El Paso Politics

In a very surprising development, Beto O'Rourke was able to raise more money than Congressman Reyes in the first campaign finance report of the season. O'Rourke released a statement that says, "I'm very grateful for the support from my fellow El Pasoans. We've out-raised a 16-year incumbent, despite his access to D.C. Special interest and PAC money. El Paso is clearly ready for a representative who will make growing the economy and saving jobs, taking care of our veterans and standing up to special interests his top priorities."   It's not only surprising, its significant. Congressman Reyes response was: “It’s no secret that my opponent comes from deep pockets and is supported by wealthy development interests in our city. At the end of the day, however, no amount of money in the world can help cover up his radical agenda of wanting to legalize drugs, raising the retirement age on seniors, cutting housing for disabled people, opposing health care reform whi...

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I honestly feel bad for Judge Regina Arditti. She seems to have had the worst run of luck of any politico I can recall in recent history. She wasn't on the bench for most of her first term. She had a trial looming over her head. Now there is this story in the El Paso Times. Trust me, its a big deal. When the details come out, you will see what I mean. Thats IF they come out. There are privacy issues in this story and lets be honest, she is a judge, so everyone will be more deliberate and careful about how its approached. So I won't comment on the specifics of the story, but I will comment on the campaign impact. The article says she couldn't be reached for comment. Well, the media isn't going to go away on this one. Especially if documents, tapes of the 9-1-1 call, or other stuff isn't available. They will ask questions until they get an answer. That means that she will either have to keep a low profile on the campaign trail, or she will have to take on the issue. ...

This happens every election like clockwork. Every election some genius decides they are going to send campaign emails to employees of some government body. Sometimes its city employees, sometimes its county employees, etc. This time it was to employees of EPISD. For some reason candidates don't understand that you can not do that. I don't really understand what is so hard for them to grasp about that, but it never fails. You could almost set your watch by it. Every campaign season will have someone that sends emails to a public entity, candidates will have their signs stolen or defaced, someone will do something really stupid and get attention for the wrong reason, someone will forget the word "for" in their campaign signs, and someone will screw up on their campaign finance report. These are just universal truths for El Paso politics. But the Congressman's campaign sending an email to the EPISD employees is a big deal because of the fact that it tells you somethi...

Brilliant. David K nails it. Go read this post .

Redistricting is a mess in Texas and since we do things bigger in Texas, redistricting is a big ol' mess in Texas. A lot of people might not understand why thats a big deal in terms of local campaigns, so let me break it down for you on why this has turned out to be a big Texas-sized pain in the nalgas. Here are the top ____ reasons the redistricting mess is a big pain in the butt to local candidates: 1. You don't know who you are running against. The Texas Courts haven't said when the filing or residency deadline is. Better to err on the side of caution and make sure you live in the district asap. Which leads to the next problem... 2. No one knows what the district lines are going to look like yet. So you have to hold off and getting a place in the district until you find out what the district looks like. 3. You have no idea where it is safe to start walking and who to start calling. 4. If you are already walking and have already cut turf, there's a good chance that yo...

I think CUNNING has officially replaced WINNING as the craziest thing I've heard over the last year that wasn't meant to sound crazy by the person saying it. But it has a flow don't ya think? Just substitute it for whatever you were going to use the word WINNING for. Like this, "Democrats should cross over in Florida and vote for Newt Gingrich to extend the Republican Primary fight...CUNNING!" See, I told ya it had a nice flow to it...

Dear Incumbents and Candidates for Elected Office:       On behalf of El Paso Stonewall Young Democrats (EPSYD), I would like to cordially invite you to participate in our organization's first-ever Endorsement Roundtable Meeting and Endorsement Election.  El Paso Stonewall Young Democrats is a progressive new organization that was founded last year in September to give voice to and empower young Democrats in El Paso who are gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgendered, and their straight friends, family, and allies that share a common interest in advancing the interests of progress, equality, and justice in El Paso, Texas, at the local, state, and national level.          Since we began, our organization has achieved extraordinary success in its formation and has received a great deal of support from many powerful and influential leaders in the El Paso area who support the gay community in El Paso and their allies.  El Pa...

