El Paso Politics

You people can stop hounding me now. Claudia Ordaz is in. I don't know why she took so long to file the papers, but District 6 has been neglected for long time and there is probably a lot to do. I know, I live in District 6. But as you can see from this Facebook post yesterday, Representative Ordaz is running for re-election. She apparently has an opponent. His name is Michael Pickett, no relation to Joe Pickett. He was at one point, Eddie Holguin's hand-picked successor when Holguin resigned his seat to run for County Judge. He is one of those Jaime O. Perez acolytes. District 6 is bisected by the I-10, so its the Lower Eastside and the Mission Valley. Before I go any further, I want to repeat something I said previously. If you are trying to mount a serious threat to an incumbent, why the hell would you start late? You make your job much harder. You will need more people, more money, and are working with less time. Not a smart move at all. Frankly, this race is easy to call. ...

The nominations are open for the Best of the Best thing that What's Up Magazine does every year. There are nominations listed, but you can submit other nominees still. In the category of Best Elected Official there are a few nominees that are already listed, but again you can nominate others. So far the nominees are: Congressman Beto O'Rourke County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal City Rep Lily Limon District Clerk Norma Favela I came across the nomination form on Facebook because Favela had posted it on her wall. She's won 4 years in a row. She campaigns harder for it than she has to for her own election. She loves to win that award. She has the sticker of every year she's won on the door to the District Clerk's office. I'm betting she wins again. She's smart because she takes a whole posse of people to the voting event and I think she has her staff go to. If there is an elected official you'd like to nominate, here is the link to the nomination page. Its under...

Dr. Jeannie Meza-Chavez will try to spin it otherwise, but the reality is that the community won major victory last night at the Tornillo ISD meeting. She was forced to recommend a school nurse. Dr. Chavez is trying to frame it as though she proactively dealt with the issue and came forward with a plan to secure a school nurse on her own. But that isn't the truth. The truth is she made no real effort to attract a school nurse until after the district received negative press about the lack of a school nurse. Even after the first stories came out, Dr. Chavez made no effort to put an item on the agenda to entice candidates for the nursing position or to even discuss the issue. Instead her plan was to teach the teachers first aid. And then a student with special needs was seriously injured after her hand-picked administrator observed the student and sent him back to class. Once that became a story, it was then and only then, that Dr. Chavez took any meaningful act towards securing a nu...

There's a story in the El Paso Times about Marty Reyes not running for office again at Ysleta ISD. They have this quote from her about turning over the reigns and spending more time with family, blah blah blah. I have no reason to believe that isn't all true. But you know what else is true? The fact that she was the loudest voice at YISD against having transparency with campaign financial reporting. This is the first election cycle for her that candidates for school boards will have to file financial reports. And she's not running. You do the math.

From the way I've been writing you'd think the only election happening is in District 1 but that isn't the case. Districts 5,6, and 8 also have elections. They have incumbents; City Reps Noe, Ordaz, and Niland respectively. For some reason Ordaz hasn't gotten around to filing yet. That is the main reason still think she's not going to run. At any rate, none of them will get serious challengers. If they were serious in their intent to unseat an incumbent, a smart challenger would've started a long time ago. Its unlikely they end up with any challenger and if they do its not anyone for them to be concerned about. The incumbents should rightfully take that as an endorsement of their individual agendas by the electorate they each represent.

How bad are things when even the UMC Board thinks you have bad leadership? Hell, UMC Board gave a big fact bonus to Valenti after letting go of a bunch of employees because they didn't have the money to pay them but could pay a fat bonus to Jimbo. And that Board has to take over your crappy board? Dayum. That's like the Titanic being operated by Malaysia Air. I saw news coverage that said Susie Byrd's contract to be the Children's Hospital spokesperson ran out on Monday. I saw an interview with the County Judge that said she thought the Children's Hospital filing bankruptcy was a bad idea. When you no longer have allies, your days are number. Sorry Children's Hospital, but you guys are going to be under UMC...

