El Paso Politics

I got a phone call from Thomas Dorman who asked me if I'd participate in a fundraiser for charity.  His idea was a boxing match between myself and Ali Razavi, the guy who can't come to grips with the fact that his name isn't really Max Powers. I guess this stems from some post he put on his blog about me blocking him from Twitter.  What a fucking baby.  His little feelings got hurt because I blocked him?  Then I'm told he followed by posting a screenshot of County Judge Veronica Escobar having blocked him from Twitter. I guess that is somehow the ultimate dis for children his age. Frankly, I'm surprised the judge hasn't taken some action with law enforcement based on how much he has harassed her. Especially after that last email he sent her. So maybe Ali should just count himself lucky that all he got was blocked. SPOILER ALERT - he's probably going to post everyone who has him blocked. If he did that every day, he'd have nothing else to post between now...

No predictions other than to say that two of the three major local races will be really close.  The Tax Assessor race doesn't seem like it will be close but truth be told, that race was over a long time ago. The wrong campaign got tapped and there were several really big and expensive mistakes. That was a winnable race too. A reflection of the campaign team as much as anything else.  Unless Rocha somehow pulls out a miracle.  In the DA race, what can I say that you don't already know? An incumbent in a run-off is usually in trouble and almost never win. If the DA retains his seat, it will be the campaign effort of the last decade, if not longer. Right now, Rosales had a lot of advantages and the race was hers to lose the minute she made a run-off.  For the 8th Court of Appeals I'll be straight up with you all, I voted for Palafox. Ramirez just does not have the temperament or respect for due process during her time as a municipal judge, to have earned my vote. But I'...

So I was told that Ali Razavi sent a pretty nasty email to County Judge Veronica Escobar over the weekend which represents a new low even for a guy who was circulating negative stories about his then-boss while he was working for her and very happily continuing to take a pay check for being her employee. But if you know him, that shouldn't surprise you. The guy is a walking hypocrite. The email came out the night that the Siria Rocha story came out, in fact just a few hours after the information was dumped to local media but before it had been published. Now for a long time Razavi has really gone out of his way to pretend that Razavi isn't connected to Forma, even having gone so far as to write about it a couple of times to dispel the allegation. Why? Because it was hurting Forma candidates because the donors were getting pissed. Rocha was at one point in this election cycle, a Forma candidate. Since Marisa Marquez is the talent scout for Forma, she would no-doubt have a relati...

According to documents obtained through an Open Records Request, County Tax Assessor Collector Candidate Siria Rocha was apparently reprimanded for several serious issues, including something she accused her opponent of doing in multiple pieces of campaign material, while she was an employee at the County.  A resident of El Paso County, Joachim Schalk, requested documents relating to reprimands of Siria Rocha while she was an employee of the County of El Paso. Rocha was allegedly reprimanded for issues relating to asking an employee to check a license plate for her personal use, misuse of county resources, job performance failures, sending sexually explicit emails, her behavior with co-workers, and ironically, campaigning and soliciting contributions on county time.  The 56 page documents contains several “exhibits” including emails containing pictures showing both males and females in various stages of nudity, male and female genitalia, and one photo of a male performing fell...

Important election for the 8th Court of Appeals and the District Attorney's races.  Oh yeah, the Tax Assesor Collector is on the ballot too. It's not important, but if you're voting anyway, you might as well vote for that one too.  So go out and vote today or Tuesday and take some friends and family with you. I'm talking to all of you reading this. Be a good citizen and go out and vote! Except you Jesse Gandara. You can't vote.  Ya no llores!

For those of you that don't know, written campaign material that you get at a polling place, mailed to your home or left on your door is referred to as "lit".  Short for "literature", which is a bit misleading because they often aren't finely crafted prose. I was all set to write about the negative piece the Yvonne Rosales campaign sent that landed in mailboxes yesterday against her opponent, incumbent District Attorney Jaime Esparza until I saw the piece sent out by Ruben Gonzalez. Gonzalez is in the runoff and he's facing Siria Rocha for the Tax Assessor Collector seat Gonzalez was appointed to by Commissioners Court. The first thing I thought of when I saw it was "gacho"! Here's a look at the English version of the piece. I was sent the Spanish version, probably because I live in the valley. I point this piece out because it's an example of how if you aren't careful, sometimes your lit becomes a boomerang.  A while back I wrote a...