People can say a lot of bad things about me, and I assure you, they do. But one thing no one can ever say is that I don't stand by what I write. I know that what I write has consequences. I know that it means that a lot of people would like to see me dead. Or at least hospitalized for a period of time. But I didn't start writing because I wanted to be popular at parties. So that's why I am writing this piece. I'm pretty sick of the lengths people will go to in order to trash someone. I wouldn't mind it so much if they had the courage to stand by their words. But they don't. Let me explain what I mean. In the election four years ago, the internet was already a big part of campaigns. David K and I were already blogging. There was always a place that would serve as the cess pool for people's desire to trash people without having to reveal who they are. Its nothing new. People used to do that on the Strelzin Forum quite a bit, but that died down substantially. T...

I've been a little busy so I didn't get a chance to post the audio of the Westside Democrats Endorsement Meeting. I wasn't able to get video because I was invited to be a panelist for this meeting. Here is audio of State Representative Marisa Marquez, who ultimately won the endorsement of the Westside Democrats. This clip is audio of Mary Gonzalez, who is seeking the office of State Representative in House District 75.

Just to remind you, join us tomorrow, Saturday January 28th, for our first phone banking event of the year, calling into the important battleground state NEW MEXICO.  We need bilingual speakers, but we will have a list for English speaking people as well.  Everyone, please bring your cell phones; calling is perhaps long distance.   Hostess:        Isela Castanon-Williams  Address:        9009 El Dorado, El Paso 79925 Date:              January 28, 2012 Time:              10:30 am to 1:30 pm Contact:         Sue Doucette Telephone:       915 584 4366 to RSVP or more info, click here   We hope to see you there! Organizing for America - El Paso

Fundraiser PDF

1/28 SPECIAL INVITATION: VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION DAY “ Volunteer Appreciation Celebration” Saturday, January 28, 2012   11:15 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. 1/28 REMINDER: SILVER SUPER SATURDAY BLOCK WALK Please join us this Saturday at campaign headquarters (2004 Montana Ave.) for our next  Silver Super Saturday Block Walk . Help us reach out to over 1,000 El Paso households and inform voters why Congressman Reyes is the best candidate to represent El Paso in Congress.  "Silver Super Saturday Block Walk!" Saturday, January 28, 2012 8:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. 8:30 a.m.: Volunteer Orientation 9:00 a.m.: Walking Starts Please confirm your participation by sending an email to  reyesworksvolunteers@gmail.com  or contact campaign headquarters at  (915) 222-8091 . Please include your t-shirt size in the email.  We will provide orientation, breakfast, and a memorable block walking experience with other El Pasoans.  If you cannot make it this weekend, please...

And probably the biggest winner in that development other than Haggerty himself was his lawyer Ray Gutierrez. It was a tremendous gamble to take on that case in the middle of a campaign. That really could've blown up in his face. But no risk, no reward. Gutierrez comes out of it looking pretty strong. Gutierrez now has to get on the ball and start some aggressive campaigning because despite her many obvious political vulnerabilities, Judge Arditti is very popular within the El Paso County Democratic Party, particularly with the Old Guard. The elections seem far off right now, but election day comes around pretty quickly and nobody pays attention to judicial races. Its a name recognition game, but Gutierrez has a real opportunity to send out some strong mailers with recent headlines that would be difficult for Arditti to counter. Gutierrez also needs to raise his profile in the Party. He has almost no presence within the Party. He came in third in a JP race last go around, so outsid...

Somebody put an interesting comment on my blog today that I thought was worth having a conversation about because he makes an interesting point. Mr Rodriguez writes: I am an eastsider, taxpayer, and business owner. As time gets closer for us to select a new County Commissioner for our area, We need to really research who we want to elect. This is a four year term and we need to make sure that these candidates are really in it for the right reasons!I see so many recycled polititions and it makes me wonder...."Are they in it to just climb the ladder"? I see four people on the ballot (Exception Carlos Leon) I have only seen two others spoken about on your blog. We as voters would like to see a full picture of who and what will represent us on Eastside. Not who has money or who rubs elbows with the same political circles!! We need someone who knows and feels what we have and is truley in it for the right reasons....Lets not be so bias, report on all the candidates!! Okay, so Mr. ...