Like I said a while back, the field for District 1 is the size of a small kindergarten class. A new candidate filed papers yesterday. His name is Daniel Lopez. I know zero about him and have never met him. But at some point I'll interview all the candidates in the race. Even the ones that don't want me to like Manny Hinojosa. But yesterday someone commented on the piece I did about District 1 and asked me a few good questions that I answered but I think I'll go ahead and address here, especially because David K writes a very entertaining piece about Peter Svarzbein on his blog yesterday. You can find it here . The person who commented wanted to know why I refered to Richard Bonart as Susie Byrd's candidate, why I thought Svarzbein has a shot at the run-off, and who do I see as winning the race and why. So let me break it down for you. As far as the Susie Byrd thing goes, I guess I could've called Bonart David K's mom's candidate too because she's his tre...

You've probably heard more about Tornillo in the last few weeks than you have in years and it's mostly bad. I'm not one that thinks I need to write something good about a community and pretending everything is hunky dory when it isn't just for the sake of "balance", but there is something pretty noteworthy I want to highlight before you hear more of the ugly truth about Tornillo later today. The girls basketball team went undefeated this year. One thing you should know about Tornillo is that in athletics they have a tradition of winning. Their trophy case is bursting at the seams with trophies. Real sports trophies too, not like lame-ass Cathedral High swimming championships or being tennis team captain at Bel Air. I mean real sports like football, basketball, etc. Last season the Lady Coyotes were pretty awful. They were 1-9. This year they turned it all around and finished undefeated. Tornillo isn't an affluent community. They typically play much more af...

According to a handbook put out by the Texas Attorney General's Office it appears that Tornillo ISD may be in violation of the Open Meetings Act. You can read the handbook here . Section VII B (starting on page 27 of the handbook) states that Section 551.043(a) of the Texas Code indicates "The notice of a meeting of a governmental body must be posted in a place readily accessible to the general public at all times for at least 72 hours before the schedule time of the meeting, except as provided by Sections 551.044-551.046" That means that the written notice has to be physically posted where the general public can have access to it, for at least 72 hours before the meeting. At least meaning not less than 72 hours. According to residents in Tornillo, the notice was not physically posted within that time period. However Tornillo ISD does satisfy the posting requirement if they continuously post the notice on the internet during the prescribed period. In English that means th...

Word around the westside is that Al Weisenburger is going to join the race for District 1. Don't know much about him other than he's an older guy that used to own a car dealership or something. So if he's rich, obviously that is helpful. But much like the other candidates who've never run before, he needs a good campaign team. I just don't know who's out there to help him out. Most everyone is either already married up or committed their support to a candidate already. Filing deadline is Friday, so lets see who else throws their hat in the ring. I'm surprised Rick Schecter hasn't done so yet to be quite honest. Stay tuned...

As you can see from this screen shot, things are getting interesting in district 1. Bertha Gallegos (I wrote about her a while back as a probable candidate) is in.  She changes the race in a meaningful way and virtually ensures a run off.  Interestingly Dan Longoria is still listed. I'll check with the city and find out if that's a mistake or if something needs to happen for him to be taken off before the ballot is finalized.  If he stays on its going to cause a lot of confusion. The question is who makes the run off?Peter Svarzbein has a good shot to make the run off as does Susie Byrd's candidate, Rick Bonart.  Manny Hinojosa doesn't have the support to make a run-off but whatever votes he gets will be a few less votes the other candidates will get and further increase the likelihood of a runoff.  It'll be really interesting to see what Gallardo's campaign team looks like because this will come down to who has the best ground game as most campaigns do.  T...

A lot of people have been asking me so lets put it to rest. Representative Ordaz is running for re-election. She has not filed yet and that is the reason why there have been so many questions floating around about whether or not she was going to run again. So I contacted Representative Ordaz and she stated, "Yes I am going to run!" No other candidate has filed to run for the seat as of yet.  Representative Ordaz is currently serving the final portion of the unexpired term of former City Rep Eddie Holguin who resigned his position to run for County Judge.  The final date to file to run for office is this Friday.

