El Paso Politics

Old Photo Taken from KTSM Website Jesse Gandara's trial has been postponed as expected, until April of 2015. Little Jesse was set to go to trial at the end of January but asked for a continuance and new council. Gandara, who is a member of a family that was likely the most affluent in Socorro at one time, is now declared indigent and will have a tax-payer funded attorney. Although, that appears to have been Gandara's plan all along. Gandara was originally indicted while he was still a member of the Socorro city council and his faction of city council at the time voted to have the tax payers of Socorro pay his legal fees. A judge later found that his faction was in office unlawfully and a special election was ordered. He was booted out of office by the voters in the special election and the new city council quickly voted to take the burden of Little Jesse's legal defense off the backs of Socorro tax payers. At that point, Gandara had to pay for his own legal representation. ...

A couple of things to look forward to on the LSB today. In fact, it will be one of the busiest days on the LSB in a long time. But there's a couple of posts in particular I want to high light. One is a post from a friend and former colleague of mine that I saw on Facebook. It was a response to the recent actions of Christian right-wing extremists who made quite the spectacle in Austin during a peaceful event held by the Muslim community. I was very moved by my friend's post, who is a devout Christian himself, and I asked permission to post it here. And later today, or maybe tomorrow, I am going to post a special response to Martin Paredes. Look I don't know if he is diagnosed with anything, but the vato is straight up crazy. He's known for writing some pretty crazy outrageous, unfounded, and usually incoherent conspiracy theories on his blog. Today, he wrote arguably the dumbest conspiracy theory he's ever written, even by his standards. Normally I ignore the fool, ...

I spoke with Julio Diaz yesterday and he informed me that while he fully intends to run for office in the future, he has decided to focus on work and family right now and not pursue the office of city council for District 1. "I'm not running for anything right now. While the opportunity is tempting, I am going to focus on the military, my business, and my family right now" Diaz said in a phone interview. Diaz said he's received a lot of calls, texts, and other messages following my last piece and he decided that he wanted to make his intentions for the short-term clear. "I want to see some good candidates get in that race. I don't want to interfere with anyone else who wants to run for that seat at this time. I thought it was best to make my intentions clear very early in order to give other candidates a chance to decide if they are going to run or not." Having indicated that he is definitely going to run for an office in the future, Diaz didn't indi...

Someone told me that former Commissioner Sergio Lewis was gonna dip his toe into the blogosphere. I saw this in a book I'm reading and thought of the Commish... "...while man and the beast celebrate.."

So another administrator from EPISD was just sentenced today. Her name is Myrna Gamboa. I saw this post on FB from RUben Ramirez from the El Paso Times. I guess U is his favorite letter and thats why he capitalizes it. (Just kidding, I made that up. I have no clue why he does it. #justsaying) My first thought was "Zas, way to leave the kid behind!" But then I thought, "Hey wait a minute! I've seen that image before..." Mind blown.

Allow me to editorialize for a moment if you will. I saw the news coverage on KVIA and KINT of the issue with Tornillo not having a school nurse in the district. I was floored when I heard the comments of Superintendent Jeannie Mesa-Chavez about the situation. I'll get to that in a moment, but I wanted to talk about why I did the piece in the first place. I don't have any relatives that live, work, or go to school in Tornillo. So there are plenty of people who probably read what I wrote and said to themselves, "why doesn't he mind his own business?" I suppose I could, but shouldn't the welfare of kids in our community (and the welfare of tax dollars) be our business? Aside from that, I hate to see the most vulnerable populations have to endure corruption, ineptitude, retaliation, racism, or classism like I've seen in school districts across El Paso county. So community members come to me from time-to-time because they are afraid. They fear retaliation agai...

I'm just gonna rip the band-aide off. Screw the Home Owners Association.  Paint Reyes school as red, white, and blue as you possibly can. I have my issues with the former congressman but thats his community and he is a Vietnam veteran and a patriot. In fact, Canutillo should man the hell up and make it a theme at the whole school. We need to stop bowing down to HOA's. Its ridiculous. And before you crazies out there start talking about smart code, thats not the issue. Canutillo is unincorporated to begin with, but this is about an HOA gone wild.  We aren't talking about an offensive image, we aren't talking even about a religious image being shoved down someone's throat. We are talking about the American flag. The same flag the kids whos parents run the HOA pledge allegiance to every weekday morning.  Canutillo ISD better show some freaking backbone and not back down on this one. Its a public display of the American flag in a community that has a strong tradition of...

