El Paso Politics

Its pretty interesting that with a big primary coming up in March it looks like there really won't be much fireworks on the local scene and so races that no one gives a shit about will actually take center stage. So far there are only two incumbents with challengers, although the filing deadline is still a couple of weeks away. I haven't even heard any whispers of anyone thinking about taking on an incumbent either. And frankly, that doesn't even matter because unless you're taking on an incumbent judge its sorta already too late. I know there are some politicos that like to slide in at the last moment to surprise people and think its gonna make a splash and help propel them to victory but it doesn't. And they aren't going to catch an incumbent by surprise either. The only person that it worked out for was Oscar Leeser and Leeser was a unique situation. There had been talk about him running for mayor for a long time. Hell it was the worst kept secret in El Paso ...

Every year the Sun Bowl has a Thanksgiving Parade down Montana that features a couple area marching bands, some people dressed like cowboys shooting off guns that are blanks but much louder than the real thing, a couple floats etc. Its also the one time a year where El Paso does its best Soviet Union impression by rolling out a series of law enforcement agencies in this town as they drive down the street in all their tactical stuff. The other thing you see every year is a bunch of elected officials in the parade. That happens every year and its usually all the members of council and all the members of commissioner's court. Or at the very least, the vast majority of them. This year most of the county commissioner's where there. But interestingly only two members of city council showed up. Which is interesting when you consider there are so many more members of city council than there are commissioner's court. The Mayor was at the start of the parade and actually had a pretty...

Apparently the media went to Rep Romero's office to get comment about the El Paso Times calling for his resignation and yet again, he declined comment. But he ultimately sent in a statement to KVIA and they ran a story on it last night. Click here to check it out. By the way - we've seen this movie before people. More on that in the last segment of this post.  In his statement alleges that the Times is "jumping into the campaign business". He goes on to say that "enough is enough" and that he's going to have a conversation with the community about this etc. No he isn't. He is avoiding media. They are going to be at every public meeting he has in order to get comment from him on camera. What's he gonna do? Hide out forever? If he has a conversation with the community as he says, he will inevitably face news cameras. Then he will have to answer specific questions and if he wanted to deny the allegations laid out by the Times, he would have in his ...

When Ali Razavi, Martin Paredes, or David K write about me - which is pretty often - I normally just roll my eyes and laugh whenever I find out about it. Actually with David K I usually find out right away because I read his blog daily. The other two I really don't bother with but eventually someone tells me about it. But David K is straight up getting paid, or played, in his latest piece. Please read it so that you can be up to speed with his lunacy. Click here . Normally when these fools write shit about me I don't even bother trying to dispel whatever it is they wrote because honestly its usually pretty entertaining and I'd be lying if I told you I didn't get a kick out of all the magical powers they assign me. To hear them tell it, I am the all-powerful behind the curtains sentient being that runs this town. Which truth be told, if I was in charge around here the first thing I'd do is fix public transportation in the valley and then focus on UTEP football. Serio...

"Romero has breached the public trust, and must resign." In a bold and unprecedented move yesterday, the Editorial Board of the El Paso Times called for the resignation of a sitting elected official, City Rep Larry Romero. At first I thought it might have been the first time they called for the resignation of an elected official that wasn't under indictment. Hell I don't even think they called for the resignation of any of the Gandaras, which is saying a lot, especially considering former Socorro City Rep Jesse Gandara had been arrested multiple times in about a month time-span. So the fact that they called for Romero's resignation is certainly noteworthy. KVIA reported on the call for the resignation of City Rep Romero but they received no comment from Rep Romero. City Council's meeting for this week was canceled due to the holiday, so unless media call him or visit him at his home or office, its unlikely Romero will have to face the media on this issue until...

