no way that YTA will go against the TSTA. Apparently Garza allegedly got really upset because he wasn't allowed to be inside a grievance proceeding. One of those "Who dare they keep out the SBOE" sort of things...allegedly. Ga...

Turns out there could be a rather interesting pairing of support for District 77 challenger Aaron Barraza. Barraza is taking on State Rep Marisa Marquez. I interviewed Barraza yesterday and I will write about that conversation later today, but he acknowledged that he would be meeting with the Moreno clan in the near future. If you recall, Marquez defeated long-time state Rep Paul Moreno with strong assistance from then-State Rep Norma Chavez. The Chavez-Moreno feud is the stuff of legend. Well sources indicate that Barraza is meeting with Chavez today, although he did not indicate he would be meeting with her when I interviewed him yesterday. It would be troublesome for Marquez if somehow the Morenos united with Chavez to take out Marquez. Which is possible, I guess, but not probable. The Morenos and Marquez were both supportive of Naomi Gonzalez in her bid to unseat Norma Chavez two years ago, which they accomplished. Because Chavez was behind the over-throw of Moreno, and be...

Dora Elkabachi, candidate for the eastside seat on County Commissioner's Court being vacated by County Commissioner Anna Perez has decided to end her campaign for the seat today. When reached, Elkabachi said, "...I will be withdrawing from the race this afternoon...I can no longer keep up with my campaign commitments because I found an honorable opportunity to work with the disenfranchised population of our community. I believe we were specifically given two hands in life: one to push our way through life and the other to pull someone through it. This is where I need to be at this moment in my life." Elkabachi is currently working as a Facilitator at the Upper Rio Grande Workforce Solutions. That leaves former YISD Trustee Liza Montelongo, El Paso County Democratic Chairman Danny Anchondo, and Jaime Romo in the race for the open county commissioner's seat.

We now have two candidates that have returned to El Paso so recently that, to borrow a phrase from Ma Haggerty a couple of years ago, you might have milk in your fridge that has been in El Paso longer than the two of them. I checked my fridge and it turns out, I don't have anything that old. But I do have some meat in the freezer and almost everything in the pantry has been here longer than the two new young upstarts. But they are both ex-patriots, so should that count against them that they moved back to El Paso to run for office, or should it be something in their favor? Honestly, I'm a little torn. I see it both ways. However, thinking about it made me wonder what you all think. So I posted a new poll (I know, it has been a while). Could this be a start of a trend? Is this just a function of a golden opportunity? Lots of things to consider with this one, so weigh in...

This town has had more than its share of embarrassing developments for campaigns. In fact, we are almost known for how embarrassingly crappy the pool of candidates usually is in this town. We've had candidates that play dress-up (Jerome Tilghman), candidates that use props (Ben Mendoza), and a whole host of other embarrassing moments. Like memmer the candidate that flashed people in the L&J and was on the most-wanted list...all in the same week? We've had candidates that are likely mentally disturbed, candidates that take the bus to debates, candidates that wear chanclas, and candidates no one can understand...and I'm just talking about one particular candidate. And then there's our local Republicans. Not all of them, but most of them have been a motley crue of weirdos that don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning anything. But at least they pull out a decent one every now and them. Most of the time, its harmless but makes El Paso look like its full...

Gandara New Years Party

Yo, sorry to post this here but I don't have any other way to contact you.I got your email but it doesn't work when I reply so you'll have to give me another address to respond to.

I'm not a poet. I'm really not that creative either. But I've been telling myself for a long time that I need to do an El Paso political version of Twas the Night Before Christmas. It doesn't tell a story, because like I said, I'm not really good at it. Its more a collection of rhymes about elected officials and candidates. Some of it might not make sense unless you are a frequent reader or if you really politically dialed in. If you are mentioned in this and get mad about it, its a sign you need to chill the hell out. Its only meant to be humor, so don't be a sour puss. That being said, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to seek political asylum in Fabens, somewhere near the rooster. (That's two Fabens Rooster references in a week if you are keeping score). Here we go... 'Twas the Night Before Christmas...Chuco Style Twas the Night before Christmas and all through El Paso, politicians were in trouble, elections were a hassle. The ballots were hu...