Clint ISD met last week and one of the topics of conversation was $80 million in bonds they will be taking to the voters. I reached out to Clint ISD and they said that the breakdown in spending would be $30,528,000.00 for Montana Vista area, Horizon City will get $32,224,000.00 and the Clint area will get $17,172,000.00. Clint ISD also indicated that the projects have been approved by the Clint ISD School Board and will not change. ------------------------------------------------------------- Tornillo ISD will have their school board meeting tomorrow night. The Board and Superintendent know that the community is not happy so expect to see some fireworks. School boards like to move public comment around when things get uncomfortable for them, so it wouldn't shock me if that happened as well. At any rate, the media will be there. I hear there has been a petition circulating in the community calling for Dr. Jeannie Meza-Chavez's removal as superintendent. Stay tuned.

There's an entity calling itself the Creed Group that has been shopping around for EPISD school board candidates. From what I've been told by several sources, its kind of a shake-down. They interview to see if they want to support you and if they do, you get campaign money. The catch is you have to use the campaign consultants they want you to use and no one else. For obvious reasons that raises a lot of eyebrows. There is potentially a huge tie-in that I'll discuss in a later piece. Three guesses who the consulting firm is...

While most of you are focused on city council, the state legislature, and commissioners court as the place for all your "I hate the government" angst, there are actual entities that are as important, and in some ways more important, that you don't know anything about. Here's a quick countdown: 4. The Council of Judges - I know it sounds like something out of a DC comic but the COJ oversees several important court functions and sets a variety of policy. The stuff about indigent defense a while back made some people hip to its existence and their desire to sorta-kinda-when-its-convenient operate like its subject to the Open Meetings Act. Its not. Judge Patrick Garcia is the head judge right now. It wouldn't surprise me if they went in a different direction. 3. Your Local School Board - Yeah, this one you should know but lets be real, you don't know the name of the school board representative for your area. They leverage millions of your tax dollars, are responsi...

I saw ABC 7 Xtra last night and I have to say that City Rep Lily Limon is spot on in her advocacy for the Mexican American Cultural Institute. We shouldn't just settle for table scraps on this project. Limon mentioned visiting another in San Antonio and said that El Paso's facility needs to be world class. That is exactly the type of vision we need in driving the creation of a MACI. Other cities embrace their Latino culture like Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Tucson, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Antonio. For some reason, El Paso which is pretty much the capitol of the border, runs away from it and has for years. What are we ashamed of? How the hell does San Antonio, literally located hundreds of miles from the border come off calling itself the gateway to Mexico and we have some sort of inferiority complex about being brown. We need the biggest, best, and most impressive cultural center of them all. And it needs to be downtown, or in Segundo. But all the other reasons we should put ...

The Black El Paso Democrats will celebrate their 32nd Annual Political Awareness and Award celebration on Saturday night. The BEPD dinner is one of the main political events of the year and this years' keynote speaker will be Congresswoman Sewell who represents the 7th congressional district of Alabama.  That district includes Selma. The dinner will be held at the Wyndham Airport Hotel. 

Al Patiño, who once ran for El Paso County Sheriff and served as a law enforcement consultant for the City of Socorro, has declared his candidacy for the EPISD school board. “I am running for EPISD School Board Trustee because this Board is going to have significant challenges and I want to put my experience to work solving them,” explains  Patiño . “Since returning to El Paso after my military  and federal law enforcement  career s , I  got involved in various levels within the school district and now have a 14 year investment to make sure that the right thing is done.   While I clearly understand that the Board has to consider the needs of the children, we also need to consider the taxpayers and the investment they are making in the school system.” He would be running to represent District 6 which includes the Franklin High School area.