Earlier this week we learned of yet another costly screw up at the city - this time costing tax payers $22 million. There was a delay on the project that was made for obvious political purposes - to avoid then City Rep and Mayoral hopeful Steve Ortega from having to take another controversial vote on the issue. The delay ended up costing the tax payers millions.  This issue came up last week during the city council meeting but no one seemed interested in asking the very obvious question...who made the call to delay the vote? Thats a serious problem because it wasn't an issue that was acted upon by council. So it was someone who made the call administratively. That would either be the former city manager or the former CFO.  This should be making all kinds of alarms go off. First, the current members of council that were part of that administration should be answering questions about whether or not they had knowledge this was going on.  Second, if they did have knowledge, w...

Long-time Democratic Party activist Sissy Byrd is the new Chair of the Black El Paso Democrats after being elected to the post last night. Sissy Byrd succeeds long-tim Chair and Democratic Party personality Don Williams as the chair of the BEPD. BEPD has long been one of the more influential Democratic Party Auxiliaries despite it not having a lot of voting members. BEPD is also known for throwing the annual dinner that has always been the most well-attended event and typically had the best speakers, typically national-level leaders. Sissy Byrd becomes the first woman to chair BEPD.

El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez was set to speak at City Rep Lily Limón's community meeting on Wednesday night but was a no show. A frequent reader from the valley let me know that he was a no-show and that  Rep Limón didn't know the city manager wasn't going to show up until she received a text message from him at the last minute.  My source tells me the attendees of the community meeting were pretty upset that he didn't attend. There was no specific reason given as to why he wasn't in attendance either. I'll attempt to find out why he wasn't able to attend the community meeting. Generally meetings with constituents are pretty important to most city officials so I'm sure there was a good reason he missed the meeting and didn't let anyone know until the last minute. Right?

Listen, since the tragedy in Paris last week there has been a blur of conversations dealing with everything from gun control to religion control to the plight of refugees. I can't begin to tell you how wrong the conservative right is on this issue. Do I start with their pro-life stance? Or do I start with their answer to Black Lives Matter being All Lives Matter. Oops, except those of refugees. Those don't matter. Seriously they should just come out and say what they really mean. All White Lives Matter. Hell they can't even make a biblical argument. Actually speaking of conservatives, let me stop for a moment and say that I'm surprised David K hasn't blamed Paris on either me or Rep Ordaz (yet). I'm sure he'll work in her recent trip to the Holy Land as being more than just a coincidence. Any who, back to a couple more thoughts about the Paris tragedy. If those of you on the right who love to regurgitate bumper sticker politics and say stuff like "Guns ...

So I spent the day at city council hall yesterday because I was looking into something. But along the way an interesting city council meeting sprouted up. Here is the first thing you need to know as a taxpayer, the city is far more screwed up than you think. It seems like there is always a new revelation about yet another fuck up. Yesterday it was a park in Emma Acosta's district. And some street stuff. And some financial stuff. Basically the last couple of months have been a parade of a lot of stuff going on at city government that is essentially failed government. The funniest part is to watch them try to blame the pervious administration for screw ups because many of the current reps are more concerned with looking good rather than actually DOING good. But that is another post for another day. The reality is that a lot of them are in a tough spot because they don't want to blame the current city manager because you know, they dropped a big ass raise on him like a GI in a str...

There's a big fundraiser event today for former Congressman Pete Gallego. Want to know how serious the Democratic Party is about winning back the seat? This is how serious - the fundraiser is being headlined by Congressman O'Rourke and former Congressman Reyes. I know, the invitation looks chafa and was probably done on Word (giggle) but nonetheless it's interesting to see Gallego transcend the local feuds. ----------------------------- Adolfo Lopez, candidate for HD 77 is also having a fundraiser this evening. He is squaring off against Lina Ortega in the Democratic Primary to replace State Rep Marisa Marquez who is leaving the legislature and has joined Forma Group officially in the capacity of client development. Forma is handling Lopez's campaign. The fundraiser is behind hosted at the home of former Republican State Rep Dee Margo.  This should surprise no one. Margo, like many Republican businessmen in El Paso, gives to Democrats from time to time.