Aaron Barraza is a candidate for House District 77 and is running against the incumbent State Representative Marisa Marquez. It is tradition for guest speakers at the El Paso Young Democrats Meeting to take questions from the membership following their remarks to the organization. For some reason he wouldn't take questions. Another curious development at the YD meeting was the presence of former State Representative Norma Chavez. Her presence has hung over his campaign from the beginning and has been controversial because Barraza has been seeking the support of former State Representative Paul Moreno and public knowledge of any association with Chavez is problematic for Barraza who is in the process of trying introduce himself to voters and establish his campaign identity. Chavez has only been to two other meetings of the El Paso Young Democrats. Next months speaker is State Representative Marisa Marquez, so it will be interesting to see if Chavez attends the meeting. Nonetheless, ...

Former El Paso Police Department Chief Carlos Leon formally announced his candidacy last night at an announcement/fundraiser event held in East El Paso. Notables in attendance (other than candidates) were Former County Judge Alicia Chacon, Former First Lady of El Paso Kenna Ramirez, El Paso County Commissioners Anna Perez and Sergio Lewis, and Enrique Moreno. So far it looks like the buzz from last night that people are talking about today isn't something about Leon. Its about what Leon said about Enrique Moreno. As you can see in the video, Leon mentions shortly after taking to the mic that he's trying to convince Moreno to run for Mayor after Mayor Cook's term is up. Here are Leon's remarks:

The Congressional race has set the tone for other political races in El Paso and its getting really ugly out there. More than usual. Even by El Paso standards. Hell, even by Lower Valley standards, this year has a sharper-than-normal edge to it. Cops have been called on one campaign, signs defaced (which always happens), name calling, and then the juvenile Facebook crap that has been going on, which by the way, members of the Congressman's congressional staff actually participated in. Politicos have been edgy, cranky, and defensive. Hell, I went to a campaign event within the last week and the candidate was rude the minute I walked through the door. Comes with the territory though. Last night I saw a judicial candidate hand a document over to a County Commissioner that was trashing the judicial candidates' opponent. Happened right in front of me. The point is, it seems to be contentious everywhere. In a lot of races. But its more than just that. Somewhere along the line, we hav...

Why not? The Republicans need a stronger candidate and Rodriguez is almost as devoutly Catholic as Rick Santorum. I don't know if you had a chance to check out the editorial in Sunday's Edition of the El Paso Times, but Rodriguez pulled off some political spin better than I've seen GOP Presidential candidates Swift Boat Kerry. It was masterful. Rather than make his op-ed an Act of Contrition (pun intended), Father Rodriguez chose the old fashioned Wizard of Oz Defense. Pay-no-attention-to-the-account-with-my-mother-as-the-beneficiary-in-the-event-of-my-death. So Rodriguez starts to go on offense. Complains that the Diocese isn't following religious dogma closely enough. Funny, I don't remember hearing anything about creating accounts that are left to your mother in the event of your death in the Bible or Vatican II. Meh, maybe its in the Old Testament. Back to my point here, Rodriguez took no responsibility for his alleged actions. Instead he attempts to change the ...

Even John McCain has expressed the importance for the GOP to start being less of a whites-only club and more inclusive of Latinos, but it falls on deaf ears. So you want to know what Republicans have a hard time attracting large numbers from the Latino community? Watch this video of a Republican mayor from back east. Perfect example of what's wrong with the Republican Party...(I didn't make this video up either. This really happened.)  