Well we've all be speculating about the next senator after Jose Rodriguez since the rumblings of his future retirement have surfaced. So I've been sitting around and thinking about who are the 5 people in town with the best shot of winning the seat. I have no clue if any of them are actually interested in it (okay maybe a couple of them are) and there would be a bunch of other variables that would come in to play. But lets talk the top 5 in no particular order... The Delegation I think there are two natural front-runners from the state delegation that would be really strong candidates for the job, State Reps Joe Moody and Cesar Blanco. Young and bright and both have wide appeal. Other members of the delegation are controversial or difficult to get along with, but these two are the most formidable from the delegation and would have no problem raising money. If Moody can be DA, he can damn sure be Senator. Blanco is new but the Force is strong with him and he has all the boxes ch...

I caught some of Representative Lily Limon's comments about the funding of the Hispanic Cultural Center and I have to say she's 100% right. Bravo for her. When I think someone is wrong, I say so. When I think they're right, I do the same. I am not always her biggest fan, but she's right on this one. El Paso is a border city that is 80+% raza and we are one of the largest cities in the country without an Hispanic Cultural Center. That blows my mind. If we won't respect, honor, and value our culture, then who else will? The fact that we've gone so long without one is a failure on the part of Latino leaders we've had in the past. But hell, you can barely get any of them to show up to a Cesar Chavez march. We have to keep our soul. The fact that a freaking swimming pool is so well funded but an Hispanic Cultural Center has to fight for scraps is - as we say in the barrio - gacho. The pool is for spoiled rich kids that go to private school. Not the rest of use th...

First of all I can't believe DK threw us all under the bus by revealing that we in the Blogger Justice League of El Paso are part of a super secret organization controlled by the CIA, MI6, and the Knights Templar, who are in turned controlled by Paul Foster, Woody Hunt, and La Llorona!  http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/thinkaboutit/2015/02/hypocrisy-the-martin-paredes-story.html Is nothing sacred man?  I'm not saying DK has a Code Red coming to him, I'm just saying that if it does happen, I wasn't anywhere near Gitmo when it does, er, if it does. Yes it's true, we were thinking about jumping Paredes into our group of secret bloggers but there were several other issues in the way other than Paredes' little tantrum about Max using Martin's Match.com profile picture without permission. Really the biggest issue was the fact that we already have a Llorona in the group. No need for two. So David K was completely off base. But he is right that Martin gets really t...

To be more accurate, one more candidate and one rumored candidate. The rumored candidate is Bertha Gallardo. I attempted to reach her yesterday and was unsuccessful. I left her a voicemail with my name and number in order to confirm with her but haven't heard back from her yet.  On paper she's a very formidable candidate. She's an Hispanic female professional. She works for a local hospital, chairs the board of a local agency, and has some experience with the Chamber. Her candidacy pretty much ensures a run-off election. I haven't checked her voting record yet so I don't really have an indication of her politics. Based on what I know of her career so far, I'm willing to bet she can raise some decent money. The question is who ends up in the run-off.  The other candidate that has already filed is Manny Hinojosa. That name may be familiar with those who live in district 1 because he's run for that seat before. He also recently ran for District Clerk so his nam...

Well it appears that Dr. Jeannie Meza-Chavez supporters are feeling the heat from the community members and apparently from the news coverage and are tightening up around her. Yesterday afternoon after school, Lupe Lopez handed out these flyers to parents that were leaving the school with their children. Basically the flyer is imploring the community to support the Superintendent Dr. Jeannie Meza-Chavez and to not believe the slander and lies. It also states that the parents have the power to make a change. The rest says our superintendent is here to educate our children. At this moment she our support to meet the educational goals of the Tornillo ISD. Remember, support her. She's always available to listen Lupe Lopez is married to Tornillo ISD Board Member Hector Lopez. Mr. Lopez is a relative of Dr. Meza-Chavez's husband, Jesus Chavez. The flyer was handed out by Mrs. Lopez near where the crossing guard stands to assist students and parents when crossing the street. There is ...

