El Paso Politics

All of the candidate for El Paso County Commissioner Precinct #3 will debate tonight at 5:30pm in Socorro. Its at the police multipurpose facility on Vineyard between Alameda and Socorro Road. Can't miss it. It should be interesting and questions can be submitted from the audience and will be selected by the moderator. Its the first time all the candidates for this office will be squaring off in a debate in the precinct. Be there or be square.

This is video taken by local El Paso Ron Paul Supporters at his UTEP visit last week. Here are his remarks in their entirety. Lots of energy in that room people...Republican establishment should take note...There's never been that level of excitement and energy for any other Republican candidate or politico that has visited El Paso that I can think of. Hell, when Perry comes its usually kept a secret...

Here is video of Rudy Loya's Montana Vista event. I have been meaning to post this and a bunch of other stuff came up so I am only just now getting around to it. Loya, who is a candidate for El Paso County Commissioner Precinct #3 held the event because he said that when they were walking in the Montana Vista area that residents wanted the candidates to come out and speak with them. So Loya took it upon himself to have an event where the candidates could come to speak to the people of Montana Vista. There was 1 person in attendance who identified themselves as being from Montana Vista. The rest were Loya supporters from other parts of the district or members of various campaigns. But to his credit, Loya provided a forum for candidates to speak to those voters. They can't say that no one came to speak to them.

Hector Enriquez, who is a candidate running as a Democrat in House District 75 against Mary Gonzalez and Tony San Roman, is going to have to do some explaining to Democrats about his Republican ties. I've written previously about the fact that he was showing off his picture with former President George W. Bush at his campaign kick-off event earlier in the campaign. But as if taking a picture with the most unpopular Republican for Democrats in the country wasn't enough, it looks like Enriquez wanted to make sure he covered all his bases. As you can see in this screen shot taken from the Texas Ethics Commission website, it looks like Enriquez has provided financial support to the one Republican who might actually be more unpopular than Bush, Texas Governor Rick Perry. In fact, in terms of state contributions, it appears that Enriquez has provided more support to Republicans than to members of his own party. The report shows a $50 contribution to State Representative Marisa Marque...

The more I talk to voters the more I hear things that surprise me, but nonetheless are happening. So I figured I would use my blog to clear up some questions for voters. Your vote is private. No one will know who you vote for. You don't have to vote for every race. If you don't know enough to make an informed decision, don't feel like you have to vote for every election. If there is a race you know nothing about, then you are not required to vote for someone. You can vote for no one if you so choose. If you don't know who to vote for, don't just go down the ballot and pick the first, middle, or last name in the list. Its better to vote for no one in a particular race than to just vote for the first name you see. If you don't understand something, don't be afraid to simply stop what you are doing and ask for help. You can vote at any early voting site in El Paso during the early voting period. But, if you vote on election day, you have to vote at your precinc...

I have been getting a rash of complaints about signs being cut, stolen, damaged, etc. Obviously that kind of crap happens all the time, but more so in this election than in past it seems. So...if you have a picture of video footage of someone doing it, send it to me and I will post it. I travel with my camera all the time, so I am ready to film if I catch someone. Signs are expensive and doing that is just little league campaigning. Now, time for some fun with signs. Actually, one isn't fun. Its mind-blowingly stupid. Yes, I think I just made that word up, but its so stupid, I almost couldn't believe it really happened. (The geniuses in Austin strike again!) Here is a sign of Victor Flores. A reader snapped the photo and sent it to me. As you can see, missing the disclaimer at the bottom. My reader commented, "..he's been around long enough for him to know..." The next one is of Hector Enriquez' ad in a print publication. He's missing the word "for...

Candidates will not be there. Candidates will not be speaking. The meeting is for VOTING only. YD membership is very engaged politically and are informed voters. They've heard from everyone already. This is only for voting. If you have questions, concerns, or complaints, you should post them on Alfredo Longoria's Facebook wall.