Word on the westside is that Dan Longoria, the Mattress Firm guy, is definitely going to be a candidate for city council in District 1. Even with the domestic violence thing still out there he is apparently still going to run. He's loaded so I guess his assumption is that a ton of money will over shadow the other thing. He may be right. I'm also told he's going to be a Forma candidate. So I'd expect them to roll out the wife and have her go to bat for him and talk about how everything was a big misunderstanding and that there's no problems in their marriage. If thats the case, good for her and good for them. Family stuff is none of our business. The question is, will voters buy it? Put your money on "no'. That race is gonna get rough. Forma likes to play rough, so they'll go on the attack. The other candidates are going to have to respond in kind. Who loses? The family unfortunately. And if a female candidate gets in the race, its really going to change...

Julio Diaz's former campaign manager is now a candidate for the Mexican Congress. Alma Lopez-Molinar has been active in Mexican politics and with the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) for quite some time now. She is currently a candidate for the 3rd Congressional District of Chihuahua.  The PAN is the Mexican equivalent of the Republican Party with a strong emphasis on Christian Conservatism as you can see echoes of the Party line in her Twitter account.  No indication as whether she will return to American politics if her congressional bid is unsuccessful.  Lopez-Molinar is currently seeking her party's nomination as the candidate for congress. It's similar to our primary election.

I know I seem to be on a rant about school boards lately and I certainly don't want this blog to become a blog about school boards. Politics is my thing and I'll keep it there. But school boards in town have a lot of horror stories going on and since they are the biggest part of the tax bill, well someone needs to keep an eye on them. Ysleta ISD had an agenda item last week that was very well intentioned. They decided that instead of throwing out food, to give it away to the needy. Why waste it if its already paid for right? I think we can all agree that is a good idea. The only problem I have with the idea is the fact that I think the food should go to students in the district first. Arlinda Valencia, who heads the Ysleta Teachers' Association actually summed it up best. There are students in the elementary level that get a cheese sandwich for lunch if they don't bring their lunch money or if their families don't have money to pay the bill. High school students in ...

The Congressman's town hall has be moved due to circumstances beyond their control. My guess is Bill Belicheat and Tom Shady had something to do with it. Here are the new details: Congressman Beto O'Rourke Town Hall Meeting *Thursday,  January 29 , 2015* General Town Hall El Paso Community Foundation Room 333 North Oregon Street, El Paso, TX 79901 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.  

Tornillo ISD is the school district furthest away from a hospital in El Paso County. Tornillo ISD has gone without a school nurse the entire school year. A Tornillo community member alleges the reason why is that the position is being held open for a particular individual to finish the nursing program at UTEP. The community member indicates that the individual in question is the spouse of the Tornillo ISD Superintendent Dr. Jeannie Mesa-Chavez. Her spouse is Dr. Jesus Chavez. If you recall, Dr. Chavez was the principal at Bowie High School during the now-famous cheating scandal at EPISD. Here's an article from the El Paso Times that should refresh your memory about Dr. Chavez. According to this document, the Texas Education Agency filed a petition with the courts to revoke his teaching credentials.   2014-4-9 Original Petition (FINAL) - EPISD The matter has not yet been resolved in fairness to Dr. Chavez. I questioned the veracity of the claim because I assumed there are nepotism ...

So there have been few candidates that have actually filed for the upcoming city council races so far, which is a huge mistake on their part. I'm gonna assume that everyone on council wants to keep their job and will be running for reelection.  Since no one has actually started a serious campaign other than the one person who has filed, there are a lot of rumors floating around about people who might be running. Three names keep popping up. I've made attempts to confirm with them but was unable to reach any of them.   In the valley the name that keeps coming up is Dr. Anna Perez. She'd be taking on Rep Claudia Ordaz who won last spring in a special election. Perez was formerly the interim Superintendent of YISD. Rosa Arrellano is rumored to be considering a run for city council against Dr. Noe who represents the eastside on council. She runs the non-profit organization Dame La Mano. Julio Diaz has hinted on social media that he may be a candidate for another office. He live...