Just to clear on some confusion I checked out how the process to replace Victor Flores, the County Tax Assesor/Collector is going to go. Flores is retiring due to illness. Flores will still be the Tax Assessor Collector until a replacement is appointed by the Court because of the Texas Hold-Over Clause. First lets kill all the ridiculous rumors that start every time the judge has a position to appoint. For as power-hungry as people make her out to be, the rumors of who she is going to select for a position are never true. So no, don't expect Susie Byrd or the former city manager, or Steve Ortega to be appointed to replace Flores. Its the entire court that appoints this position by the way, not just the judge. That being said, when it is the judge's pick, she always picks someone that isn't going to run for the position and always picks someone you've never heard of before. I'm pretty sure the rest of the court will not want to pick someone who's interested in ru...

Its been known by many names over the years. The Baptist Cemetery, The Protestant Cemetery, etc. But most recently its been known as the Forgotten Cemetery. It was burial land that was used back in the old days for people that couldn't be buried at the Catholic burial grounds. It was actively maintained until sometime in the early 1970s. After that time, there was no one left to maintain the cemetery and slowly it was forgotten. Vegetation began to over-grow the area and it came into disrepair. At some point the land around the area was platted for development. Limited development has occurred in the area but mostly it was used for ATVs to go joy riding. A group of residents in the Fabens area that had relatives buried there decided to get together and see what could be done to make improvements to the cemetery. Unfortunately there is some major confusion as to who actually owns the cemetery. It was owned by a church with a particular name for many years. That church is now defunct...

I know what you're thinking... The finally hired a nurse right? Nope. But Dr. Jeannie Meza-Chavez did make a hire for herself recently. Apparently she has a new secretary. Glad to see the priorities are straight over there in the central office. If I'm not mistaken, the new secretary is a sister of the business manager for the district.  In fairness to Dr. Meza-Chavez administrative support is a lot easier to come by than nurses are and the hire may have been really necessary. But when the community is in dire need for a more important position and the superintendent hires more support staff for herself it just comes across as tone-deaf to the needs of the community. It's a little Marie Antionette of her. They need a school nurse, but let them eat cake! Sadly there are even more troubles in Tornillo ISD. More to come...

My buddy David K was calling for the head of Claudia Ordaz the other day over the fact that Ordaz, Niland, and a few other members of council raised questions about the deal to bring a business to El Paso through incentives. Let me begin by saying that I'm not a fan of this idea. Its like paying for sex. In principle I think we should be looking for ways to invest in our community that make us attractive to businesses without having to pay them to come here through the form of incentives. But I recognize its competitive out there and the city has to do what it has to do. But what is wrong with our leadership doing their job and trying to get the most we can get while paying the least amount of money for it. Frankly, I don't buy the idea the Detroit analogy either. I don't buy that we will lose out on these high paying jobs if they are in Santa Teresa as opposed to west El Paso. I really give a damn if the business sets up its shingle in Santa Teresa over El Paso because exa...

Last night this story aired on Canal 26.  http://www.kint.com/2015/02/11/falta-de-atencion-medica-y-presunto-caso-de-acoso-escolar-en-secundaria-de-tornillo/ I wrote about this issue yesterday so check it out if you haven't already. Just keep scrolling. I read the comments from the Superintendent of Tornillo ISD in the KINT piece and I am stunned at not only the lack of empathy from Dr. Meza-Chavez but from the complete absence of a sense of urgency. Basically she said the administration followed their protocols. So their protos call for a head injury to not be looked at even by their CNA?  Their protocols consisted of monitoring the student for 30 minutes and sending him to class. An 11 year old special needs student is slammed to the concrete striking his head during PE and no one even thinks that maybe the only medically-trained employee in the district should at least give him a once over? What has to happen for the Superintendent and Board Members to to take steps necessa...