El Paso Young Democrats will have their endorsement meeting on Monday, starting at 6pm at G & R Restaurant, 401 East Nevada. The meeting is closed to the public. Only paid EPYD Members. To clarify, it is EPYD members only, not Young at Heart Members. This is only for purposes of ensuring only YD's vote for the endorsements.

Candidate for El Paso County Commissioner's Court Precinct 1 Liza Montelongo issued a press release yesterday regarding the story in the El Paso Times about the latest controversy affecting area school districts. This time it was Ysleta ISD and Montelongo was one of the strongest voices against some of the now-controversial decisions made by the board. What I found interesting about her press release is that she capsulizes exactly what the race for El Paso County Commissioner's Court Precinct 1 is at least partially about. Essentially she is saying that you can select someone who has fought against corruption and wasteful spending while asking the hard questions, or you can vote for her opponent, Carlos Leon, who has documented ties to multiple individuals named or indicted in the public corruption scandal. The press release is below: Press Release El Paso Times Story on YISD

Here is the final candidate interview with the candidates for SBOE.

The White House announced today that civil rights leader, and my tia's comadre, Dolores Huerta will be recognized by the nation's highest civilian award. Huerta will be recognized by President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony in the late spring. Huerta is among 13 recipients of the award this year and is in a class including former United States Senator and astronaut John Glenn, musician and poet Bob Dylan, and the first female Secretary of State Madeline Albright. The award is presented to individuals that have made meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States of America, to world peace, or to cultural and other significant public or private endeavors. Viva la Huelga!

The nominations committee will be meeting at 530pm today at the EP Dem HQ. You should make plans to attend. This will finalize delegates and upgrade people who will be attending as At-Large Delegates to Precinct delegates.

Here is another SBOE Candidate, Andres Muro.

Here is an interview I conducted with Dr. Martha Dominguez, who is running for the State Board of Education.

Ron Paul made an appearance in El Paso last night to a crowd of 1200 people. Organizers say that some people were actually turned away because there was no more room in the venue. The Ron Paul crowd was significant for a couple of reasons. Yes, it was dwarfed by the Clinton visit the day before that had roughly three times as many people. But the Ron Paul crowd certainly dwarfs any other Republican event this year in El Paso. The Tea Party Rally, which is usually the Republicans biggest event, was a total flop. Ron Paul has no chance of winning the Republican nomination. But yet he still packed the room with enthusiastic supporters. Ron Paul isn't the El Paso establishment Republican's favored candidate. But a group of excited, passionate, and organized people, who remind me very much of Obama supporters 4 years ago, not only got Ron Paul to come to town, but they did it without the help of the establishment GOP. And its a crowd that is much larger than what the Republicans wer...

I know everyone is pretty upset about the fight being canceled. Actually, I think people are more upset about the reason given for the cancellation. I am working on a longer piece about it, but until I'm done with that, I thought I would share a link to an online petition asking to keep the fight at the Sun Bowl. The petition was started by a good friend of mine, Mike Torres, who in addition to being a great attorney, epic joke teller on long bus rides, great musician and all around vato loco, he also happens to be one of the smartest people I know. So he put together this idea to give El Pasoans a productive way to vent. Here is the link . Sign it and share it if you are so inclined.

I didn't get a chance to write this earlier because I've been swamped. But I just wanted to write a few lines about the El Paso County Democratic Party County Convention. Honestly there wasn't much to write about. It was mostly uneventful, except for a couple of video highlights that I will post later. But I have been a pretty vocal critic of the Party for the way things are run. So I have to call it like I see it in good times and in bad. So here goes. I thought the convention was well-run and went smoothly. I heard a has-been was complaining that it was run by one faction. A - That's not true. I know of several people, a couple of them even close to the has-been, that had key roles and participated in key committees. and B - Maybe we are moving in to a post-factional El Paso Democratic Party. That would be a good thing. There was a funny situation with seating. Turns out I was sitting behind a former State Representative. And she was sitting behind two of her politica...