As I've written about in the past, the real power of the Democratic Party is no longer centralized within the Chair, but now rests with the various Democratic Clubs around town. Add another club to the list. The University Democrats are being reorganized. I know I have a lot of readers at UTEP, so here is the information that you all will need to know: UTEP Students You've got to get involved in the political process. Join us this Wednesday, as University Democrats organize our work plan for 2012. We will talk about issues such as : * Immigration Reform * College Tuition * Labor Unions * Tax Cuts for Wealthy * Green Energy * SOPA/PIPA * Local Interships * Obama 2012 Campaign If you are interested in becoming an officer (President, Vice-President or Treasurer), we need you to step up to the plate and let us know at the meeting. For more information please contact Julio Diaz, 915-342-3314 or at julio.diaz@yahoo.com

Fresh off of an interview with KVIA in which he criticized one of his opponents, Mary Gonzalez, for taking a contribution from an Austin-based women's empowerment PAC, Hector Enriquez has hired an Austin-based firm to help with his campaign. Its a bit of a strange development considering his previous stance about the contribution to Gonzalez. In a press release, Enriquez says,  “We are going to run a top notch professional campaign. This team has years and years of experience running and winning campaigns in Texas. They are some of the most respected campaign professionals in the business,” Enriquez said. The team consists of Doug Dodson of Fletcher Rowley Media, James Alderete of Message, Media & Presentation, J.D. Angle of AMM Political, and Jason Stanford of Stanford Campaigns and Campaign Manager  Moises Bujanda . The firm her hired, according to sources in Austin, has a bit of a reputation for going negative in campaigns, so its possible that the original story from K...

Hello fellow Obama supporters, volunteers, and/or OFA members. We really hope you can makeour State of the Union watch party.The El Paso Young Democrats, Black El Paso Democrats and OFA will host a watch party at the McCall Center (3231 Wyoming Avenue) in central El Paso @ 6:00PM Hope to see you there. For contact information call Alfredo Longoria, Chair of the El Paso Young Democrats @ e pyd@gmail.com . Note: This event is also sponsored by Congressman Reyes' Campaign, State Rep Marisa Marquez's campaign, and Aaron Barraza's campaign.  Representative Marquez will not be in attendance because of meetings in Austin. Congressman Reyes is supposed to Skype in to the watch party and no word on Barraza's attendance at the event, though I assume he will be in attendance because he is sponsoring the event. For those of you on the Westside of Town, you can also attend another event. The  other El Paso/NM OFA (Organizing for America) teams State of the Union Watch Party will...

Aaron Barraza, candidate for House District 77 addressing the El Paso Young Democrats meeting last night. Barraza was the guest speaker for the month of January and will be facing State Representative Marisa Marquez in the primary election. Marquez will be the guest speaker at next month's meeting of the El Paso Young Democrats. The venue for that is going to change, and I will keep you all posted. Barraza spoke about his background and said Marquez was a failure in terms of Representation. Barraza also spoke about cuts in education, the budget, and characterized Marquez as "micro-managing" school districts with unfunded mandates.

If you don't like your city rep, most of the time your only recourse is to vote them out. But this year you have a unique opportunity to get involved in drawing the city representative lines. So you can draw out your rep or vote them out. Your choice. Here's more information about how to get involved: District Ing Commission Flyer (1)

Point of personal privilege here. I wanted to give a shout out to one of my frequent readers, Margarita "Maggie" Cordero-Martinez who is a 77-year old from the Valley that is one of my frequent readers. Her granddaughter Arlina Palacios is a friend of mine and told me that her grandmother started reading my blog and enjoys it. I'm not boo-hooing here because I chose to blog on my own, but I do have to put up with a lot of stuff I'd rather not put up with as a blogger. But its abuelitas like Sra. Cordero-Martinez that make it all worth it. Now I really have to watch my language around here...

I am so sick of the Congressional campaign and what it has turned in to. It has turned into supporters of the major candidates throwing monkey crap at one another. This community has real problems. Poverty, illiteracy, drugs, bigotry, lack of health insurance, poverty, obesity, diabetes, poverty, HIV/AIDS, public corruption, low voter turn-out, low voter registration, poverty, etc... Oh yeah, did I mention poverty? All of those are real problems. Is that the stuff we are talking about these days? Hell no. Despite having very real and important issues facing the community we focus on other crap.  The political food fight. The stuff that turns people off to politics. And yet people are trying to make someone's Facebook friending and unfriending an actual "issue"? How much more high school can we get around here?  Real leaders talk about issues. Pay attention to who is talking about issues and pay attention to people that are shoveling monkey crap. I don't think Ghandi, ...

