Answering a Comment

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. Rodriguez sees two other names that I've spoken about. He also mentioned voters wanting to see a full picture of who and what will represent us on the Eastside.

Jaime Romo (Left)

That is a very fair critique. One of the reasons I blog is for the Mr. Rodriquez's of the world. The other name I assume that he is talking about is Jaime Romo. He is also a candidate for the Eastside's seat on Commissioner's Court. Not to belabor the point Mr. Rodriguez, but in all fairness to me, I think I'm the ONLY one that has mentioned his name. I did some checking on my blog using the search function and it looks like I have mentioned Romo in at least 6 different pieces. One dedicated specifically to Mr. Romo that was written last month.

Mr. Rodriguez, here are the links to the pieces in which Mr. Romo is mentioned:

http://thelionstarblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-candidate-in-comish-1-race.html


http://thelionstarblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/dora-elkabachi-drops-out-of-precinct-1.html


http://thelionstarblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/carlos-leon-to-enter-precinct-1-county.html


http://thelionstarblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/liza-montelongos-announcement-event.html


http://thelionstarblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/candidate-list-for-now.html


http://thelionstarblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/election-day-reschedule-winners-losers.html

But the spirit of what Mr. Rodriguez is saying is that I have devoted far more time to the other candidates in the race and he is right about that. Fair and constructive critique. I'll try harder.

I'd like to explain why there is such a difference though, because there are some very good reasons why I have covered him much less than the rest. The first reason being he doesn't have much of a political history to talk about. The other candidates have all previously run for office or have been in the public sector in some capacity within the last 10 years.

Mr. Romo hasn't. So there is less to comment on. To use the vernacular of my generation, I'm not intentionally trying to dis him. There is just less to comment on.

Second, I do a great deal of my blogging based on the candidates' events. Case in point, Mr. Leon's event earlier this week. I attended and captured some video. Mr. Romo has really had a public campaign event yet, though he did have a campaign announcement on a Saturday night that I had another commitment, so I wasn't able to attend. Quick sidebar - Saturday night is the worst time to have a political event other than Sunday morning at 6 am.

Third, I was only recently able to get in touch with Mr. Romo, who actually took the initiative to contact me. Due to his work schedule (he has a full time job), we just aren't always able to connect. But I did see that he attended the State of the Union Watch Party and that was the first time we met in person. I wanted to get an interview with him but he had to leave before I had a chance to interview him.

I was able to steal a picture of him from Don William's photo slide show, so here he is on the left with who I believe are supporters of his candidacy.

However, Mr. Romo and I will sit down for an interview very soon. He reads my blog and is probably reading this now and will likely contact me sometime today to set it up, if not, I will make sure I contact him. So, Mr. Rodriguez, I will try to have an interview with him posted up on my blog by Monday, si Dios quiere.

Now a couple of other quick notes before I wrap this up. As I have stated many times, I am not a reporter. Reporters are actually highly educated journalists with an education, standards, and credibility. I state that regularly because I think its important that people understand that anyone can be a blogger and no one should confuse a blogger for actual legitimate journalism.

But I do try hard to exercise a little reportage, which is to say a factual representation with a journalistic style. So I see how people sometimes confuse the two, but I am not a reporter. But admittedly information is my currency so I do endeavor to try to cover all the bases, talk to as many people as I can, dot my i's and cross my t's. The point is, although there is reportage in what I do, there is a great deal of opinion and analysis in what I do. Please never take me as a news source because I'm a pretty poor example of one.

So my coverage, or lack of coverage of Mr. Romo doesn't represent a bias (although I am voter and will ultimately vote for whomever I think is the best candidate). Its more a representation of circumstance. The other candidates are making all the noise, Mr. Romo is still in an early stage of his candidacy.

Which brings me to my final point. Its not up to media or bloggers to prop anyone up. Its not bloggers job to go out and speak the message of the candidate. That's the candidates job. The candidate is responsible for developing and delivering a message that voters will, or won't, identify with. So sometimes the fact that a candidate isn't as well known as an opponent is usually the fault of that individual candidate.

In races were there are a lot of candidates you will often see the cases of the haves, and the have-nots. I'll give you some examples. County Commissioner's Court #3 - Vincent Perez, Dora Oaxaca, Chente Quintanilla, and Rudy Loya are all in that race. The ones that make all the noise in terms of visibility in the media, in the community, and in the campaign are Perez, Oaxaca, and Quintanilla. Mr. Loya just doesn't have the same profile as the rest. To the point were I gave him the nickname "The other guy", because I kept forgetting his name.

In the Congressional race, Congressman Reyes and Beto O'Rourke are the candidates that everyone knows. That's because they are the ones that have built-up credibility and have been working at campaigning. The other candidates, Jerome Tilghman and Ben "Buddy" Mendoza, will likely never get more than single-digits in terms of support because they aren't working hard enough to get their message out or they don't have a clearly defined message. That's problematic for someone like Tilghman who has been a talk radio personality in the past. High efficacy voters know him, they just don't seem to buy-in. Something's not connecting.

Mendoza...well, he wants to make Mexico part of the American commonwealth and he's anti-gay running on a Democratic ticket. No one will take him serious.

When its a two person race, the challenger usually gets a certain amount of attention for no other reason than the fact that they are running. A good example of that is HD 77. That race is between the incumbent State Representative Marisa Marquez and Aaron Barraza. Barraza is the opponent so he will get some attention just because he's the only other person in the race. However Barraza has taken advantage of that fact and has built up some momentum from it so he's now a noteworthy candidate, despite being an incredible long shot.

So the point is, you have to go out there and get attention. Its not the responsibility of media or bloggers to go out and create it for the candidate.

But Mr. Rodriguez, as I state previously, you raise a fair critique and I hope to have something for you in the near future.