This is video of a candidate forum featuring the three Democratic candidates for the State Board of Education. The winner will face the incumbent Republican Charlie Garza in the November general election. I conducted an interview with the three candidates after the forum. The candidates are Dr. Martha M. Dominguez, Andres Muro, and Sergio Mora. After hearing the debate and conducting the interviews it was pretty clear to me who the best candidate is, but I'll save the analysis for later. I realize most of you probably haven't met the candidates yet or heard from them and this might be your only look at them, so the videos should be helpful in your decision on who to support. Ill post the individual interviews with the candidates tomorrow.

Ever since his coronation-like swearing-in ceremony the clock has been ticking on his career as an elected official. It only takes a few minutes of conversation with Garza and you'll see he's an extremist Republican. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy and I could talk to him for hours, but make no mistake, he's an extremist. Just ask him what his views are on immigration, gays in the military, or evolution and you'll understand what I mean. This piece isn't commentary about his performance as a member of the State Board of Education because I haven't had enough time to research his tenure fully...yet. This is about why he's going to lose re-election. First, to understand why he is going to lose, you must first understand how Garza won in the first place. Garza won because of the big Tea Party wave. Two years ago was the height of their popularity and influence. Ever since then, the El Paso Tea Party has been looking for smaller and smaller venues to...

This aired already but I guess I missed it. This is the second ad from the O'Rourke campaign and I have to say, FAR more effective than the first ad. The first ad was basically pretty forgettable. This spot doesn't even show O'Rourke, but features a veteran who tears up. I spoke with this man at a candidate forum at El Paso Community College earlier this campaign season so I remembered who he was. I think he was part of a group that was supposed to host a forum of their own, but I'll double check my notes. Bottom line, this is a much better and more effective ad than the first one.

This was actually a pretty interesting interview and I thought I would share it. Its another one of those behind the scenes news type things. You probably only saw one sound bite from the press conference but it was pretty interesting. Check it out:

Sources indicate that during the Clinton visit yesterday that law enforcement responded to a situation involving one of the demonstrators that were outside the event supporting the O'Rourke campaign. I'm trying to get a hold of the report, but sources indicate that the demonstrator was urinating on the new apartment facility directly across from the venue.  Apparently it was going to just be a warning but the demonstrator apparently was allegedly uncooperative or something and the demonstrator was arrested according to my source. I'll follow up with more details once I am able to find the report. Incidentally, the apartment facility is a green building. I guess the demonstrator really wanted to keep things natural...

Turns out former Senator Eliot Shapleigh was 100% right about what was going on at Bowie High School. A lot of people, including me, thought Shapleigh was wrong and was just doing it for attention. Thats what I get for assuming elected officials are honest and not corrupt. A lot of people, including myself, have to acknowledge the fact that Shapleigh was right. I'm not the Senator's biggest fan, but I have to acknowledge that Shapleigh was right and good for him for going after it.

The place might have only been half-full with attendees but it was over-flowing with enthusiasm for the visit of former President Bill Clinton to El Paso to endorse Congressman Silvestre Reyes. By any measure, it was a success. The Apex Communicator (apologies to Randy Orton) former President Bill Clinton has a gift that is impossible to duplicate. He is by far the most effective and engaging communicator on the planet. He was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd and a group of mariachis playing El Rey. Fitting because he's the King of Communication. There was a palpable energy in the room and in a big shocker...Clinton wasn't late! When it was time for him to speak, he knocked it out of the park. And like a good Democrat, he stumped for the President. He also talked about the personal relationship between Clinton and Reyes, something supporters of Reyes' opponents will downplay but its significant. There were so many soundbytes that can end up in a commercial or a mailer its i...