School closures is one of the main topics going on with the freak show that is EPISD. No one is going to want their favorite school closed, but as one of my homies is fond of saying, you gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet. I'm not going to delve into the school closures, but I do have two things I take issue with. Since I cover a lot of local government, I see a lot of public comment. People that serve on boards have a tool at their disposal to stifle public comment. That should infuriate you as a member of the public. Boards are supposed to be responsive to the individuals that elected them. Unless you're a board that wasn't elected, so you basically can tell everyone to go fornicate themselves. I will tell you this and its the straight-up truth. We should all be suspect of any group that screws with public comment unless they are making public comment longer or making a minor change to accommodate a large group of speakers. EPISD's new Board of Imperial Managers...

So little Jesse Gandara has been belly aching around Socorro and on his anonymous Facebook page everyone knows he runs, about how much he, and I assume the rest of G-Unit, hates the term Gandara politics. So I thought I'd give an actual demonstration of what Gandara politics looks like and why it was so easy for the voters to kick him out. First some background. I spoke to little Jesse after the debate in Socorro featuring all the candidates for Precinct 3 Comissioner's race a while back. I asked him who he was supporting and he wouldn't tell me but he did express to me his displeasure with then-candidate Vince Perez's coining of the phrase Gandara politics. So I'll tell you what he told me. Since I recorded the conversation, I can tell you verbatim what he said. I guess little Jesse never really figured out how many people record conversations with him for their own protection. Well, he knows now for sure, lol. "It sorta pisses me off. I mean he's painting...

Last night's city council meeting was as fun as they normally are. It was the first meeting that included Anthony Gandara, Socorro's newest member of council. His first agenda item and major policy push? The re-introduction of Mauro Rosas Park. Under the previous Gandara regime the council ear marked almost $2 million for the park. Even on the eve of being kicked out of office the previous regime was trying to push through some expenditures that a recent forensic audit called into question. The new Representative Gandara used the same rhetoric to try to sell people on the park that the old Representative Gandara used, right down to sayings how people would "be able to see the rings of Saturn" and how the park will make people in Socorro smarter. Essentially the agenda item the newest member of G-Unit was pushing would've been one giant do-over. After the old Gandara regime was vanquished, the clean council went in and reprogrammed a large portion of the money that...

I'll be brief with this one. While we are all for law and order, surely there is a better use of the sheriff's office resources than taking down the societal "scourge" of football squares. I don't know too many people that don't participate in a little Super Bowl $unday fun.  You can probably start in law enforcement offices, the county, the city, and every school district in town. Good luck with that. You're going to have to go after a big part of this town if you do so. If not, let's just be honest and say it's a witch hunt after certain people. It'll be really interesting for all the folks that live out in unincorporated parts of the county. Those resources would really be appreciated in patrols out there.  But hey, I guess $uper Bowl $quares investigations are a higher priority for the community...

I made an Open Records Request with Sandra Hernandez of the City of Socorro. She is the City Clerk. I made two requests. One requesting the video surveillance of the administration building. Since the public funds that system, I didn't think it was out of line to request the footage. I was looking for it because I saw Jesse Gandara go into the building with his cousin and I wanted everyone to see that they are aligned with one another. I also made a request for the policy regarding signing in to the building. Gandrara just walks in like he owns the place. We the common folk, have to sign in. I wanted to see what the city's policy had to say about that. The City has UP TO 10 days to respond to the request. It's been more than 10 days and I have received no answer from the City. Not even a denial of the request. I called the office two days ago to see what the status of my request was and I still haven't received an answer. Socorro needs to tighten up the  screws... The p...