I've written previously about how the Tornillo ISD lacks a school nurse. I wrote about how bad of situation that is for Tornillo ISD, the parents and the students. Well call it Murphy's Law, but there was an incident at one of the schools that once again brings this issue to the forefront. An 11 year old student with special needs was hurt during PE last week. He is in the 5th grade at Tornillo Intermediate School. He sustained a serious injury and will likely need a CT scan next week. I spoke with Daniel Rivera, the boy's father who told me that he received a call from the school on the day of the incident. They explained that there was a situation that resulted his son being slammed to the ground but that he was okay and was back in the classroom. Mr. Rivera called his wife and asked her to go check on their son at school. When his wife arrived at the school she was allegedly met by the Principal of the school, Mr. Guerrero. He allegedly told the boys mother that he hadn...

Normally I don't write about the other bloggers because I'm the one they blog about. I lead, they follow. Thats the pecking order. But every once in a while I find the need to comment on something and today that something is the crazy train that is Martin Paredes. Long ago he referred to be as a "useful idiot". Well if I'm a useful idiot, then Paredes is certainly a useless pendejo. Martin Paredes talks, but never says anything. Martin Paredes is a conspiracy theorist. I know a lot of Libertarians and so I know a crazy nut-ball conspiracy theorist when I see one. Even by Libertarian standards, Martin Paredes is out there. He's conspiracy theorist Rob Lowe. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he actually did think the government puts listening devices in cheese. And by government, I mean Veronica Escobar. To hear Martin Paredes tell it, Veronica Escobar is part of a vast conspiracy that started years ago under former Mayor Ray Caballero. Actually to hear Par...

You may recall that I wrote about a member of the Clint ISD Board of Trustees not taking office until 6 months have passed in order to get around a nepotism rule at the district. The El Paso Times did a story on it today. You can find the story here: "Nepotism concerns delay Clint trustee's swearing in" http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_27487506/nepotism-concerns-delay-clint-trustees-swearing Hilda James is the board member in question. The Times article indicates that James says no one has raised concerns about the delay. She's either lying or mistaken. Channel 26 did a story on this issue back when they were sworn into office. They had a news crew at the meeting. You're telling me that a trustee from a very small town that almost never has news crews in town didn't notice there was a news crew at the meeting? Talk about pulling a Brian Williams! 26 probably covers more issues in the valley than any other station because so many of their viewers are Spanish-...

City Rep Michiel Noe is saying yes to reelection. Noe filed the necessary paperwork to run for reelection today at the city. So far he has no opponent although there may be one depending on her decision. Typically city council races have a number of people sign up to run but this cycle looks really quiet so far. Two candidates in District 1, one candidate in District 5, and presumably one in District 6 so far. That's it. For the races with an incumbent, it's a bad tactical move for any prospective candidates to have not started campaigning a long time ago. So I have doubts about viability of opponents, unless the person running is a big name with money. There are only so many of those in El Paso.

Man, I feel bad for the guy a little. Dan Longoria was out of the race as quickly as he was in it. I suppose it's for the best, especially if the Times article is what tipped the scales. I mean let's be real, it wasn't that bad and could've been a lot worse. I'd heard the rumor he was gonna bow out from a few places before I said anything but the confirmation came from his website. But he kept putzing with his resignation all day long.  Here's what it looked like when it first came out. But there were changes to it. In the second version that I caught about an hour and a half later, this is what it looked like. Gone was the definitive language that he was going to exit the race and now there was mention of overwhelming support. At 10:56 there was ANOTHER version posted.  The clarity of withdrawing from the race was now back in the statement.  There really was no urgency to get it up. They should've just waited and put it up once it was a final product.    Th...