I'm working on a piece about the Clinton visit along with video of the speech. No matter how you slice it, it was a major win for the Congressman. But some of Reyes' supporters should stop exaggerating about the attendance. I saw one idiot who proudly proclaimed that "over 6,000 people attended Former President Bill Clinton visit to endorse Congressman Silvestre Reyes." He's either lying or stupid. According to a quick google search, the venue doesn't even hold 6,000 people! And it wasn't full. It was about half-full. I'm sure its easy to find pictures of the venue and they will likely show the attendance. I realize they are eager to support the Congressman, but they are doing him a disservice because they show an inherit inability to display any level of fidelity to the truth. It was a tremendous success for the Congressman no matter how you slice it. There's no need to exaggerate the figures. He had the place half-full, in a town with crappy vote...

By now, Theresa Caballero is changing her strategy on who to focus on during this campaign. She has been pretty quiet, which is very uncharacteristic for the outspoken attorney. I think she figured she was going to sail right in to office on name recognition alone. She recently posted on her blog a piece that all but accuses one of her opponents, Diana Navarrete of being a thief. Caballero has threatened to sue others for saying for less. She cleverly phrases things as a question so that she avoids slander/libel issues. But after Saturday's Democratic Party convention, it is clear to Caballero by now that she will have to actually work for it. Jose Castillo, another candidate for the position, came out with guns blazing, showing no fear of taking on Caballero who has a reputation of being a campaign buzz saw. At last night's meeting of the union membership of several of the law enforcement agencies that make up COPS, Castillo drew a hard contrast between he and Caballero. Every...

Looks like some supporters of Beto O'Rourke will be holding a demonstration during former President Bill Clinton's visit to El Paso in support of Congressman Reyes. Here is an email that is being circulated among O'Rourke supporters. HI BETO SUPPORTER: There have been many exciting campaigns in the history of our great city, but never has there been one, with this kind of energy, excitement and above all HOPE. The political season Human Chain record is 167 volunteers; a record that has stood for well over a decade. That was of course, generally accepted by all, as the most transformational and important cause in modern day history of El Paso, The Ray Caballero for Mayor Campaign of 2001. That Victory opened the door to a new era of leadership and you are seeing it now in the Susie Byrds, Steve Ortegas, the Veronica Escobars and the Beto O'Rourkes of today. Our Mission? To Break The Caballero Human Chain Record. No one would be prouder than Mayor Caballero himself if we...

This is a flyer from the Ron Paul camp: Ron Paul 1

The El Paso County Democratic Convention is tomorrow at Jefferson High School. Its in the gym and you can start registering at 8:00am. Since there is no precinct convention, anyone who shows up, has been registered to vote since the end of March, and since a party affiliation oath will be eligible to participate. This is an important part of the process and you don't have to be a Party regular to attend. Anyone can show up and participate as long as they meet the requirements I mentioned before. Gotta go, I need to charge the batteries to my video camera....

I didn't get around to writing this yesterday so I'm playing a little catch-up. So let me get this straight, Sunland Park plucked some vato out of the audience to be the next Mayor? Are you kidding me? Please tell me this is their idea of a joke. I know, I know, we are all supposed to be feeling sorry for the simpletons in Sunland Park that voted all these corrupt mo-fo's in office but I think that is a steaming load of elephant dung. I don't feel sorry for people that don't vote. When you don't vote, you deserve what happens to you. Does it suck that most of them are poor and raza? You're damn right! But is there a better argument for political involvement than Sunland Park? They can either throw up their hands and say screw it or they can use this embarrassment that has actually made El Paso look like a hot-bed of honest leadership to turn a new page in Sunland Park. Apparently they chose the former. So some guy shows up with a resume in hand and just like...

