The Race for the 448th District Court

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 enough to take her out. Her only opponent so far is Ray Gutierrez. Nice guy. If he sounds familiar its because he lost a race for Justice of the Peace to Barbara Perez. 

That's reason number one why I don't think he's a strong candidate. He came in second to Barbara Perez in a Justice of the Peace race. That's a smaller race and one that frankly, whoever works the hardest and spends the most money in should win. 

And yet he lost. 

But to make matters worse for him, he is representing County Commissioner Dan Haggerty, who is now being implicated in the public corruption scandal.

Gutierrez best argument to make to voters would've been that he was no ties to corruption or related charges. 

It makes it a whole lot harder to make that argument when he is representing someone who is implicated in the city's most high profile corruption scandal. 

He either thought being involved in a high-profile case was going to up his notoriety, or he didn't consider the implications to his race when he took the case. 

But it hurts his ability to win against an opponent who would otherwise be pretty easy to take out. Arditti has had some very bad press and her negatives are likely sky high. She spent a boat-load of cash to get elected the first time and it would probably take as much, if not more to get elected this time...if she had a viable challenger. 

Unfortunately in this case...nice guys finish last. Unless someone else gets in this race, I think Arditti can win re-election.