Look I don't know the vato. Never heard of him and never spoke to him. But he sounds like a joke of a candidate. Although I think his business name is very creative. The reason I never heard of him, or Mary Gonzalez from HD 75 for that matter, is because they aren't from El Paso. And point of fact, neither am I. But unlike the Ricardo Aaron Barraza and Gonzalez, I have lived here for the past few years. And I have serious doubts about some claims in Barraza's quotes. Apparently in the El Paso Times today Barraza claims to live in El Paso most of the time and occasionally visit Austin for his business. Yeah right. Its a small business, which means it requires baby-sitting. State Rep Marisa Marquez says he applied for a position with her office but her openings were only in the District. So....if he lives here most of the time, what is the problem? Why go for the Austin position and not take the one in El Paso? Only one reason. Because he lives in AUSTIN! Duh! Here is another...

Okay after the other day's Commissioner's Court meeting, the previous week's ABC7 Extra, last week's County Commissioner's meeting, last weeks City Council meeting, and now Tuesday's city council meeting, I am not pretty convinced that there is a strategy being orchestrated by the County Judge, and City Reps Susie Byrd and Steve Ortega to create negative headlines to actively assist their friend Beto O'Rourke. Yesterday's front page of the Borderland section is just one example of what I am talking about. I'll bet a dozen tamales that it is used in an O'Rourke mailer. It was a piece about the Huckabee case. I'll go ahead a say what a lot of people out there are saying. The Hucakbee case is important, but abuse by law enforcement in Mexico is hardly a rare occasion. It happens to people all the time. It happens to Americans regularly. But Hucakbee is white. And we care more about white people in this country than we do about people of color...

The on-going public corruption scandal has been a plague on El Paso for going on years now. Anyone connected to public corruption is going to lose and lose big in the next election. The people haven't had a chance to take out their aggravation over the betrayal of the scandal yet and I'm betting they are going to be chomping at the bit to go and vote against anyone connected. In fact, more often than not, the best way to get people to vote in an election is to give them something to vote against. The Public Corruption Scandal was about a violation of trust. El Paso is tribal and it takes a long time for El Pasoans to trust someone. When they do, you have a friend for life. Which explains why El Paso has so many legacy elected officials. So a violation of that trust will echo in the voting booth. People are genuinely angry about the wide-reaching scandal. But what I think people are most upset about isn't so much that there are people on the take. Its the fact that they are ...

Long-time Republican Party activist and former Congressional candidate W.E. "Walt" Woelper passed away earlier this week. Woelper was an Election Judge and Precinct Chairman for more than 20 years. He leaves behind his wife Elvira and their two children. Mr. Woelper's viewing will be Friday, December 23rd from 10:00am - 11:30am at Hardy Orr McDaniel Funeral Home on Montana. Mary Homsely, wife of Republican Party Chairman Tom Homsley, said, "He represented our conservative  values to the utmost and will be greatly missed by all...all of us who knew Walt will miss his warm and friendly smile and cheerfulness".

Per request of Chente Quintanilla's campaign I am posting his invitation to his annual pachanga: 12 09 2011 Pachanga Invite Digital Invite

I was sent this email from the state head of Stonewall Democrats and I think its important to share. The Harris County Democratic Party in Houston elected Lane Lewis as the interim County Chair at their meeting last night.  Lewis ran unsuccessfully as an openly gay candidate for Houston City Council in 2009.  Lewis replaces outgoing HCDP Chair Gerry Binberg, who stepped down before his term was completed. For more information on this story, click on the link below: http://outsmartmagazine.com/ 2011/12/lane-lewis-elected- harris-county-democractic- party-chair/ Dan Graney

Sito Negron hooked it up again - Briones Information

Its literally a big check. Annie's List contributed $20,000 to HD 75 candidate Mary Gonzalez last night at her campaign kick-off event at Cotton-Eyed Joes in Clint. Gonzalez has lived her adult life in Austin but returned to El Paso a few days ago to campaign for the open seat for House District 75. The event drew around 80 of her friends and family. Honestly, I was pretty surprised at the amount they contributed. $20k is a lot of money and is a significant head start. She will certainly have to raise a lot more money than that to be competitive with Art Fierro and Willie Gandara, but its a heck of a start.