According to my secret source in the Ron Paul Campaign, (Codename: Liberty RINO), the Ron Paul visit is going to happen. Here are the tentative details of the trip. Ron Paul will apparently be at UTEP's Memorial Gym at 7:00pm on Wednesday night, April 25th. No details have been released as to how tickets will be distributed but I will follow-up as soon as Liberty RINO is able to leak me the info. PS - Liberty RINO is not to be messed with. Apparently the spouse is being held hostage and forced to attend an event over the weekend because the spouse was threatened with the most horrible type of punishment imaginable. I'm sure its covered by the Geneva Convention. If it isn't, it should be...

Take Back the Night

So I stopped by the Reyes campaign headquarters yesterday afternoon and the place was packed! Seriously, the wrist-bands to see President Clinton are the hottest ticket in town. There was almost no parking and the Reyes people had three staffers in the front just to hand out the wrist bands. I didn't get a count of how many they gave out, but I was on the steps talking with a Reyes staffer, my new favorite Constable candidate Joe Bob Martinez (I'll explain later) and another person and so many people were coming and going that they probably should've had a revolving door. I know people are still down playing the Clinton visit, but any candidate would kill for a captive audience the size of the one Reyes is going to have when Clinton comes to town. No other candidate will have a crowd that size in this election cycle. And they are going to hear one of the best communicators on the planet say nice things about the Congressman. No matter how you measure it, that is going to be...

So I've been keeping on eye on a few races and trying to measure how candidates are doing. This is anecdotal at best, but I am most-impressed with a couple of candidates' performance in particular, though they both owe their success in large part to someone else. Lets start down in the valley in HD 75. This races have been a roller coaster since the get-go. Chente out, Willie in, Art Fierro in, Hector Enriquez in. Hector was hall-of-fame bad when I first met him. Of all the candidates I have ever interviewed for any office in El Paso, on and off the air, he was the most ill-prepared for the position. Seriously, it was embarrassing. I still cringe when I hear the audio. Then Mary Gonzalez blew in from Austin out of no where. I met with her before she ran and she asked for my opinion, I told her she should actually live in El Paso for a little while and learn about the community before she started to run around and tell people she wanted to represent the area. But Gonzalez chose ...

She has sprung ahead in talks about who is going to be the next mayor. Cortney Niland scored a real political win yesterday. I know its really the businesses, the industrial customers, and the people that won, blah, blah, blah, blah.... Whatever. City Rep Cortney Niland's name has been all over town now about possibly being the next mayor of El Paso. Obviously there are several other people who have their eye on the seat, but almost over night Cortney Niland has spring to the top 2 or 3 names on the list of possible mayoral candidates. A couple versions of the districting maps have drawn her out of her current district, and in to district 1. So she might as well take a hard look at a possible mayoral bid since people are already talking about it. Not too shabby for a new elected official who's only major endorsement from a political organization in her campaign came from the El Paso Young Democrats....

Vince Perez's campaign sent out a mailer that has already landed in some homes. Word from the campaign is that they sent it out to 16,500 homes of voters in the region. This is a mailer that is going to have people talking for quite some time. The front of the mailer shows Perez with his sleeves rolled up and a quote that says, "Help me end the culture of corruption. I am committed to fighting for new leadership to restore integrity to the office of County Commissioner and rebuild the public's trust." But its the rest of the piece is what is going to have people talking. Here is the flip side of the front. And here is what the inside looks like: It is arguably one of the most-effective mailers I have seen, probably at any level of campaigning. It captures recent headlines, frames a message, and is clear. Interestingly Oaxaca and Perez were featured in a story on Telemundo yesterday and Oaxaca took issue with Perez's effort to connect her to Willie Gandara. She whi...

This information still isn't confirmed, but apparently a visit from Ron Paul might be in the works. Sources indicate that the Ron Paul Campaign will be making a swing through the area and could be headed to UTEP. More details as they become available.