Former State Rep Inocente "Chente" Quintanilla has officially filed to get his seat back from current State Rep Mary Gonzalez in the Democratic Primary.  I know, you thought his name was Vicente.  The two have both represented Texas House District 75 in the last few years.  This race is going to be another proxy war between TLR and TTLA and both candidates have already started littering the valley with their gaudy campaign signs. Expect lots of mail sent out in this one. (Photo stolen from George Ybarra)

The filing period has begun for candidates seeking office in the March Texas Primary. So far no surprises. Follow this link for a list of candidates that have filed. I'll save you the trip, so far its just been a couple of incumbents and constable candidates. The only real contested race so far is the District 77 race, which is the race to replace out-going State Rep Marisa Marquez who is now, as has been publicly reported, working for Forma Group. Frankly there are really only going to be a couple of interesting races this cycle. Unless the judges get opponents, and trust me when I tell you that a few of them are ripe for the picking. If there was ever a time a lawyer wanted to think about taking out a judge, this is the cycle to do it for a few of them. More on that later. Other than the District 77 race the only other races that people are going to pay attention to are the DA race and the Tax Assessor-Collector. And when that race is EVER mentioned as a race people are going to...

A conversation and disagreement with a fellow activist the other day inspired me to write this piece. We were at an event for a cause we both support and there was an elected official speaking. My activist buddy starts heckling the elected. After the event we spoke about it and my buddy thinks its important to hold elected accountable to what they say. I obviously agree with that sentiment whole-heartedly. But where we differed was the need to go after an elected that has been an ally to the cause. My belief is that electeds that are allies to your cause need to be supported, not heckled. I feel like the ones that should be heckled are the ones that aren't around and never do anything. That is who we should be kicking in the ass to do more. My buddy's belief is to demand more from allies and the ones that don't do anything. I guess we are both right and we are both wrong. But that really isn't the point. It got me to thinking about leadership in El Paso. And it reminded...

To my fellow veterans, Happy Veterans Day. Kick back, enjoy a good meal, drink a cold one, and reflect on your service. Huah!

You memmer that commercial?  Spike Lee and Michael Jordan. Ring a bell? The commercial tried to explain how His Airness could jump so high and play so well. Now I've only played pick-up basketball with a couple of elected in town, but Rep Svarzbein wasn't one of them. So I can speak with any authority has to his hops, handles, or his jumper. But I will say this. He has good taste in basketball shoes. Svarzbein is a shoe fanatic. I mean seriously I think he could make a Kardasian say "chingao that's a lot of shoes". He also has a freakishly deep knowledge of classic hip hop.  So in a throwback to the old commercial Rep Svarzbein not only has Spike Lee glasses, but also has the cool shoes. 

We so often hear about Mayor Leeser's mom. Rhoberta has been a fixture in local commercials for years. She's been telling us that her son is "such a good boy" for a long time. But I don't recall ever hearing about his father. Well today is his day. The Mayor's father is a World War II veteran. There aren't many of those around anymore.  So good for the Mayor, he used a little personal privilege to introduce his dad.  It's good too see him recognized and it's pretty cool that his son was able to do so.  Turns out, he really is a good boy.

Its the story that just won't die. City Rep Larry Romero and yet another issue dealing with street projects and the city manager. Cindy Ramirez of the El Paso Times did a really great piece on this issue in the El Paso Times over the weekend. If you missed it, click here . The piece raises many concerns not only with process but with the relationship between Romero, who championed a huge raise for the City Manager, and the City Manager that always seems to pop up when there is a street project that needs to get pushed through. It also raises major red flags about transparency at city council and that is something the city reps need to not stick their head in the sand about. They need to deal with that issue right away, but more on that in a minute. Lets start with this. Why in the blue hell is City Rep Romero even weighing in on a street project that is not in his district? Other than the fact that he went to Cathedral, why is this an interest for a city rep that doesn't live o...