According to one community activist, former City Rep Ann Morgan Lily has been acting as a political operative in an effort to garner public support for embattled city manager Tommy Gonzalez, apparently going so far as to encourage and prepping people to speak during public comment against newly-elected City Rep Jim Tolbert and in favor of Gonzalez.  Lily has also been making a series of public information requests lately, again in an apparent effort to shore up support for Gonzalez.  "She called me and told me to talk bad about Jim...she really wants Tommy to keep his job...when I found out he (Tolbert) used to be a priest and is a really good person, I changed my mind and didn't speak bad about him, but she (Lily) was trying to get me to..." swim community activist Sarah Garcia stated in a phone interview yesterday. "They played me for their own agenda because they knew how much I cared about getting the pool." she went on to say. Garcia has been a pivotal memb...

For those of you that think that paving roads and Gandara-like credit card purchases is just something that happens in Socorro, you should watch this story done by Maria Garcia from KVIA on P-cards.  Those are cards that are funded by taxpayers and issued to city council representatives and their staff members intended in lieu of petty cash.  The web story is VERY different from what was aired last night. Mostly because in the story that aired last night there was basically no discussion about what the Mayor's office spent on the cards. I'll get to that in a minute, but before I do, let me cover a couple of other things. First, the story mentions Rep Svarzbein as having spent the least amount of money in 2015, which is the year they compiled data for in the story. Well I should hope so, he was only in office for half the year! Put that in the "duh" category. Had you extrapolated his spending out over a year he wouldn't have been one of the lowest, but he certainl...

There are two types of bloggers in El Paso politics. Me, and those that blog about me. For some unknown reason David K has decided to drag me into his little Uber debate. I've watched it from afar but haven't commented on it because I don't really know much about it, other than David K appears to completely misrepresent what Austin's vote was really about. But he was on the losing side of that vote so that doesn't surprise me. Frankly, I don't really care much about the Uber debate because I don't take uber and I don't take cabs. I'm a regular guy, so mass transit doesn't scare me one bit. I enjoy it actually, ask anyone who's ever heard me rant about how great it is. So let me cut right to the chase. The reason DK won't stop talking about Uber is because he represented them in some fashion here in El Paso. I assume he got paid to do so, but I'm not entirely sure. But I know for a fact he was setting up meetings with members of variou...

Here are a few notes of talk around some city races that are on the horizon. By now you've all probably heard the word that Dee Margo, a former Republican state rep is going to run for Mayor. Forma once again is dusting off an old candidate and trying to resuscitate their career. Sorry but he might be loaded and all, but too many people remember he's a Republican. Yes it's a non-partisan race, but he has to wear the GOP brand all over him. I just don't see how even Forma thinks he's viable.  Personally I wonder if Shapleigh would come out of retirement to whack Dee Margo around one more time. Vindication from the EPISD scandal isn't a bad jumping-off point for a campaign.  There is also talk of Ted Houghton taking a stab at running for mayor, which would also be interesting. Since Emma Acosta isn't viable, never has been to be honest, but much less so now that she's and Noe are so closely connected to Tommy Gonzalez and Larrt Romero, you wonder if there ...

Mistakes happen in every campaign. But like I have been saying, a particular campaign team is more of a liability than an asset.  Ernesto Bustillos and Josh Dagda have apparently struck again.  D'oh! Fresh off of a campaign in which they struggled to reach 15% despite having endorsements from major community leaders, the newspaper, and a fundraising edge on the last report for a Latina candidate in a border community, the dynamic duo have apparently struck again. This is an expensive mistake too. And probably costly. The text messages and phone calls started coming in Thursday afternoon. When I got home I confirmed it by checking my own mailbox. What is the mistake?  Apparently most of the mailers that went out for Tax Assesor Collector Candidate Siria Rocha where addressed to the WRONG NAMES!  That is way up there with the time Forma sent out Tania Chozet's GOTV piece that landed after the election was over! Depending on how big her universe was, that cost a lot of ...