For Immediate Release: April 17, 2012 Contact: Cristina Parker, BNHR Communications Director,  915-875-9107 ,  cparker@bnhr.org Free Workshops Aim To Help Border Residents Become U.S. Citizens in Time to Vote   What : Free Citizenship Workshops for border residents  When : April 28 from 9 a.m. to noon.  Where : BNHR New Mexico office at 209 Lopez St, Anthony, New Mexico  AND  the AYUDA office at 1325 Beverly Ann St., San Elizario, Texas (EL PASO, Texas) — A coalition of local groups have joined forces to help borderland residents apply for U.S. citizenship in time to vote this November.  In order to qualify to vote in November, new citizens must have filed their paperwork by the end of this month. That means that the citizenship fairs planned for Saturday April 28 may be the last chance for those eligible for citizenship to apply in time to vote in the 2012 elections.  Two fairs are happening simultaneously in Anthony, New Mexico  a...

This is the court that Manny Barraza was the judge of until he was sent off to prison. Now Theresa Caballero wants to be judge of that court. This is the same Theresa Caballero that has gone around disparaging a lot of judges in this town as well as some out of town judges. I saw her speak in Montana Vista over the weekend and she gives this stump speech that almost made me chuckle. She's very dramatic. Like a bad episode of Law and Order. Cue the sound effect. She's trying to sell voters a load of BS. Here's what I mean. Her main critique of her two opponents has been that they don't have defense experience. She follows that by telling voters she has experience in every court in the building. Essentially she highlights the fact that most of her experience is NOT in the court she is trying to be the judge of. One of her opponents Diana Navarrette has flirted with taking her on, but hasn't really engaged her directly yet. But after hearing Jose Castillo the other day...

This is getting really complicated. Here is the Reyes Camp's response to O'Rourkes response to the Obama endorsement. Interestingly the person quoted in the press release is Chuy Reyes, the Congressman's campaign manager and brother. Press Release Reyes Camp Responds to ORourke Smear of President Obama and Congressman Reyes

The O'Rourke camp sent this press release responding to President Obama's endorsement of Congressman Reyes. Obama Endorse

The regular meeting of the El Paso Young Democrats that is normally scheduled for today has been moved. As was mentioned at a previous meeting, this month will be the endorsements and the meeting has been moved to April 30th. Please make a note of it. If you are on your way to the meeting, turn around...

Seriously, as if the drug conversation hasn't been a big enough part of this campaign so far, the latest contribution reports have been released. If there is one interesting and perplexing theme in all of this it has been drugs. And frankly, BOTH candidates have some 'splainin' to do about contributions. Since he's the incumbent, lets start with Congressman Reyes. The Gandara's are going to weigh that campaign down like a ton of bricks. Why the Reyes' ever had ties to the Gandara's in the beginning is something I have questioned from the get-go. Vince Perez worked for the Congressman and the Reyes are big on loyalty. Why they weren't loyal to their own staffer is a mystery and a costly mistake that will come back to haunt them. By the way, I said that back in freakin' October. I was right then, I'm more right now. In some warped sense of loyalty, the Reyes camp was banking on the Gandara's to deliver the Valley for the Congressman. #1 - the C...

A quote from Congressman Reyes about contributions from figures in the public corruption scandal has but an interesting focus on El Paso County Commissioner's Court Precinct 1 candidate Carlos Leon. In an article in today's edition of the El Paso Times , there is a portion of the article that talks about contributions from people tied to the public corruption scandal to Congressman Reyes. When asked about a substantial amount of contributions from Bob Jones, (Leon's largest political contributor on one report and also his former employer at NCED), Reyes' office responded by saying that they no longer have those funds from previous election cycles in their account. Reyes' quote continues by saying that the contributions from other figures are, "...on hold until these individuals go through the judicial process...I am committed to expunging any remaining donations in question from my account should these individuals be found guilty or the charges upheld." So...

