El Paso Politics

In what will no doubt include a kindergarten class size field of candidates, the race for district 1 city rep has its first candidate out of the gate. Sources say artist and activist Peter Svarzbein has all but formally announced his candidacy. He is likely going to do so formally next month. Given the time frame you can expect a lot of candidates to start announcing their bids soon as well. Svarzbein is best known politically for his work with the downtown trolley concept. Its always to a candidate's advantage to be out of the gate early as long as there is an actual ground-game taking place. So if he is implementing that strategy then he can use the time to position himself as the candidate to beat. But time is always of the essence and if someone else gets in and starts campaigning then there isn't an advantage. I stole this from his Vimeo account so you have some context relating to who he is. Interview with Maria Garcia 5.16.2012 from peter svarzbein on Vimeo .

In what its probably the worst public relations disaster this side of Gary Larcenaire or the Council of Judges, UMC CEO Jim Valenti doubled-down on the bonus this weekend. In an interview in the El Paso Times about the bonuses he and other top officers received, Valenti said if he had to do it again, he would and he would give more. Is he trying to channel his inner Marie Antoinette? Qu'ils mangent de la brioche! Seriously??? This is how you know it was a bad decision. When it first became public no one from UMC wanted a microphone in their face. No one wanted to talk. Everyone was "unavailable".  That is a sign that it was a bad move but they didn't have a plan to deal with the fall-out. Huge mistake when it comes to information. You need to be captain of your own ship and determine your own destiny.  Then UMC people get tracked down and the quotes get worse and worse. Its like watching the Keystone Cops.  So UMC decides to hunker down and get a plan together of sor...

El Paso Democratic Party Chairman Glenn "Butch" Maya has been hospitalized at Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo, Texas. The Chairman was returning from TDP meetings in Austin, Texas with State Democratic Executive Committeeman and woman Don Williams and Becky Bustamante. A source indicates that he started feeling ill in Sonora, Texas during the return drive to El Paso. He was then rushed by ambulance to San Angelo. "He is okay, but he did have a mild stroke. He is staying for a couple of days to run more tests." Said the source. More details later...

City Rep District 1 is one of the seats that will be up for election in the next cycle that is coming up pretty quickly. I've heard rumors of a few candidates including one that I believe is currently under indictment. Surprisingly that candidate is rumored to actually have support (for now). I just need to dot a couple i's and cross a few t's but tomorrow I should have at least one name of a confirmed candidate for that post. Stay tuned....

If you haven't seen the interview on KVIA between Darren Hunt and Jim Valenti regarding his bonus, you should. Valenti comes across as a real villain. He was asked directly if he will return the bonus and Valenti flat-out said no. Darren Hunt confronted Valenti yesterday about bonus and if he should give it back after having to track him down: http://www.kvia.com/news/valenti-responds-to-abc7-about-120000-bonus/29809836 Watch the video because it's not often that you see a guy instantly signal the end of his career on video. I think in the eyes of the public he has just become the next Gary Larcenaire. Valenti comes across as ambivalent about the employees that were let go and almost defiant towards the community about the bonus. This is when his career meets up with public opinion and frayed relationships with commissioners. Mark my words, this will ultimately be the beginning of the end for Valenti. The part that is really gonna reverberate in the community is the fact that h...

When I'm wrong, I'm usually the first one to point it out and this is one of those times. Yesterday I wrote that if the Public Works Director was to be ousted at the County that it would be the third major loss of a department head. My bad. The body count is actually higher. Twice the amount I actually said if you count Piti Vasquez from purchasing. I forgot Jim Fashing from the Domestic Relations Office and Peter Cooper from the IT department. Clara Hernandez recently retired from the Public Defenders Office as well. She was replaced by Jaime Gandara and with the exception of Gandara, all the new hires for the positions have one thing in common. They are all from out of town. Certainly as tax payers we deserve to have the very best talent available and we shouldn't feel bad about wanting the best talent we can get our hands on. Its the best use of tax-payer dollars. But it is difficult to believe that we don't have local talent that can't be harvested as well. The ...

UMC Jim Valenti's Comments at a Recent Press Conference So the Hospital District Board has given a big fat bonus to Jim Valenti to the tune of $100,000. Incredibly this is a bones based on his performance! This is the exact kind of action that undermines the confidence of the public in government. Before I continue with my rant, let me make sure you all understand something very important. This is NOT the fault of Commissioner's Court. Those of you that are running around saying that should pay more attention because you sound silly. The Court appoints the members of the Hospital Board but once they are on the Board they basically do what they want and there really isn't anything the Court can do about it. The Hospital District Board gave him the bonus. Commissioners Court doesn't have the ability to give a bonus even if they wanted to. If you want someone to blame, here is a link to the Board Members of the Hospital District . Lets put this in context. This bonus is mo...