As I sit and ponder the thought of yet another Socorro City Rep accused of wrong-doing I start to think about Jesse Gandara. The life after being booted out of office by the people of Socorro has to be rough on the guy. He's probably never held a job. His wife is really the man of the house as the breadwinner, although that has basically always been the case as I understand it. He went from someone that ran the county's second-largest municipality to becoming not only the most hated guy in Socorro, but in the entire valley.  Hell, other Gandaras try to distance themselves. That damn sure says a lot. He's reviled for how he took advantage of his community under the guise of being a leader.  I bet one of the things he hates the most is the fact that the taxpayers are no longer paying for his douchey Starbucks drinks. That was one of his favorite things to do, get his Starbucks fix for him and anyone else he was with on the taxpayers dime. I bet he's also having a tough ti...

Embattled Socorro City Rep Sergio Cox was supposed to cooperate with an investigation being done by the City of Socorro into the process in which public funds were spent on paving street projects in Socorro where Cox has a financial interest in property.  The agenda item on last weeks regular meeting was to discuss the findings of the report but at the time of the meetings Cox hadn't given a deposition on the advice of an attorney. When pressed as to who his attorney was, Cox refused to give his name. Eventually he agreed to undergo the deposition the following day and so the agenda time was postponed.  In a not-so-shocking set of events, Cox was a no-show to the deposition. It appears Mayor Ruiz is going to call for another special meeting to deal with the issue.

I usually do a post after the election in which I break down the winners and losers of the election and the D2 special election had some absolute winners and losers. First, the winners are the people of District 2 who will have an actual voice on council that they haven't had since before Christmas last year. Good for them. Before I go further I want to explain something - Jim Tolbert's election was a mandate. There will be people who tell you that the turnout was so low that you can't call it a mandate, or that only so many people voted and that is hardly a mandate. Those people are stupid. Voters that don't participate are sending the signal that they are fine with whatever decision is made by the people that do vote. If there weren't, they would vote themselves. If you wanted to change the status quo or felt so strongly about who should win, then you should've participated. If you could vote and you didn't, frankly you don't matter. Okay, lets go to w...

Jim Tolbert won the District 2 Special Election with a mandate. It wasn’t even close. He won the overwhelming support of the residents of District 2.  Well the ones that cared enough to vote anyway. Grenada was less of a blow-out! This should send a pretty clear message to the few that think people don’t care about the mess at city hall or the job the city manager is doing. Its pretty clear they do care. The only thing close about the race is how little of a margin Cemelli De Aztlán had over Dolores Baca. It was shockingly close between the two all night, and Baca spent nothing on her campaign.  There’s no way to spin it - CDA’s campaign team was a complete and total failure.  Obviously CDA’s voting record, or lack thereof, was really a big factor as well.  I’ll do a winners and losers piece later but for tonight, the people of District 2 sent a very loud and clear message by sending Tolbert to city hall with such a huge margin.  Councilman-Elect Tolbert will be...

So last night at the Socorro City Council Meeting there was supposed to be a presentation of the investigation into how Councilman Cox got roads paved on a street he has property on without disclosing it to council.  But that didn't happen. Cox has yet to take a deposition. He indicated that he was instructed by his attorney to not do the deposition. So when he was asked by council who his attorney was, he refused to say who it was.  Which sounds suspiciously like he doesn't really have an attorney.  As if that wasn't silly enough, he then later agrees to do the deposition today.  So first his lawyer tells him not to do it, the lawyer he won't name, and then he agrees to do the deposition without consulting this magical lawyer? It's like the revived the political ghost of Jesse Gandara. Only in Socorro...