This is the part of the campaign where the Reyes' start making a comeback. This is where Reyes starts cashing in his chips with the Democratic Party rock stars. Bill Clinton is coming to town next week to endorse the Congressman. President Obama has now endorsed the Congressman in this press release from the Reyes campaign and there is talk of a possible campaign swing through El Paso for Congressman Reyes by the President. This will get down-played by some but its a big development no matter how you slice it. I can assure you, if the President were endorsing O'Rourke it would be all over the news. In fact, they might actually break in to programming if that were the case. This development shouldn't come as a surprise to any either. The Administration, no matter who is in office, typically backs the incumbent candidate from their own party. PR ObamaReyes 04-16-12

Here is Beto O'Rourke's Ad that is supposed to start running today. Its pretty straight forward and plays to his strength, which is his ability to communicate. He saved a lot of money on production costs because its just a single shot and nothing really fancy about it. Simple, clean, and easy to digest. Probably not something that is going to keep people talking about it though. Its not going to stick in people's mind. But since it was a low production cost (I assume) then he might be saving his powder for ads closer to the election. I'm assuming those will be the ones that draw a harder contrast because this one was pretty forgettable.

I almost don't understand why I have to even write this piece but I clearly have to. Along predictable lines, the Reyes supporters think the visit is great and the O'Rourke supporters think is not a big deal. In this case, the Reyes supporters are right. Its a big deal. Why? Because its Bill effin' Clinton coming to town! I know better than most just how popular the Clintons are in this town. Reyes already has most of the support among the Party regulars. They are all big Clinton fans. But the Clinton visit gives the Reyes camp an opportunity to connect with people that are big Clinton fans that aren't necessarily Party regulars. Reyes is going to actually get favorable media coverage that day. Plus, Clinton is a great speaker and will go on and on about the Congressman. It puts O'Rourke in a tough position. What's he gonna do? Diss Bill Clinton? Not likely. Sure, there are a lot of people that are fans of the Bill Clinton and are supporting O'Rourke and the...

Not sure if you saw this ad in yesterday's business section of the El Paso Times, but I thought it was interesting because its probably going to get Enriquez in trouble. I've lost track of how many times Enriquez' signs have ended up in my blog, but I swear I'm not picking on the guy. He just really needs some help. He can't claim ignorance as a defense on this one. He's been an elected official and this isn't his first dance, so he should absolutely know better by now. But he will likely have to dish out some cash to the state ethics commission for this one. As you can see, it says his name, Democrat State Representative District 75. It represents him as though he's the state representative now, which he is not. He is missing the word "for". Seriously...how many times have I written about this now?

Hector Enriquez, candidate for HD 75 lost his cool at the Mexican American Bar Association Forum over the weekend according to a couple of eye witnesses. Witnesses state that Enriquez was upset over the fact that what he thought was a closed Q & A session with the panel was in fact an open session. The MABA forum has always been an open forum but apparently Enriquez wasn't familiar with the way it works. Witnesses say that he expressed concern over the fact that Getsemani Yanez was in the room. Yanez was at one point, in talks with Enriquez to be his campaign manager but it fell through. Yanez wife, Diana Ramirez ultimately became the campaign manager for Mary Gonzalez. Gonzalez was not in attendance for the MABA endorsement but Ramirez was there in her stead. I'm told that Ramirez made a reference to Enriquez's picture of himself and President George Bush that he was passing out on his campaign material on the day of his campaign announcement. Enriquez tried to down pl...

A Reyes staffer announced during a campaign event today in Montana Vista that a visit to El Paso from President Obama in support of Congressman Reyes is in the works for May. The announcement was made following a reminder about former President Clinton coming to El Paso to endorse Congressman Reyes later this month. Details of a possible Presidential visit were not provided other than to mention the possibility of the stop in El Paso in May. It was not clear if that was going to be before or after the start of early voting.