I've noticed Art Fierro (El Paso Community College Board) at a few events lately and it got me to thinking that he might be considering a run for another office. He was poised to run for State Rep for HD75 a few years back and even had an announcement event. But redistricting put him in a different district and so he ended up not running. Then I thought he might be gearing up for a run for city council. He lives in Lily Limon's district so unless there's a recall that race seems a bit far off. I wouldn't rule it out, but I think I figured out what he might be interested in. Since he's been all over the place lately, both in and out of the city limits (mostly the valley), I'm guessing he's gonna run for something countywide. Probably something like Tax Assesor Collector. Word on the street is Victor Flores won't be running again and may be looking to retire. If that's the case, it'll be an open seat. So maybe that's what he's thinking abou...

I'm a little late to the party on this one because I had forgotten about it until I saw something the other day on Facebook and I decided to check it out. Back when Jesse Gandara and the rest of G-Unit were kicked out of office by the voters, there were a lot of rumors floating around about alleged wrong-doing. One of the first acts of the new city council was to implement a forensic audit. What I find most remarkable about the audit is that they mention on more than one occassion that the scope of the investigation is limited to things that are (were at the time and may still be) under investigation by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. The results of the forensic audit are posted on the city's website . There were some interesting findings regarding the now famous drive-way project along with some other findings. One of the allegations leveraged against Jesse Gandara was that the driveways were only for registered voters. Jesse flat-out told me that, but he has since de...

Things have been a little rough for my friends over at Forma Group lately and it got me to thinking about what is next for them. Things haven't been going so well for them over the last few election cycles and then they have been starting to get pushed aside from campaigns that normally would've been theirs. That's a big problem for them because how it works for them is they are gate keepers to some big money people. You get the big money donations, but Forma has to get some of the business whether its consulting fees, web design, mail program, etc. Others have done a great job of giving candidates another option. Now the varsity team just gives Forma busy work to keep them on the bench but they aren't getting the big dollar stuff they used to. Dee Margo is gone, so there's no big fat dollar-rich race to work with there. Naomi Gonzalez lost and she ended up placing third in a group of three. But it didn't surprise me, when I was block walking in the valley I saw...

Hey since we're talking about Fabens ISD, I was really upset about missing a little tidbit a while back. I didn't catch it until I was trying to reach Fabens ISD Board President Orlando Flores for comment about the post from earlier today. I came across this person on their website. I knew the name and face were familiar but I couldn't quite put it together. A friend actually put it together for me. She is the same lady that was in an article in El Paso Times earlier this year about a lawsuit filed against Justice of the Peace Enedina "Nina" Serna in which the former JP Rosalie Dominguez is alleging voter fraud. That case is still pending and Dominguez allegation is just that, an allegation and there's been no finding of fact as of yet. Essentially the lawsuit is asking a judge to throw out the election results, order a new election, and award Dominguez $400k in damages. Ms. Alvillar, a sitting member of the Fabens ISD, is alleged to have been a major player ...

As I said, correcting Maxi Pad can be freaking exhausting and well, I must do so again. Il Douche wrote a piece about my piece about Forma Group pushing the idea of Moody for DA because they want their client Dee Margo to have some office to fill. While I'm at it, I'll also answer some feedback from some other folks about Margo as well. But first, lets deal with Il Douche, Maxi Pad. Its unclear exactly where Maxi Pad thinks I was wrong but it looks like he takes issue with the fact that I said all it takes is a female candidate not named Theresa Caballero to beat Esparza. Even Il Douche agrees with that. I guess where he's saying he's correcting me is creating a list of female electeds and saying none of them can beat Esparza because they aren't attorneys. Well no shit. I didn't think I had to actually say attorney because you have to be one to be DA anyway. Interestingly he mentioned two people in his list that are actually attorneys, Forma Group clients Naomi ...

Fabens ISD Board President Orlando Flores is facing criticism from members of the community of Fabens for a range of issues dealing with funding and possibly even football. Residents in the close-knit unincorporated community have alleged that several coaches were let go from their positions in a dust-up that was at-least partially related to Flores' son's playing time on the football field. Flores supporters say that the Board President held firm against expenditures wanted by the coaches and allege that the coaches took it out on the young student-athlete. There are many that are afraid to come forward because of fear of retribution. Fabens is a small place, many people are related to one another, so I'm sensitive to that. I'll give you as much as the details as I can track down. Here's what I'm able to track down so far. In early December (last month) seven coaches were sent a non-renewal letter for next year. In other words, they were fired. Other coaches we...