There's an agenda item on today's meeting of Commissioner's Court about the Public Works Director. Its item B on the Executive Session portion of the meeting and in Regular Session its item 14. They may do nothing, but its always a big deal when the Commissioners go into Executive Session about a department head. As you recall the county recently lost its Elections Administrator. If there is action on Ernie Carrizal, the current Public Works Direction it would be the 3rd major department head to leave the County this year. Earlier this year the Human Services Director Rosemary Neil also left the County. That is a lot of institutional knowledge being lost at the County through department heads and its difficult to calculate the cost to tax payers to recover. That being said I don't know any details on the Elections Administrator or Public Works Director situation that would indicate one way or another if the cost to replace that institutional knowledge is or is not warra...

Well, the religious arm of the Republican Party, which is to say MOST of the Republican Party, is now in a bit of a pickle. Catholic Bishops have come out in support of President Obama's apparent desire to use executive powers to act on immigration. This is the part where the Republicans show their true colors. The GOP loves to spout the name of the Almighty when it comes to a woman's right to choose and the gays. Seriously, you can't shut them up. I hear more references to God during those debates than I do on most Sundays. Clergy, not just Catholics by the way, across the country have called comprehensive immigration reform a religious and humanitarian imperative. But you know what they don't say? They don't say stuff like "secure the border first". Security first is just the GOP's way of kicking the can down the road as long as they possibly can. They have no definition of what a secure border is and so they are starting from a premise that no one u...

Okay so I've been contacted by a lot of folks asking me what happened with Javier Chacon. I have a ton of respect for the guy and like him a lot so I'm going to tread lightly here. Elections Administator position is no where as easy as a lot of people might think it is. Its a lot to juggle, you have to work with all the municipalities, water boards (except the super secret ones that handle their own elections) school boards, etc in the County. You have an electorate who couldn't be more disinterested in the election process if they tried. There are a ton of election requirements that have to be met to comply with the Texas constitution and federal law. You have to field election judges for all the precincts and you have to referee the Parties. In the last year alone he had to oversee a primary, a run-off, a special election, and then the November gubernatorial election. Durin the special election the last thing the poor staff wanted was a run-off because that would've b...

Just when you think the Texas GOP can't get any more crazy they somehow find a way to take it to a whole other level. Texas State Senator Donna Campbell, (obviously a Republican) wants to give businesses the right to fire LGBT employees and not do business with LGBT customers. Way to go GOP. All the real problems facing Texas and you guys focus on this. As a Democrat, I thoroughly appreciate you all very quickly pointing out to voters exactly how wrong they were for voting for the GOP in such large numbers. Texas Democratic Party...this is what we like to call an opportunity. This is the exact kind of fruitcake nutiness that we need to tie GOP candidates to. The Republicans do it all the time. Remember that thing I wrote the other day about not having a message? This is a perfect example of how to leverage one. Now the best part of this is that Senator Campbell is calling this religious liberty, which is to say that she'd like the ability to discriminate against a class of peop...

Last week was brutal. No bones about it. What everyone wants to know is what happened. Well lets break it down a little. I told you guys that we were going to get swept at the statewide races. I told you the math wasn't there. But if you want to find someone to blame, and trust me after an election lost there's no shortage of blame, look to the TDP's complete lack of effective messaging. Sorry guys, but depending on the gringa being hot isn't going to get people to the polls in the numbers we need. We needed an effective message against Abbott and Costello, or whatever the crazy guys name is. Its not like there wasn't an effective message ready to be leveraged. There was plenty to go after with both of them. The TDP had the chance to define the opponents and they didn't. We had what we needed. We had the money, we had the candidates, we had the infrastructure and ground game in place. What the didn't have was an effective message. This was a brand election...

As we pause to remember veterans today, lets stop and really think about what service means, about how we have benefited and about what the word sacrifice means. Lets start by speaking a little truth to power shall we? The truth is, not everyone who serves or has served in the military is a hero. Lets not forget that Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marine at one point. The reality is that most people who serve in the military are neither great nor bad. They neither excel or are a screw up. In fact, most of the time you basically want to be nothing more than middle of the road. You don't want to stand out, you want to be part of the pack. Keeps you from having to do KP or “post beautification”. Most people who serve as basically unremarkable. Except that their service is by definition, pretty remarkable. Not everyone joins the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines because they want to defend truth, justice, and the American way. We all had our reasons for joining. Some wanted to get away fr...