I've written, with great pride, about my family's service to El Movimiento and the United Farmworker's Union several times. I'm lucky, I actually knew, and know, real-life civil rights leaders. I'm even more lucky to be related to many. My uncle Marc Grossman (yes, he's Jewish if you are wondering), was a long-time aide to Cesar Chavez, UFW spokesman, and is now the Communications Director for the Cesar Chavez foundation. He wrote an Op-Ed piece in The Californian, in response to a negative piece written about Cesar Chavez. He corrects the record about false-claims that Cesar Chavez condoned violence and was anti-immigrant. The piece is called Cesar Chavez was the Epitome of Peaceful Protest . (He was occupying the fields and picket lines long before Wall Street protests came along). Here's an excerpt: Allegations that Cesar tolerated violence are patently false. Many of Day's other claims also demand correction. Here are just a few. With anti-immigrant ...

Danny Anchondo's bid for a seat on Commissioner's Court is basically dead on arrival. In fact, I can't for the life of me figure out what his thought process was. I could understand him running for a seat on the bench. He's a lawyer, its makes sense. People in the County have seen his name on a ballot before. All the Democratic candidates will win in November for all the judicial seats. Its low-hanging fruit and all he has to do is send a few mailers to the right voters, which ideally shouldn't be a problem for the out-going Chair of the El Paso Democratic Party. But for the Commissioner's Seat, he has to run a real campaign. He doesn't have the name ID in the precinct that he needs to win. I've never seen that man phone bank or walk a precinct, so I doubt he's going to work very hard. He's essentially going to have to blow a crap load of money on mailers and signage to even have the remotest of chances of being competitive. Which is only the beg...

Its all hands on deck for what people not-so-affectionately call "the Shapleighites". Shapleigh isn't really calling the plays as much as people think he is, so I never really liked that name. But call'em what you want, the Fantastic Four, the Get-a-long Gang, the Justice League, whatever. The point is, the group of El Paso's strongest and closest political allies, County Judge Veronica Escobar, Congressional Candidate Beto O'Rourke, and City Reps Byrd and Ortega are in my opinion, a full-court press against the Congressman. Its not even subtle anymore. There is still a dog-whistle quality to it, but its becoming more and more evident that they are raising legitimate issues in their respective issues as cover for an attempt for negative headlines about the Congressman to be used in mailers for O'Rourke. Monday's cover of the Borderland section is one example. Today's front-page story about Ortega having to wait in line at the border is another. Sus...

Okay, so the election went from a sprint to a marathon. Which for a lot of campaigns, is bad news. Very bad news. All candidates will tell you its good news because it gives them more time to talk to voters. Take a big whiff when you hear them say it because that ladies and genuine, is 100% US Grade A BULLSHIT! They would much rather it be in March rather than April. Especially the broke-ass campaigns. They have to make their pesitos last even longer. Unless someone suddenly taps a cash-flow somewhere. Which is possible, but not probable. But its not all good news for the candidates that are loaded either. So here is a quick hit of some of the more prominent races and who I think is a winner and loser as a result of the rescheduling of the election day. (Note: I'm not saying that the winners are going to win or the losers are going to lose. Its just a reflection of who benefits and who is hurt by the election date change). County Commissioner Races Precinct 1 Liza Montelongo - Winn...

If you watched the County Commissioner's Court meeting, and don't we all, then you noticed that for a crucial vote on the maps conversation, embattled County Commissioner Willie Gandara was not present. That got me curious. So I called around and played my own version of a popular game...Where's Willie? Turns out, the vote was taken near the end of the Commissioner's Court meeting, between 2:15 and almost 3:00pm. I noticed that he filed to run for HD 75 yesterday. So I called Democratic Party Headquarters and it turns out that is around the time Gandara went to go file his papers to run for HD 75. I know what you're wondering. Couldn't he have gone some other time during the day yesterday? Yes Grasshopper, you are correct. The filing deadline was 6pm. Gandara could've still done his job and represented his community AND filed for office all in the same day.