Dee is trying to play dumb. Let me ask a simple question before I start: Who controls the State House, the State Senate, and every statewide elected office in Texas?   Give up? It's the Republican Party - and it's been that way since 2003. So who do you think has been controlling the messy Redistricting process that has been going on for over a year? I'll give you a hint - it's the same answer as my first question. So I was SHOCKED when I read Rep. Margo's testimony that he provided in the DC Preclearance Case. This is going to get a little insider baseball nerdy here, so bear with me. The DC Preclearance case is acase that will ultimately decide whether Texas violated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and discriminated against minorities in our state.We might be the majority in El Paso, but we are still minorities in the state of Texas.  Here is the link to his written testimony. Careful, its a lot of info: ( https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer...

By now you've probably heard about the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) tossing the redistricting maps drawn by the San Antonio Court. Just a few quick thoughts on what it means for the state and what it means for El Paso. #1 - Say hello to a June Primary. It still has to be decided by the Courts, but I would be very surprised if the elections were still going to be held in April. So I'd expect it to be pushed back...again. Possibly as far back as June, though it could be May. #2 - Its not a loss for the redistricting plaintiffs. #3 - The SCOTUS did not compel the lower court to go back to the State Legislature map. So that means they will have to draw new maps using the state legislature maps as a starting point and can adjust the maps if there is "reasonable probability" of a violation of Section 2 or Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The San Antonio Courts will now have to decide, starting next week or maybe later, about when the election will be. They will also have to de...

Like any self-respecting Chicano vato loco from the barrio, I love oldies. Which is to say, I love me some Etta James. That woman can sing, is probably the understatement of the century. I know I'm usually pretty focused on policy on this blog, but oldies was part of my upbringing. When my dad was under a car fixing something on the weekend (our cars always needed fixing) and I could only see him from the waist down, we usually had a radio on and were listening either to mariachi or oldies. I never learned how to fix cars, but I sure as hell picked up a love for Etta James along the way. Who could forget At Last  when the President and the First Lady danced on Inauguration Night? Who could ever forget I'd Rather Go Blind ? But my favorite is My Dearest Darling . Everytime I hear this song at home, I grab my wife, pull her close to me and dance with her. She sings it to me in my ear and move around the living room and make our kids wanna puke. Listen to the words. If you don...

Stomp your feet, bitch to anyone who will listen, pout, and then try to copy. I guess its the mantra of some. Although we all know, the copy is never really as good as the original is it? Think about it, Bizarro could never beat Superman, Bad Spock couldn't beat Good Spock and lets not forget Michael Knight and Garth Knight. David K and I don't usually agree on policy, football, food, novelas, hobbies, or which Republican candidate for President is the lamest. Occasionally we find common ground on El Paso's political landscape or local issues. We both have an audience that is equal parts fans, equal parts haters. El Paso has had a political blogosphere that has expanded and contracted over the years. There was a time when there were several political bloggers in town like the Avocadoan, the El Paso Fake News, etc. But for some reason or another we are always the last two standing. There has been a growth of some new blogs lately and I've linked to several of them on my ...

Despite not having an opponent, Glenn "Butch" Maya is running his campaign like he does have an opponent. Once again Maya showed he was able to get Democrats from all sectors to support him. Rumor has it someone else is considering getting in the race but the fact is that person has never been viable countywide. That's why that person chose not to run for senate despite considering the option and thats why the person chose not to run against Congressman Reyes despite talking about the option as recently as the last Presidential election. Interestingly the Congressman is supportive of Maya to be the next Chair. Maya was introduced by Sheriff Richard Wiles, one of the most popular Democrats in the County at his event on Tuesday. Here are a few pictures of key people in attendance: Sheriff Richard Wiles, Jan Engles, Butch Maya Butch Maya, Kathy Coronado Butch Maya and Robert Hernandez Butch Maya & County Attorney JoAnn Bernal Alejandro "Alex" Guzman & Butch...