A reliable source indicates that long-time political advisor and staffer Roger Garza was offered a position managing the campaign of State Representative Mike Villareal in his bid to Mayor of San Antonio. The source indicates the offer was "too good to refuse" for Garza and is part of the reason he departed Representative Mary Gonzalez's office. Garza's services have been in-demand across Texas for quite some time and he's got a pretty successful track record in terms of campaigns and political consulting. The source indicated that the departure was amicable and that Garza will still play somewhat of an advisory role in the interim. Gonzalez' new Chief of Staff is former Senator Rodriguez staffer Corinne Chacon. She is the daughter of former County Judge and political pioneer Alicia Chacon.

Corinne Chacon, one-time District Director and then Special Projects coordinator for Senator Rodriguez turned in her two-weeks notice on Friday according to a source familiar with the situation. Chacon is now going to be the Chief of Staff for Representative Mary Gonzalez. That position was previously held by long-time Austin staffer Roger Garza. Following the departure of his District Director in the summer, the Senator is rumored to be promoting Sito Negron to the District Director position. With Commissioner-Elect Stout ready to take office in January, Rodriguez's communications department seems to be in need of a couple of staffers. With session starting soon getting those positions staffed will likely be a priority for the Senator. Roger Garza did not respond to requests for comment. No formal announcement has been made by either office but it was confirmed through a social media post.

Help out Constable White's family of you can. The Constables and Becky Bustamante have really done a great job but they still need your help. Here's part of an email that went out recently.  ***************** It is an honor and a privilege that I have been asked by the Constables to handle any donations to help cover travel and stay expenses for Constable White’s immediate family. The Constables have donated considerably but still need assistance as there are many family members coming in from out of town. So please open up your hearts and your wallets/purses and help Constable White’s family stay be a little easier on them. It has been a tremendous loss  to their family, please be generous. All donations are very much appreciated. Please contact me on my cell  422-4115 . THANK YOU & GOD BLESS YOU! Rebeca Bustamante, State Democratic Executive Committeewoman, 29 Chair, Tejano Democrats Paso Del Norte Chair, LULAC Council 4981

FUNERAL SERVICES FOR OUR DEAR FRIEND, ROBERT WHITE ,  ARE AS FOLLOWS:       THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014   Visitation:   6:00 - 9:00 P.M. Rosary Service:   7:00 P.M. St. Stephen's Catholic Church 1700 George Dieter     FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014   Funeral Mass:   10:00 A.M. St. Stephen's Catholic Church 1700 George Dieter   Burial Service following Mass Evergreen Cemetery 12400 Montana Avenue   ************************

Well I got the two west side races wrong.  Dead wrong. I expected the low turnout to be a wild card, but I didn't expect it to break so heavy for the Republicans. Commissioner-elect Haggerty looks to be cruising to victory tonight unless there's a major change in Election Day numbers, which isn't likely.

More proof that you can't Facebook your way to the winner's circle, today I give you the latest political ad from Alejandro Lozano, Libertarian candidate for HD 76. When he ran for County Commissioner a few years back he flat-out copied Hillary Clinton's logo. Then he put of picture of her with him on his literature.  This election cycle he not only continues to use the Hillary logo, but now he also uses a logo that looks like the logo from his old restaurant.  And now the candidate who talks like Father Guido Sarducci but looks like a lost member of Los Tigres Del Norte has topped himself.  He now compares himself to Batman. Yes...Batman. Here's his latest ad on social media. That's right, Lozano is rockin' the Batman head piece and the "Bat Signal" is the logo for the Libertarians. If his goal was to entertain me, mission accomplished. If his goal was to win votes...#fail. I can only hope that he wears it in public and talks with a raspy voice at Pav...

Rather than give endorsements let me make a few predictions. You know the deal, just because I think an outcome might turn out a certain way doesn't mean I want it to or that I endorse anyone. US Senator: Cornyn easily wins re-election. This is Texas, if they won't vote for a Latino, they aren't voting for Alameel. US Congress District 16: Beto O'Rourke handily defeats Roen and Perez. The only question is whether or not Perez will break 3% of the vote. Roen will inherit all the angry white guy vote, but still will be a distant 2nd. US Congress District 23: Gallego breaks the Gubernatorial year curse and pulls out a win. Its really hard for even insane Republicans to paint him as a flaming liberal because he isn't. The vato didn't get elected all those years in an area where Democrats don't particularly perform will in elections by accident. And when he does win, its going to be a sign that HD 23 is no longer in play for the Republicans. Governor: Greg Ab...