El Paso Politics

I went to city council today expecting a Cesar Chavez Day proclamation from the Mayor and Council.  There was a resolution about Cesar Chavez Day, which really ended up being much more about Rep Limon than a Cesar Chavez. Not her fault by the way. The language was about the academy. But at a time when we have all this buzz about the Hispanic Cultural Center, I simply can't get over the fact that there was basically no proclamation for Cesar Chavez and what is worth, none of the activist community was present.  Yep, all those wanna-be all-of-sudden-I-think-I'm-a-Brown-Beret like that Hobbit that escaped the Shire Hector Montes were freaking AWOL today. Oh yeah, talking all that crap and he doesn't show up today. He has time to call members of council and bitch and moan about me being on the Hispanic Cultural Committee, plenty of time on his hands to trash a fellow Chicano, but can't make it today.  He has plenty of time to consult with political candidates, but none to s...

Mayor of Munchkin Land I tweeted a while back about how the buzzword of this election cycle was the word "transparency" and that it was being used, but with no real substance behind it. A couple weeks ago I started hearing rumors that there were individuals that were surreptitiously running candidates. On Saturday at a forum I saw the individual in question and we had a conversation. Immediately I started recognizing talking points. That's when it clicked. I don't know why it took me so long to put it together, but I knew the answer to the question I was about to ask. So I asked if the rumors I'd heard were true. Since the flying monkey already wrote about it, probably at the behest of the individuals in question, I guess I'll write about it too. But more so because something was said to me in that conversation that has stuck with me and I just can't seem to shake it. Anywho, remember that I said that Dagda sounded much better and was much more polished? C...

Tell your City Attorney that one of her staffers needs some special customer service training. I put in an open records request to either kill or confirm a rumor a while back. Today I FINALLY got a phone call back from a staffer from the City Attorney's Office. I've been doing this a long time. I've had to interface with multiple levels of government for information for a long time. I've also been a staffer so I know what its like and I'm pretty patient with them. Their job sucks, their boss sucks, they don't get paid enough, there's never enough time in the day, their family sucks, their significant other sucks, their kids don't listen, someone drank the last cup of coffee, etc... I get it. They get yelled about by constituents all damn day long for stuff that isn't their fault, department, or problem. I'm usually the guy that sticks up for staffers and I've given public "atta-boys" in the past. But... Its your freakin' job. It...

I caught up with Representative Limon after the city council meeting today to get comment on the deletion of the agenda item to require two signatures to get an item heard. Interestingly Rep Limon says no one from the media asked her about the agenda item.

Here's the interviews I conducted with both candidates after the debate. I asked them both about this affidavit that keeps coming up. I'll start with the incumbent and move on to the challenger.

(Yeah I know, video quality isn't great. My view finder isn't working on my camera and buying a new one isn't in the budget right now. Maybe I'll issue bonds to pay for a new one) City Rep Cortney Niland and challenger Josh Dagda debated on Saturday morning in front of an audience at the West El Paso Republican Women. Dagda came out swinging against his opponent basically starting off right from his opening remarks.  Here's the video, watch it first and then continue to read my analysis. Also, I have some post-debate interviews of each of the candidates in which I cover a couple of important issues raised in the debate.  I have the benefit of watching the debate a few times before everyone else sees the video I post, so I often have a different perspective after seeing it live the first time. My first impression is that Josh Dagda, while still not a great communicator, has come a LONG way from just a couple of weeks ago. He appeared much more polished, much more pre...

The El Paso city council deleted an item to require two signatures to get an item on the agenda. The deletion effectively kills the issue. There was no explanation made during the meeting as to why it was deleted.  More details to come.

Victor Contreras Bertha Gallardo campaign consultant Victor Contreras flatly denied any connections between himself or Bertha Gallardo's campaign to another campaign consultant, Carlos Sierra. Questions arose last week when David K wrote a blind piece about a District 1 candidate Bertha Gallardo hiring "the DWI/child molester consultant from Arizona". Frankly, that rumor started long ago when Gallardo first filed to run for office.  "That is a completely baseless claim. I don't know where that is coming from but it is obviously untrue...I haven't talked to him in months", replied Contreras when reached by phone last week. Contreras confirmed that he is consulting with Gallardo, candidate for El Paso city council District 1, but denied any involvement with Carlos Sierra. The rumor needed to be cleared up because Contreras and Sierra are two different people. According to an article in the El Paso Times , Contreras and Sierra worked together as Sierra Pub...

Manny Hinojosa and I had a conversation today at the West El Paso Republican Women meeting and debate before the festivities began. It was a spirited discussion about a previous post I wrote regarding politics and religion. He gave me his position on religion and rather than try to summarize it myself, I thought I'd post video of him explaining it himself.

City Representative Cortney Niland and challenger Josh Dagda will face off in a debate tomorrow morning. The forum is sponsored by the West El Paso Republican Women and the moderator is Becky Hermosillo. The actual forum starts at 9:30am and is part of the West El Paso Republican Women regular monthly meeting. This will be the first time voters will be able to get a side-by-side comparison between the two candidates that are vying for the District 8 seat currently held by Representative Niland. This is kind of an inside baseball thing, but I actually enjoy the West El Paso Republican Women debate because its always a well-run forum. Hermosillo asks probing questions and people walk away feeling like they learned something. Forums have a tendency to either be a "gotcha-fest" or a bore-fest of crappy generalized questions. Hermosillo does a good job of keeping the debate flowing well and asking the right questions. She's even had Democrats attend the forums. So I'm look...

The more I think about this signature thing, the more it bothers me. First, lets clear a few things up. Again, this is aimed at Limon. Lets be real about that. Its designed to try to make her play nice-nice with other members of council. This has nothing to do with the merits of an agenda item and everything to do with just sticking it to Limon. And trust me, if the rumors I am following up on involving a smear campaign of a high-ranking city official through a reporter are true, then I can see why people are so upset with her. But even if the rumors are true, its still not okay! Second, stop saying this is about saving time. Having been staff, I can tell you that you know the elected members of a body that go to work every day and those that only show up on meeting days. Anyone who pretends that all the elected officials show up to work every day at city council are full of it. Most do, but certainly not all. So its not like you're killing yourselves with your 4 day work week. And...

County Court Judge Alma Trejo has been voted by her peers the new head of the El Paso County Council of Judges. Trejo will replace Judge Patrick Garcia who was not in the running for the post. District Court Judge Maria Salas-Mendoza was the other front-runner for the position. Judge Trejo presides over County Court at Law #1 which hears misdemeanor cases. The Council of Judges performs several functions, including appointing and supervising the El Paso County Auditor, but does not have to abide by the Texas Open Meetings Act. In other business conducted at today's meeting, the Council voted to adopt a resolution in opposition to a bill in the Texas legislature that would allow the various county commissioners courts to participate in the selection process of the auditor. Under the proposed bill the structure would call for a 5 person panel in urban counties to make the selection, made up of three judges, the County Judge, and one member of the Court.

There aren't many details yet but Socorro City Manager Willie Norfleet is resigning his post as Socorro City Manager. Norfleet has been with the City of Socorro for the past few years. He was previously the city manager for the City of Compton, California. There are no details yet has to why he has resigned or what the plan is moving forward.  More details as I get them. UPDATE: 

District 5 challenger Rosa Cabrera (Arellano) has had a rough 24 hours. Fresh off her scene at the parks meeting last night (see below), Arellano sent out an email about an hour ago to members of the El Paso Democratic Party soliciting their support. The email went to several prominent Democrats including Iliana Holguin (Secretary of the County Executive Commitee), Rebeca Bustamante (head of the PDN Tejano Democrats), and Precinct Chairs Michael Apodaca and Othon Medina among others. I tried to block that actual email addresses in this screen shot of the email. But the most interesting part of the email is the end where after asking for their support and laying out her platform, she closes the email with a quote from a Republican. I'm not making that up. See for yourself: The email was replied to by one of the recipients, Rebeca Bustamante, who made her point pretty clear, " As an Eastsider and a Democrat I feel it’s important to enlighten you on our rules. Texas Democratic Pa...

Last night City Representative Michiel Noe had a community meeting regarding the new eastside regional park. The park, when completed, will be twice the size of Album park and will be the largest park in the city of El Paso. There were about 100 constituents that attended the meeting. While the constituents were there to see what the design and amenities of the park looked like, it appears that at least one constituent went to the meeting for a different purpose. Representative Noe's opponent Rosa Cabrera (Arellano) asked to speak and accused Representative Noe of corruption (video below). But based on this Facebook post, it looks like Cabrera (Arellano) may have actually attended the event with the express purpose of having an audience. Ms. Cabrera (Arellano) appeared to have been accompanied only by children to the meeting. As you can see in this video, Cabrera (Arellano) took an opportunity to ask a question of Representative Noe during the meeting about how much land had been d...

City council decided to explore the idea of requiring two signatures for an item to be put on the city agenda. Let me be clear, this is a bad idea wrapped up in slick rhetoric. While it may be an old expression that rules are meant to be broken, the reality is that rules are meant to protect the minority. Before I get into all the ways this is a terrible policy, lets start with speaking a little truth to power. Council should be honest about what this rule really is. It really should be called the We Are All Sick of Lily Limon Rule. Anyone who doesn't realize that this is a rule that is one big giant city-sanctioned F-U to Limon is either lying or stupid. I can't even call it "thinly-veiled" with a straight face. This is overt. You know how you know? Because they require two signatures. Typically Limon only has one ally on council and its Representative Robinson. So she will usually be a short vote unless another council member agrees to sign off. And what does that c...

You know when you play a role in the birth of a city, you really care about what happens to the community. You aren't going to believe this one, but its true. The spouse of a current board member is challenging another board member for their seat on the San Elizario School Board. Berenice Barragan is challenging Armando Martinez for his seat on the SEISD. Barragan is married to Joe Rodriguez, a current board member. I've spent the last couple of hours searching around the internet and can't anything that would make this illegal. It is apparently legit. Maybe its a valley thing because in Clint, the mayor is Dale Reinhardt and his wife is also on city council. She used to be Willie Gandara's teacher and she chewed my ass one day at a community meeting because she really likes Willie. Not sure why she blamed me but Willie's problems got nutin' to do with me lady. Anywho, back to San Eli, community members are concerned about having a husband and wife duo on the bo...

There is an education-based group Kids Reform/Children First, that is funded by a local big shot business man that is supporting school board candidates. The organization has several goals, most prominent of which are charter schools, vouchers, etc. Sources indicate that this PAC-style group uses wealthy donors to provide campaign funds to candidates individually. I'll get more information on the group and how those funds are being leveraged. Based on some of the materials I've seen I think I have a pretty good idea already.

Relax genter, I haven't forgotten about Tornillo. But its election season and there's only one of me. Sources within the district office at Tornillo ISD indicate that after all the cameras left, there is still no nurse at the district. And things, according to the source, have gotten worse under Dr. Chavez. The Human Resource Department no longer exists. Sources indicate that Dr. Chavez applied pressure by giving them additional work to make the environment more and more uncomfortable for that department staff. Now they are gone and sources in the district office are frustrated at the fact that there is apparently no plan to get that department up and running again. The duties of the department have essentially been divided up among the administrative clerks. The morale of staff is now at an all time low. Many fear getting on the Superintendent's bad side for fear of losing their jobs. Sources indicate that any grievance that would be filed by an employee are no longer hand...

Two issues relating to religion caught my attention over the weekend. One was a campaign sign and the other was a social media post a reader sent me. They both underscore something really interesting in El Paso politics. The overt desire to run on religion as a platform issue. Now El Paso is a Catholic town and so its nothing new for candidates to spend time talking to church groups and organizations. That happens pretty regularly. Candidates often attend church bazaars during the kermez season and try to get to know people and be seen. There's nothing new about that association of religion in politics. However in this go-around its much more overtly about the intersection of policy and religion. Pastor, now Bishop, Tom Brown started that four years ago when he ran a slate of religious candidates. One of which was Manny Hinojosa and many felt that it was in response to the City's decision to expand benefits to include domestic partners which was seen as a "pro-gay" mo...

For those of you that didn't get a chance to see the debate last week between the candidates for El Paso City Council District 1, well you really didn't miss anything. Let me pause for a moment to make a point that I think needs to be made. City council races have long been known to feature the weirdos of El Paso that have nothing better to do with their time than run for office. So it's not out of the ordinary for some eccentric people to be on the ballot. That's not to say that there isn't a huge talent gap that still exists among the candidates, particularly the incumbents. The incumbents pretty much appear to be coasting to victory and are facing candidates that basically have no chance at winning. That being said, the overall quality of candidate in this go-around is much higher than in years past. That's no more evident than in the 6 candidate battle royal for District 1.  The debate was remarkable in the sense that everyone's performance was pretty un...

The debate program for last night's broadcast on KCOS had to be changed at the last minute because District 5 candidate Rosa Cabrera (Arellano) was a no show for the debate last night. Multiple candidates in the District 1 race indicated that Representative Noe was at the station waiting to debate Ms. Cabrera but she didn't show up. I wasn't going to mention it at first because its hardly the first time a candidate has no-showed for a debate. Things happen. They have jobs, families, other obligations, and have to make time to talk to voters, so sometimes making it to a debate doesn't penetrate the top 10 things they care about sometimes. So why am I writing about it? Well, mainly for two reasons. #1 Cabrera (Arellano) has made transparency a central theme of her campaign. So if you are running on being transparent, well you should at the very least be consistent about transparency. I checked with multiple sources at the station and they confirmed that Ms. Cabrera (Arell...

A source familiar with the debate has indicated that tonight's debate will only feature the District 1 candidates. Apparently the debate format says that if only one candidate is available for the debate, that a debate for that race will not take place. In districts 5,6 and 8 there are only two candidates in each race. Two candidates have scheduling conflicts and a third candidate allegedly refuses to answer questions from the debate's moderator David Crowder. The candidate apparently has taken issue with reporting Crowder has done on a story in which she was involved and was concerned that Crowder would raise the issue in the debate. Therefore the debate will only feature the District 1 candidates, which is good because there are 6 of them.

I get tired of having to write this piece every election cycle but it is inevitable. Every time I see this happen I just roll my eyes. These examples are certainly not the first example and likely won't even be the last in this campaign cycle either, of signs placed where they aren't supposed to be. Before you start accusing a rival campaign of stealing your signs, make sure that your signs aren't being placed where they are not allowed to be placed. Signs that are placed at parks and in the city right-of-way are usually picked up by the code compliance department, not stolen by opponents. The areas in these photos between the arrows, that were taken earlier today while riding around the eastside, are actually the city right-of-way. If I'm not mistaken, the disclaimer on signs actually says you're not supposed to put them in a right-of-way. Thats not to say that stealing signs doesn't happen. It does and people that do that are real jerks because those signs cos...

The Eastside Democrats will hold a candidate forum on April 6 at 6pm at Gallegos Restaurant located at 10801 Pebble Hills Blvd. ***Venue is subject to change depending on number of candidates participating. The forum is open to candidates running for school board(EPISD, YISD, SISD) and municipal (Districts 5 & 6) elections on the eastside of El Paso only. The forum is open to all candidates regardless of party affiliation. For more information or to RSVP candidates: eastsidedemocrats915@gmail.com

As I said, anyone who wishes to have their campaign event announced here on the LSB just needs to email me the info and I'll post it.  Campaign Kick-Off and Fundraiser for   Alejandro “Al” Patiño Candidate for EPISD Trustee, District 6   Saturday, March 21, 2015 9:00  – 11:00 a.m. at The Bagel Shop 985 Resler Drive, Suite A  (across from Franklin High School)     Please stop by and have breakfast before  starting Saturday errands.  Chat about the district  and help Al celebrate his birthday. Casual dress.         Donations accepted  . Make checks payable to:   Campaign to Elect Al Patiño EPISD Trustee,  6516 Brook Ridge Circle, El Paso, TX 79912 .  No corporate checks please.

So posting the screen shot of the candidates' voting record didn't work out too well because it was so small. I chose to write out what the records were for the other races. District 1 has too many freaking candidates so I'll skip to the notable stuff. Rick Bonart, Peter Svarzbein, Bertha Gallego, and Daniel Lopez all have strong voting histories as Democrats. Their records don't indicate that they have voted in the Republican primary as far back as the 1990's. Al Weisenberger voted predominately as a Democrat but records indicate he voted in at least one Republican Primary. They all regularly voted in the municipal elections. The one notable exception, which is no surprise to anyone is Manny Hinojosa. He's always voted as a Republican. That is to say that he always votes in the Republican primary. How he, and any of the other candidates vote, in the general election is not information that is tracked. One point of clarification is the fact that Hinojosa ran as ...

Starting at 7:00 tonight and running until 8:30 will be a debate on KCOS hosted by David Crowder. If If memory serves this debate is sponsored by the League of Women Voters, which is funny because, well Crowder's a dude. What to watch for tonight is who makes the most of this opportunity. Its not a lot of ratings obviously because its on a PBS station, but all the people that are watching are people with good voting history. The other thing to watch for is who screws up. If you recall during the last election cycle, former County Commissioner Sergio Lewis lost his cool and appeared angered during the debate. Those are the type of singular moments to look out for. The rest of the debate will be about who sucks the least. Crowder is asking the questions, so they will be questions of substance and the people who don't know issues will likely be exposed pretty early. What I'm most interested in is who doesn't show up. Most of the candidates are really excited to get their m...

This may be a first for the LSB but I'm giving a collective award this week. So the Homies of the Week goes to city council for doing the right thing with the Hispanic Cultural Center Committee.  I think they should have the ability to elect their own chair.  Bonus Homegirl of the Week goes to the city attorney for clarifying the nontroversy over the name and intent of the center. Based on what has been reported in the Times, Bernie Sargent wants to make the cultural center some shrine to cowboys. That is appropriate for the history musue, but demonstrates the desire on his part to make the cultural center a bore-fest.  We do enough over-hyping of cowboy culture in this town. At best it was s small span of time in our past.  Plus there are plenty of other places nearby that can compete for the 10 adults who like to play dress up that do it much better than El Paso like Tombstone or Tucson.

I just wanted to pass on some info about some recent media moves that I wanted to share with everyone, especially for those of you who are bilingually impaired and don't watch the Spanish language television stations. KINT Canal 26 has had to big media developments recently. Jose Santos, one of their reports who used to spend a lot of time covering Commissioner's Court and the Valley is moving on to another station in Houston, Texas. The other development is my friend and former colleague Viridiana Solano got married today. She married to Mario Mendoza. Viri, as she is affectionately known, is not only an intelligent and hardworking reporter but she is also very talented and performed in a band. Not sure if she still does that, but homegirl can sing. Mendoza clearly won the wife lottery, so congratulations to the happy couple. Today was a small ceremony so that some of her family that won't be in town later in the year would be able to witness the event. The couple plan to ...

Well first it was Beto on a Bus, now it's O'Rourke Online.  Congressman O'Rourke will be having on online town hall today on FB. You hear that? That's the sound of all the libertarians getting ready to Bogart the town hall with Open Carry, Weed, Audit the Fed, and Repeal Obamacare and the Republicans bitching about Netanyahu's campaign stop/quest to start WWIII. Here are the particulars: What: Facebook Town Hall Where:  https://facebook.com/BetoORourkeTX16 When:  Tuesday, March 17, 2015 from 2:30 - 3:30 PM MST Event URL:  https://facebook.com/BetoORourkeTX16 You can submit questions by posting them on the events wall using the hashtag #AskBeto

*****Representative Michiel Noe 2014- Voted on Election Day in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary          Voted on Election Day in the Democratic Run-off 2013- Voted on Election Day in the General          Voted Early in the Municipal Election 2012- Voted Early in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary          Voted on Election Day in the Democratic Run-off 2011- Voted Early in the General 2010- Voted Early in the General 2008- Voted on Election Day in the General 2003- Voted on Election Day in the General 2000- Voted on Election Day in the General *****Rosa Cabrera 2014- Voted Early in the General Election          Voted Early in the Republican Primary          Voted Early in the Republican Run-off 2013 - Voted Early in the Municipal Election 2012- Voted Early in the G...

*****Claudia Ordaz 2014- Voted on Election Day in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary          Voted Early in the Democratic Run-Off 2013- Voted on Election Day in the General Election          Voted on Election Day in the Municipal Election 2012-Voted Early in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary         2010- Voted Early in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary 2008- Voted Early in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary 2007- Voted Early in the Municipal Election 2006- Voted on Election Day in the General          Voted on Election Day in the Run-off *****Mike Pickett 2014 - Voted on Election Day in the General Election ----------------------------------------        

There was a complaint from a couple of readers about not being able to read the screen shots I posted of the voting records of candidates over the last few days. So I'll go ahead and just write their voting records here. District 8 Voting Records *****Representative Niland 2014- Voted Early in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary          Voted on Election Day in the Democratic Run-Off 2013 - Voted Early in the Municipal Election 2012 - Voted Early in the General          Voted Early in the Democratic Primary          Voted Early in the Democratic Run-Off 2010 - Voted Early in the General           Voted Early in the Republican Primary 2008 - Voted on Election Day in the General          Voted on Election Day in the Democratic Primary 2007 - Voted Early in the Municipal Election 2004 - Voted on Election Day in the Gen...

As I mentioned last week I am including the voting records of all the candidates running for municipal offices so that you can get some idea of how they will govern and what policy agendas they tend to be in-line with. I started with District 8 and have been working my way back down to District 1 since it has the most amount of candidates in the race. So lets get to District 5, which covers the far eastside of El Paso. That race features incumbent City Rep Michiel Noe and challenger Rosa Cabrera. Highlights: Only one other candidate, who happens to be running in another district, has a more Republican voting history than Rosa Cabrera. Thats not shocking considering the social media posts of Ms. Carbera with several prominent Republicans like Lt Gov Dan Patrick, Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Greg Abbot and Land Commissioner George P. Bush. Although she also had two other pictures on social media that included elected officials. She had one with former Congressman Silvestre Reyes and one wi...

Here is video of the form on the westside last week featuring the candidates for the two westside EPISD seats that are up for election. Not every candidate attended the forum, but I took video of the ones that did attend. I'll try to get time to interview all the candidates individually.

District 6 is the mission valley and the Eastside.  Incumbent City Rep Claudia Ordaz faces challenger Mike Pickett.  Highlight: Pickett has only voted in one election but that is because he is new to El Paso. Ordaz votes Democratic and that's consistent with her district.

Here are the voting records for Representative Niland and Josh Dagda. They both vote regularly. Dagda not as much but that's because he's younger.  Highlight: Niland voted Republican once. Not gonna lie, I thought it would've been more.