Last Day to File - Ordaz, Cabrera (Arrellano), Pickett, Weisenberger File

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. Ordaz is going to crush Pickett. She's still sitting on a bunch of money from the last campaign, there are still a ton of signs that were left over from the first race so she doesn't even have to spend money on that.

Pickett has no base to work off of, won't be able to raise money, and if he follows what JOP tells him to do, he's going to get creamed even worse.

Ordaz won every precinct last go around. She has a far better team than anything Holguin and JOP can muster. In fact, I don't even know if Holguin is going to support Pickett this go-around. But if he does, it'll likely just be another letter he sends to voters. That hasn't worked the last three times he's sent one out.

Ordaz will likely win every precinct in District 6...again. Even if another candidate jumps in the race today, Ordaz wins without a run-off. This one is over before it starts.

Take that to the bank.

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District 5 (Upper Eastside and Far East)

Representative Noe is facing Rosa Maria Cabrera who also uses the last name of Arrellano. She runs a local non-profit, Dame La Mano.

Cabrera (Arrellano) has far more credibility than most of the other candidates in the city other than the incumbents. She runs a non-profit, she's bilingual, young, Latina, has been on the radio and honestly, very attractive. As a candidate, she's a pretty good package.

The knock on her is going to be her politics. Actually now that she's a candidate, I don't think she's allowed to be on the radio anymore or Noe has to get equal time. Something like that.

I found some bio information on her and on her application to be a candidate it says she has a Master's Degree in Education (M. Ed). Her Facebook page says she has a Master's in Counseling from UTEP and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Southwestern Assemblies of God University. It also indicates that she's in the PhD program for Clinical Psychology at California Southern University. I couldn't find the Masters in Education on her bio, but its pretty smart because Dr. Noe is an MD. She wants to have M.Ed after her name on the ballot, so maybe thats some political gamesmanship. Smart move if it is.

Her bio also sais that she is "the Executive Director of Dame La Mano Center that assist (sic) victims of domestic violence and children whom are also victims of sexual abused (sic), undocumented immigrants who also suffer abused (sic)..."

From what I've seen on social media she's pretty anti-Obama and very conservative. She has several pictures of her with conservative leaders, at conservative events, and supporting conservative causes. That might play well with Republicans in town, but there aren't enough of them to get her elected. If her conservative credentials are made an issue, she's going to have a tough time.

Here's an example, this is a picture of her with Lt Governor Dan Patrick. He's arguably the most extreme anti-immigrant leader ever elected in Texas. Ms. Cabrera (Arrellano) non-profit is based in Segundo Barrio and as mentioned previously, serves the undocumented.

Stuff like that will be problematic.

That being said, there is a possibility that she could use her conservative credentials to raise money. Even though its a non-profit race, those conservative organizations she supports would likely jump at the chance to throw money at a viable conservative candidate.

There are conservative pockets on the eastside, but Representative Noe is not exactly a super liberal guy himself. He's pretty much a middle-of-the-road Democrat.

He delivers babies and makes no secret that he's pro-life. So they agree on that issue and its not a city issue anyway.

Not sure what her position on city issues are or how they differ from Dr. Noe's so we will see how that pans out.

She's going to be a formidable opponent for Dr. Noe depending on what her message shapes out to be.

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Albert Weisenberger threw his hat officially in the ring yesterday as well for District 1. He's an attorney and had a car dealership at one time.

Generally speaking the electorate likes younger candidates. He's an older guy and he's getting in really late.

Who ever is advising him is giving him some really bad advice. He's jumping in too late. There's already a business type candidate (from what I can tell that is going to be Bertha Gallardo's angle) and she's far younger and Latina.

I think they appeal to the same voter and will likely split those folks.

Lets see if any more candidates jump in the race...