Long time County Tax Assessor Collector Victor Flores has resigned this morning at the Thursday meeting of Commissioners Court. Flores, a Vietnam Veteran, has been with the County of El Paso around 40 years and has been an elected official for the last 20 years a source at the County indicated. Commissioners Court will decide who fills the position in the interim. Individual members of the Court are replaced by the County Judge but all other electeds are replaced by the full court. County Judge Escobar usually picks people who will not run for the office when she's had to replace a member of the court. It may be an entirely different ballgame when its up to the whole court. Flores resigned due to health reasons. He soldiered through a serious illness last year.

As quickly as he was in, he is now out according to multiple sources. Dan Longoria is allegedly going to bow out of the race at some point today or tomorrow. Longoria was a candidate for the District 1 city council race and is the subject of an article in today's edition of the El Paso Times. The article briefly mentions a couple of brush-ins with the law. More details to come... UPDATE - Dan Longoria has confirmed on his campaign website that he is out. 

City Representative Cortney Niland announced her re-election bid on social media recently and I thought there was something that was particularly noteworthy about it. The first people to jump up and support her were not the people many in El Paso would expect to see support Niland, South and South Central El Paso. Why? Because homegirl has street cred. In fact, she has more barrio street cred than City Rep Lily Limon. Why? Because street cred is about getting stuff done for the barrio, not just having Little Joe in a radio commercial. Cortney Niland's district is by far the most economically polarized in the city, perhaps one of the most economically polarized in the country. I still have no idea how in the hell Segundo Barrio, Chamizal, and Chihuahuita are considered communities of interest with The Willows, but they are in the same district. Yes, one of the poorest zip codes in America is in the same district as The Willows. I've block walked both areas and for the life of me...

Looks like The El Paso Times wrote a story about Longoria's entrance into the City Council District 1 race and mentioned his brushes with the law. My source was correct about the DWI arrest but the charge was dismissed. The El Paso Times also wrote that the domestic violence charges were dropped and that there was 10 hours of counseling that was completed by Mr. Longoria.  I previously wrote that it was community service because that was the information I was given. I have no reason to believe that the El Paso Times report is inaccurate.  A DWI arrest from the 90's that was dismissed, a traffic ticket, and a domestic violence arrest that was dismissed. Frankly, nothing to see here. Everything was dismissed and a traffic ticket is just a freaking traffic ticket. They guys not Satan and you can indict a ham sandwich as the saying goes. Granted the DV thing while sponsoring an event to support women and children that are victims of DV is problematic, but I guess its not the end o...

Very reliable sources have indicated that in addition to the arrest earlier this year for Domestic Violence that he ultimately agreed to do community service for in exchange for dropping the charges, Dan Longoria allegedly has some other legal woes going back a few years. He allegedly has a DWI from way back when. Not sure if it was even in El Paso, but its supposed to become public pretty soon. Personally, I don't think he'll take a big hit on a DWI from when he was younger because people do dumb stuff when they are younger. Or drinking. And lets be real, there are a lot of DWIs in this town and I've lost track of how many elected, judges, candidates, business people, lawyers, and local celebs I've seen trashed and get behind a wheel, so don't get self-righteous about it. But...if someone got hurt or there's more to the alleged incident then it could be a big deal. We will have to see when it becomes public. Not sure when that is supposed to happen, but my sour...

Prominent El Paso businessman Dan Longoria is making it official. He launched a website today that declares "I'm in". He now joins Peter Svarzbein in the race for District 1 that will soon be vacated by City Rep Ann Morgan Lily. Longoria owns the Mattress Firm stores here in El Paso. The campaign website URL is www.DanforDistrict1.com The website features pictures of Longoria and his family and touts his business and philanthropic endeavors in the community, which are substantial. Several worthwhile charities and events were mentioned in the website including the Susan B. Kohmen Race for the Cure. "El Paso has made great progress these last four years, and its imperative we elect leaders with not only the vision but the experience to keep our city moving forward.", states Longoria on his website. According to the El Paso Times Longoria was arrested for Assault Family Violence in April 2014. Last week court records indicate Longoria agreed to perform community s...