Probably one of the worst things a campaign consultant has done in recent memory happened when Forma Group, which had been hired by Peter Svarzbein decided to switch candidates and go work for the opposition in the same election cycle. Total dick move. Well it appears that may have happened again, but this time not involving Forma Group. Although in a strange twist of irony, the person who allegedly did it was part of Svarzbein's campaign when it happened to them. It all started with this screen shot I came across on social media last night. It obviously caught my attention for a couple of reasons, one because I knew that Daniel Lopez had a falling out with Nevarez and two, because I didn't know Josh Dagda had been hired to do Nevarez's social media and website. It also caught my eye because of how they both responded to it: I guess Dagda rethought his comment and he eventually deleted his comment. Dagda is now working for Nevarez's opponent, Cemelli De Aztlán. I inboxe...

The investigation into a street paving scheme involving embattled Councilman Sergio Cox is complete. It is on the agenda for tonight's meeting at city council chambers on Rio Vista in Socorro.  And if I'm reading the agenda correctly, it looks like they may be ready to move forward with action against Cox depending on the findings. As you may recall, questions have arisen regarding why certain streets were paved despite having almost no traffic. Cox has a financial interest in one of the properties located on the street in question. Several Socorro city residents are even raising questions as to how those roads ended up in the inventory of the City of Socorro in the first place because I'm the not-so-distant past, they belonged to private owners. Given the fact that Cox tried to resign as part of a deal during the last special meeting it would not surprise me if he resigned, was recalled, or removed based on the findings of the investigation.

Props to Nacho Garcia.  The vato says more than I can saw in a week's worth of blog posts in a single image. The Force is strong with him.

I hate it when amateurs try to get ahead by bad mouthing people who actually know what they are doing. At the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend the President made a joke about some people not polling high enough to merit their own joke. Well the President is a better person than I. I personally LOVE to confront my haters. Especially because most of the time in person they are too chicken shit to say a word to me. Like Hector Montes for example.  But Hector is a post for another day. Along with the campaign he's consulting for in secret. Where was I? Oh yeah, amateur hour. So there's this wanna-be operative who's claim to fame is alleging she was a part of Forma group at one point and using that to get work as a block walker. Well she wasn't. She's block-walked for a couple campaigns. She's not a strategist. She's not a guru. She's a canvasser, at best. She's a good name-dropper, I'll give her that. But you know what she'...

If I were Cemelli De Aztlán I'd be raising hell about the fact that she actually turned her financial report in on time but the city clerk's office waited until almost the close of business yesterday to post it. It unfairly gave the impression that she didn't turn it in on time. And that is the problem that seems to be systemic at the city, simple jobs aren't getting done or are failing to get done in a timely manner. She should've taken a break from the special meeting for the municipal ID's yesterday and gone and inquired about why it was taking so long. Personally I don't think if I were running her campaign that I'd have her at the meeting all day long, along with several of the campaign team, effectively losing a day of productivity during early voting to be at a meeting that was just posted as a discussion item. Although now that I think about it, it may have been something they were really rolling hoping they could capitalize on. Her campaign guy ...

Its somewhat surprising, through it shouldn't be considering this is El Paso, that six of the eight candidates to replace City Rep Larry Romero who had an ethics complain filed against him, are themselves not compliant with campaign finance reporting rules. Or at least it appears so based on this screen shot. Abraham Monteros, Gordan Thatcher, Angel Del Toro, Rene Abilez, Cemelli de Aztlán, and David Nevarez all failed to file an 8-Day report with the City Clerk's Office. You can file on-line so the Clerk's Office doesn't need to be open to file the report. Its possible they were filed (they are time/date stamped) and haven't been posted by Richarda Momsen's office. So bear that in mind. But at a time when the electorate obviously has trust issues with their elected officials you'd think the candidates would be doing everything they can to comply with transparency rules. Particularly those that deal with campaign finance. Jim Tolbert and Dolores Baca were th...