I've been wondering what is next for Forma Group's second most famous client, Dee Margo. His term as being the Over Lord at the entity formally known as EPISD is coming to a close, allegedly. So after closing a bunch of schools, whats next for Margo? Well he could always run for city council but that seems beneath him. Plus, it would depend on the field, although he'd be very difficult to beat. Anything countywide is out of the question. He'd get thumped. The only option for him is state representative. But lets be honest, thats not going to happen as long as Joe Moody is still around. So what is the solution? How do you get Moody to WANT to leave his current state house seat? The answer is simple, dangle something else in front of him. That is why the idea of Moody running for District Attorney is being floated around. Why fight a fight you can't win if you can get your enemy to vacate the field and you can move right in.? They'd much rather have Moody go for t...

I'm gonna cover a few things here all in one piece. Let me start by saying that watching city council meetings is still as tortuous as I remember. Its almost as bad as watching judicial candidates debate each one another. Almost. Seriously, I hope every newsroom in town kicks in a few more bucks to their beat reports that have the misfortune of having to cover city council meetings. Okay lets get started - Mayor Leeser Trust me, the vato is running for re-election. Why the hell we are even talking about it is a function of the fact that he is already running around making sure he doesn't have opposition. Sources in city hall indicate that he's already had or planning a fundraiser and has let various members of council know about it. Remember that the dynamic on this city council is weird to say the least and the political fulcrum of power on council does not reside with Leeser. Carl Robinson Half the time he's comic relief in his confusion, the other half of the time it...

So last week when I stopped by Socorro admin building and I saw Jesse Gandara strutting around with his cousin and newly elected City Rep Anthony Gandara, it was also the day of the swearing-in. You would've thought Jesse Gandara and his crowd just won March Madness. He attended the swearing in, as did another Gandara acolyte, Refugio "Fugi" Orta. They have kept a pretty low profile around Socorro since they were arrested so some were surprised when they showed up to the swearing in. Yet another ominous sign for Anthony Gandara. A friend of mine said she overheard Orta tease another city rep saying, "I thought you said the Gandaras would never get elected again". The reality is that the election didn't change the math on the Socorro city council so there was no organized opposition to the Gandaras. Jesse probably hasn't put that together yet. But think about it, that seat has been a Gandara seat for a long time. Jesse should've won re-election in a c...

The Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo elected a new governor on New Years Eve. In a ceremony that is held in the Tusla located in the Ysleta area the voting members of the tribe gathered for the annual vote for tribal leadership. Voting members of the pueblo consist of men only, an issue that became somewhat of an obstacle the last time there was a legitimate chance at passing a gaming bill. The term for most of the offices is one year. Sources within the pueblo indicate that former governor Frank Paiz basically stepped down and chose not to run for reelection. The pueblo then selected Carlos Hisa as the new governor. He was formerly the long-time Lieutenant Governor of the tribe. Hisa has been the steady hand behind the tribe for many years so representing and serving his people is not something new for him. While the pueblo has generally been pretty isolated in years past, Governor Hisa has been active in the local political scene for many years and has been the most visible member of the tribe....

The Gandara family is the most well known family name in valley politics over the last twenty years. Mostly because so many of them have served in various public positions. But lets just be honest, they are also well known for the fact that one , two , three , four have been indicted or did time for offenses ranging from being on the take to drug trafficking. Perhaps the most reviled, at least from what I can tell, of the Gandaras is Jesse Gandara, Jr. He apparently has been keeping himself busy, according to many in Socorro, by running a little facebook page while he is awaiting trial on the corruption charges he's facing.  I have another background piece I'm going to do on Jesse soon so that you have all the background, but for now, lets start off with a family tree. I've done this before but I know not everyone keeps up with these things. So there are four main Gandara's that everyone knows and since I've dealt with almost everyone on a personal level, I'll g...