The race for the 448th District Court is going to be one of the most interesting races to for political observers in El Paso and I think it may actually be a bit of a barometer for people that have been mentioned in the public corruption scandal but not charged with anything. The 448th Court is Judge Arditti's Court. As you know, she was accused of, and beat a rap for nepotism. The question is, what impact it will have on her electability. Given the fact that this was something that came out at the beginning of her term, its something that has loomed over almost the entirety of her term. Its one of the reasons I think she's one of the most vulnerable elected officials. In fact, now that Gandara is not running for re-election, I think she's THE most vulnerable elected official. All an opponent has to do is run a negative campaign. Not dirty, but just negative. One negative mail piece will probably due her in. Of course that is all predicated on an opponent being credible eno...

There will be another window that opens that will allow more candidates to file to run in the primary. That filing deadline will be February 1st. So for now, here are the Democrats that have filed: CANDIDATE NAME DATE FILED POSITION   LUIS AGUILAR 11/28/2011 CONSTABLE PCT #4   JESUS R HERRERA 11/28/2011 CC COURT #4   PATRICK M GARCIA 11/28/2011 384TH DISTRICT COURT    SAMUEL MEDRANO, JR 11/28/2011 409TH DISTRICT COURT    MANUEL LOPEZ 11/28/2011 CONSTABLE PCT #5   MARISA MARQUEZ 11/28/2011 ST REPRESENTATIVE #77   DONALD L WILLIAMS 11/28/2011 388TH DISTRICT COURT    CARLOS CARRASCO 11/28/2011 CC COURT #3   MIGUEL CERVANTES 11/28/2011 41ST DISTRICT COURT   RICHARD CONTRERAS 11/28/2011 243RD DISTRICT COURT    MIGUEL HERRERA 11/28/2011 383RD DISTRICT COURT    ROD TREAT 11/28/2011 CONSTABLE PCT #6   WILLIAM E MOODY 11/28/2011 34TH DISTRICT COURT   JOSEPH "JOE" MOODY 11/28/2011 ST REPRESENTATIVE #78 ...

Here is an announcement from the Mary Gonzalez campaign. She is a candidate for HD 75. Mary Gonzalez for State Representative

Democratic Party activist Glenn "Butch" Maya filed to run for El Paso County Democratic Party Chairman. And thank God he did! Maya has spearheaded several successful projects for the Democratic Party and has been one of the few people in the Democratic Party leadership that have been basically fair to every one. So far, there is not other opponent but there will be another filing opportunity at which point at least one, possibly more, candidates will file.

Interestingly there have been a couple of developments today in terms of candidates. It looks like Jerome Tilghman and Ben Mendoza both filed to run for Congress today. Both as Democrats, which is surprising because Mendoza really isn't a serious candidate and Tilghman isn't going to be a viable candidate either. Biggest surprise though is Danny Anchondo. He is not seeking re-election for County Chair and instead will be seeking the office of County Commissioner for Precinct #1. Dora Elkabachi also filed as a candidate for the same race today. More as things develop...

Another candidate signed up for the race for County Commissioner Precinct #1. His name is Jaime Romo. I started doing some background research on him on so far the only thing I am coming up with is the fact that he is a county employee. It appears he's part of the nutrition program and does some work in Montana Vista. So far it doesn't look like he has much political experience or anything like that, but its early and I'm still digging. Which reminds me, its time I started doing interviews with candidates in that race pretty soon. I'll put it on my to-do list.

I finally had a chance to interview Laura Strathmann, candidate for the 388th Court. As I have said before, she also has a commercial ready. I know its being used in social media, but I assume it will also be used for TV. If you pay close attention you will see Vice President of the Westside Democrats Victor Salas make a brief cameo in the commercial. And here is her commercial: