El Paso Politics

I spoke to the news director and she indicated the decision to remove the story was an editorial decision made in the newsroom but acknowledged it looked nefarious. She indicated that they attempted to get comment from Mr. Davis and called his office several times and finally went in person and they overheard him say he wasn't going to comment on the matter. She indicated without his side of the story they didn't feel that it was doing the community a service having a story that wasn't complete because the more they looked into it the more questions were raised. I mentioned that they have reported stories with no comment from one side plenty of times and she acknowledged that was true but indicated that they just didn't feel the story was complete. Although that doesn't explain whey it was originally aired. I asked if Mr. Davis advertised with the station and she indicate that she didn't know. For what its worth, I believe her. I worked around a newsroom and the...

We live in the era of social media gaffe's so its not uncommon to see someone say something on social media they probably really think but decide later its not a good idea for the whole world to know its something you really think. Its worse when I news stations reports on it, then posts an update on social media about the story, posts the story on their website, and airs the story...and then the next day its all gone. Poof. Disappeared. A prominent El Paso attorney Mark T. Davis made these remarks recently on his Facebook page: Mr. Davis didn't stop there. He also posted this comment: And this one: Those comments didn't sit well with several veterans in El Paso and several veterans groups are apparently organizing a picket on Monday at Mr. Davis' office on Lomaland. Mr. Davis apparently got wind of the demonstration and posted this on social media: Which is really interesting because Mr. Davis actually deleted the original Facebook post. So apparently he invokes his ri...

Freeway Caroets have used their billboard for public commentary for years. I think they are the valley's original Twitter account.  I was in the neighborhood the other day and happened across these signs.  Ouch.

An article written by David Crowder in the El Paso Inc shows that officials with the city of El Paso knew about problems with complying with MPO requirements for over a year. When Rep Ordaz first raised the issue earlier this summer city leaders at first played tonto , threw staff under the bus, and later tried to downplay the problems. Crowder's piece is based off of emails he obtained through a request with the city. Correspondence between El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez and TxDOT big shot Bob Bielek indicate that Bielek has been trying to get the city to fix their problems for over a year. Niland basically said that the scandals of the last few months have been a strategic effort to draw attention away from the county. Well, this story blows that theory out of the water since the problems have gone back over a year. It'll be interesting to see what council's next story is going to be about the MPO. Although it sorta doesn't matter anymore, the horse is already ou...

Haven't had a Homegirl/boy of the Week in a while. This week, it's City Rep Emma Acosta. Frankly, it's a damn shame that the city of El Paso is the only local government that doesn't recognize Veterans Day. City representative Emma Acosta took a small step towards alleviating that situation during last weeks city Council meeting. This year Veterans Day falls in the middle of the work week. Thanks to representative Acosta city workers will have the day off. That's a good thing! Honorable mention for city representative Lily Limon. She raised the issue of making a permanent solution to the city of El Paso not recognizing Veterans Day. She wants to make it a permanent thing for the city of El Paso.

                                             

City Rep Cortney Niland, who mysteriously left the council meeting yesterday, popped up on the KLAQ Morning Show with Buzz Adams this morning. Gotta love it when a city rep ditches a city council meeting but somehow has time to show up on a morning radio program. I'm sure District 8 is very happy with the selection of priorities by their city representative. Anywho, back to the radio program... I found a couple of things she said of particular interest and I'm sure you will too. Lets back track a little, I'm guessing she was on Buzz this morning because she wanted to try to deflect from the piece written yesterday about her staffer, Jeremy Jordan, allegedly involved in some negative political activities against her council rivals. Well played. Although I find it funny that those that said Ordaz was going to be disliked by her colleagues on council and treated like the girl who has piojos at school now get a look at what Jordan was allegedly up to. Vince defending his girlfr...

Ah yes, just when you think Socorro is to be over-shadowed more stuff happens. So here are a few quick notes about some developments in Soco-Loco: Anthony Gandara was elected to complete the term of the late Chito Bowling. Bowling passed away after thumping former District 4 City Rep Jesse "Little Jessie" Gandara. Little Jessie and the rest of G-Unit don't want to give up a hold on Socorro city politics and Anthony Gandara is going to seek re-election in the next round of city elections. Word around the campfire in Campestre is there are already a few people ready to step up. Speaking of Gandaras - Jessie's ally Refugio Orta just got a pay check from the Socorro city council. Its not a lot, about $800, but it was for compensation of things like a jacket and gloves and other stuff. When you look in the back up for the meeting there really isn't sufficient info there. I also heard that there is yet another movida happening having to do with property. On an upcoming ...

Jeremy Jordan, Staff for City Rep Niland A former intern and City Hall personnel have indicated that a staffer with political aspirations directed politically-motivated activities against rivals of his boss City Rep Cortney Niland, including infiltrating events, sending anonymous emails to news outlets and bloggers, and "looking for dirt on Claudia Ordaz". There is no indication that Representative Niland had knowledge of, or directed the activities of her staffer. A former intern in the offices of both City Rep Cortney Niland and Claudia Ordaz has come forth alleging that he was instructed by Niland's staffer Jeremy Jordan to execute those activities against rivals of his boss, Rep Niland. Christian Alexander is a student at UTEP studying finance and the founder of a neighborhood association. He has served as an intern for Representatives Niland and Ordaz and also interned in Congressman O'Rourke's office and a non-profit organization in Washington, DC. Internshi...

I'm excited to see today's council meeting because I'm part of a pool trying to guess the over/under on how quickly the ethics and contacting department heads item gets deleted. I was pretty excited to see if there would be talk about just exactly how those roads got paved in Larry Romero's districts Since "text-gate" it's now common knowledge that its kind of a thing for me to use Matt MacElroy in movie spoof posts so with apologies in advance - I can imagine the meeting going down like the end of A Few Good Men. You know, the you-can't-handle-the-truth scene. I imagine MacElroy playing Tom Cruise and questioning some unidentified city staffer that has been thrown under the bus by city council (because that's how it always works). Staffer: You snotty little bastard. McElroy: I'd like an answer to the question Mayor. Mayor Leeser: The Council will wait for an answer. McElroy: If Lt. Romero gave an order that the alley wasn't to be paved...

City Rep Larry Romero is in another pickle, this time not dealing with the city manager's raise, or even the streets this time. Now its about his appointment to the City Planning Commission. The El Paso Times wrote a scathing editorial recently about Romero that surely will ultimately be the death of his political career. The Times editorial focuses not only on the controversial appointment to the CPC, but also the streets incident. Here is a link to the editorial if you haven't read it yet. They recently wrote a column critical of City Rep Niland that was critical as well. When I read them the first time my only thought was "Zas!". Look its one thing for those of us in the blogosphere to be critical of an elected official, but we are just bloggers. Its a whole other story when the daily paper of record is critical of policy positions. Its far more serious. Personally I think the streets things is a bigger deal because it was about the process that was went about. It...

I saw a piece on TV last night on KVIA about the Romero road issue. I'm actually pretty surprised at what the report said, although I'm not at all surprised that David K is defending Romero on the issue given the fact that David's family business here in El Paso has done road construction projects for the city. Maria Garcia's piece indicates that an alley was repaved that wasn't on the city's approved list of projects. An alley. Thats right, for those of you driving around central, or as David K himself points out, the valley - you're driving around on shitty roads while an ALLEY was paved. Turns out that two of his campaign donors benefitted from a project Romero got done too. Are you fucking kidding?  First an ally and then campaign donors benefit from a project? Look I'm not saying that donating to a campaign disqualifies you from ever having a project done on your street or anything. But I am saying you have to be aware of the optics of an issue and ...

The walking epitome of hypocrisy does it again.  Now he admits he got a document from Niland. Personally I don't give a shit but I think it's hilarious that he thinks no one sees through his hypocrisy when in one breath he pretends he isn't taking orders from her and in the next he says I'm "threatening" her.  That's on the level of his assertion that text messages are the biggest story of the decade. Personally I figured that it wasn't actually Niland who leaked him the document. I figured it was her staffer Jeremy Jordan.  I don't fault Dizzy for doing that, I just think he should stop lying and pretending he isn't taking orders...

My friends on the right asked me to post this. Now I have to shower...