Invitation :   Jaime, Rodolfo "Rudy" Loya Candidate for County Commissioner Pct. 3 is coordinating and inviting Candidates for different Political Positions to a "Political Rally" and the public to came and support their Candidates and promote the Vote.    Candidate for U.S. Representative Dist. #23  Honorable Ciro D. Rodriguez and his wife will be in attendance.           Free Food and drinks will be provided       Date:  April 15, 2012     From: 1 pm to 4      Place: Montana Vista Hall         14697 Greg Dr.     El Paso, TX 79838     ( 915) 857-6400 Hope to see you there.  Thank You for all your support.   Norma Borunda Pct.112 Campaign Manager (915)252-9661

Phil Mullin, one of the candidates for the 388th Court will be having a fundraiser next week. Its Thursday, April 19th, from 5:30-8. The fundraiser will be held at Taco Real, 1160 Airway Blvd. For more info, check out his Facebook page.

So a reader of my blog posted a question on my blog in the previous announcement from Liza Montelongo's campaign. As I have said before, I post any announcement that is sent to me, regardless of whether or not I support the person or personally like or dislike them. If you send it, I post it. And you can't find ANYONE out there that has asked me to post something that I didn't post. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON. So the person, who uses the handle "Eastsider", posted, "Hey Jaime, why don't you post who won the endorsement for ESD? Maybe because it wasn't your friend!" Well...allow me to retort... I haven't posted any of the winners of the Eastside Democrats endorsements because I've been a little busy with some other stuff. You know, like finding a bunch of connections between Carlos Leon and subjects of the on-going public corruption scandal that he said he didn't have. Any more questions?

At the same meeting of the El Paso Democratic Party Executive Committee I spoke to a couple of party veterans who have previously served on Leon's campaign committee and they confirmed that Sonny Garcia, another subject of the on-going public corruption scandal, was also part of the Leon campaign team in the past. The didn't elaborate as to what role he had in the campaign, so it could've been minor, but I mention it because it runs contrary to how Leon answered a key question at a previous forum about connections to subjects of the Public Corruption Scandal. Leon replied that he knew several of them but he "was not associated" with any of them. A previous post showed substantial campaign contributions from Larry Medina and Robert "Bob" Jones. Leon also worked for Bob Jones. (Quick sidebar - I know people want to throw everyone from Aliviane under the bus because of the recent developments but I should point out that there are a lot of good people who do...

Maya (Left) - Melendrez (Right SD 29 SDEC Yolanda Clay took a point of personal privilege during Tuesday's meeting of the El Paso Democratic Party Executive Committee Meeting to challenge Rick Melendrez to attend meetings of El Paso Democrats and do some explaining. "Rick Melendrez is a theif, a coward, and a liar" Clay declared from the podium. She also stated, "I don't care if he wants to try to sue me for that...I want him to come out from under the rock he lives under...and tell us what he did with our money, our equipment, and our phones." Clay went on to talk about candidates that don't have an opponent and have built a war chest to donate to Melendrez opponent and front-runner Butch Maya. "Shame on you if you don't help Glenn with a sizable donation." Melendrez was previously Chair of the El Paso Democratic Party and left under a shade of controversy. He was a last minute candidate for Chair and witnesses say that he actually went ...

Jose Castillo, candidate for Criminal District Court # 1 will be having a fundraiser tonight at the 501 Bistro. The fundraiser starts at 5:30pm and will be the first real public event for the Castillo campaign so it should be interesting to see how things turn out.

In a disappointing development last night I was informed by several female precinct chairs that a package was sent to their homes containing negative information about 388th Court candidate Don Williams. It was information that was clearly a hit job. Not only that, I think it was an inside job. And by inside, I mean I think it was one of only a few people who had access to certain information. I am also getting reports from several prominent female Democrats who are not precinct chairs, that they also received the package. What is really bad about all of this is that whomever it is that is sending this stuff to people, actually had the nerve to mail one...to Ruth Williams, the WIFE of Don Williams. Remember when I wrote about the difference between negative campaigning and dirty campaigning? This is a classic example of dirty campaigning. But...I think it might actually be a crime. As you can see from this photo, I acquired one of the packages. See that in the right hand corner? Its po...