My favorite hypocrite of the blogosphere is having yet another edition of the old guy shaking his fist at people saying "you kids stay off my grass". I'll keep it short.  I'm not insinuating he's in cahoots with Niland. I'm flat out saying it. On more than one occasion something has been pitched to me and if I didn't write it, it was on Refuse the Truth shortly thereafter. So David K is in no position to talk about facts when he is pretty famous for doing what he did in his last post, make a bunch of shit up and just throw it out there.  But since we are talking facts let's tell the truth David K... You for some reason posted an unredacted version of the se texts that were available via Maxi Pad's blog, which you also linked to. But what's interesting is that only 4 people had access to the version you posted. Three guesses who one of them was... Now it will be fun to see how many city reps get new phones and new phone numbers...although that d...

In a very rare midweek story on the El Paso Inc, City Rep Larry Romero is under fire from his own colleagues on council in an article written by veteran reporter David Crowder. Click here to read the article. The story uncovers information about 9 streets being paved in Romero's district over the last year that were never on the city's approved street improvement plan. According to the article they streets were paved at the request of Representative Romero. Those actions are being called "corruption" and "abuse of power" by Eastside City Rep Michiel Noe. Amazingly Rep. Romero didn't respond to requests for comment from Crowder. Representative Niland was also critical of Romero in the El Paso Inc story. She called it "dangerous" and said it could lead to politicians having influence on street paving decisions "instead of making it on need." City Manager Tommy Gonzalez was also unavailable for comment according to the article. What is ...

Hello ladies, its been a while since we’ve had a chance to chat.  That’s my bad, I’ve been super busy being the mastermind behind, well everything. Its really time-consuming being the embodiment of all the crap you guys say.  As you can tell I haven’t posted much lately. I sorta like fucking with you guys since your blogs are basically blogs about my blog or me. So I thought it would be fun to watch you guys give each other reach-arounds while you wait for me to create new content so you can have something to write about.  As luck would have it, you guys have gotten yourselves into quite the pickle lately. Mostly because of how silly you guys look trying to spin.  So lets talk text messages shall we? First of all none of you idiots can seem to actually get the order of things or understand who is saying what. Or maybe because its not written in crayon. So let me help you dumb asses out.  I never said anything about Cortney’s looks. That was Vince, not me and he...

Well yesterday's Labor Day Breakfast was pretty uneventful. No surprises, no fights, no slights. Not even the awkward moment of enemies sitting near each other. For whatever reason they didn't mention candidates this year which boggles the mind because that's the reason people actually attend the Labor Day breakfast the fall before a spring election. It looks like there were far less candidates in attendance than previous years too.  Interestingly there was only one that had literature printed with the union label on it. Yvonne Rosales, candidate for District Attorney who is facing incumbent Jaime Esparza and fellow challenger Lenny Morales had lit with the union label on it. That means she went out of her way to use a union printer because I don't think there is still even a union printer in town.

As a reminder, today is the last day to submit public comment in the environmental assessment phase of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's review of the Comanche Trail Pipeline.  We ONLY have until  today at 2pm MST. We have made it extremely easy to comment! It can be done online and I have provided a document that you may use as a template. Of course, you may write your own comment but it is important to do so before the  2 pm MST  deadline. If you previously commented, you may login with your email and password (password recovery is an option). This method may autofill your precious info. BUT you must be sure to enter the correct docket number! For those who didn't previously comment, the link to register is below. ***Link to comment here***   Please note, in commenting you MUST reference our docket number  CP15-503-000  in the body of your comment. (Please see sample) If using the sample comment, simply change your personal info. Lastly...

By an almost 8-1 margin Othon Medina lost the election for the state chair of the Tejano Democrats at the convention over the weekend. Joey Cardenas was elected the state chair by a vote count of 872-168 according to sources at the convention. As previously mentioned Medina is often viewed as controversial because of what some characterize as confrontational and difficult to deal with which may explain why he didn't have much support, though he carried sizable support among the El Paso delegation. Another large factor is the fact that Harris County showed up with 300 delegates. They basically ran the convention with that many delegates because voting is at least partially based on chapter strength. BLOG NOTE: I've been getting a lot of questions about the amount (or lack thereof) of posting on my blog lately. I've been busy. I'm up to something. Also, its been pretty quiet on the campaign fronts.