El Paso Politics

There have been several staffing moves of interest lately so I thought I'd bring people up to speed of the staffing changes that I know of. The first one is Audra Tellez. She is no longer with State Rep Mary Gonzalez's office. She got bent out of shape over a piece I wrote about the fact that she was asking for block walkers for a Republican candidate. If she thought that posting something like that wasn't going to put her ex-boss in a tight spot then she's pretty politically naive. No one twisted her arm to post it but she had the nerve to get upset about it. I'm not sure how she figured that people not knowing she wasn't with Gonzalez's office anymore but still posting about a Republican candidate wasn't going to get noticed by Mary fans was gonna happen, but several Wiles supporters from the valley weren't happy about it and thats how I found out. SIDEBAR: This really goes for anyone that takes issue with anything I write. Next time you take issue...

A few folks I know that are Jewish called me about an ad they saw yesterday on the bond opposition page. They know very well that I am opposed to the EPISD Bond but they wanted me to see the image. I hadn't seen it until it was sent to me but they feel that the image is anti-semitic - playing on a well known stereotype about Jews and money. As you can see the image is stacks of money with EPISD Board President Dori Fenenbock's face on them and a play on words calling them "Fenenbucks". Its not the first time the page has posted an image of Fenenbock on money. Here is one from a couple weeks ago: I have no idea if this was done intentionally with the thought of being anti-semitic. I don't think the average El Pasoan knows Dori Fenenbock is of Jewish heritage and I don't think a lot of us in El Paso are well-versed on recognizing a Jewish last name. But I will also be the first to admit that if someone had done something that was a play on a stereotype of my cul...

The boys from the Sheriff's Officer's Association love to tag me on Facebook with updates from the Buchino campaign. But I happened to see this sponsored ad last night and it crystalizes how incredibly unqualified Buchino really is for the office. "If our taxes keep going up, then there are no savings!" That would be a great line if it were true! But it's not. That is the Trump-style communication playbook of saying something so ridiculously stupid and simple and hoping people will buy it. Mr. Buchino demonstrates very clearly in this post that he doesn't understand the mechanics of the county budget, much less that of the Sheriff's Office. First lets talk about cost-avoidance. Mr. Buchino fancies himself a businessman and should understand that cost-avoidance is a savings. Not sure if he actually gets that, but just about any businessman on the planet knows this. But cost-avoidance aside, Buchino doesn't understand that the county budget is more than ...

Leave it to Socorro to be the epicenter of crazy during campaign season. Not that that is anything new. Apparently Lorenza Fraire, the former city manager is running a slate of candidates so that she can get her old job back as city manager in Socorro. Leave it to Lorenza to single-handedly get all the campaign workers kicked out of Las Ventanas. And it's for the usual campaign stuff that happens every election. People are pushy with voters, they electioneeer beyond the area they are supposed to and stuff like that. So apparently Fraire's behavior was so egregious that everyone was kicked out. That location is private property so they can give people the boot any time they want to. But seriously, how annoying do you have to be to get booted in Socorro? Well the cops were called on Day 1 of early voting. And that ladies and gentlemen is why it's called Soco-loco.

I knew this was gonna happen and I got wind of it yesterday but I had to wait until the county released voter data today to confirm it. Little Jessie Gandara voted in Socorro. They have a mayor's race, councilman at-large race, and a city council race going on in the county's second-largest municipality. Gandara has a felony conviction and as far as I know isn't even eligible to vote anymore because of the felony. That apparently didn't stop him. There is also the sheriff's race to consider. Gandara HATES Sheriff Wiles. Any bets on who Gandara supported for sheriff?

The biggest argument for the bond by supporters is actually one of the problems with the bond. The argument is that its behemoth size (2/3 of a ba-ba-ba-billion dollars) is that there is tremendous need in the district in terms of infrastructure improvements. The problem is this bond doesn't distribute the funds equally. An editorial cartoon broke it down nicely by showing that a huge chunk of the money is divided into two schools, one on the westside (shocker right?) and Burgess. The remaining amount of money is split among nearly 80 schools. As I've mentioned, the district is contracting. Next door in YISD, a bond was passed in which the lion's share of the bond money goest to Eastwood High School. In fact the bond had to be revamped to account for the extra students in Eastwood High School. Where are the students coming from? You guessed it, EPISD. Burgess is actually closer to Eastwood High School than it is to Jefferson High School which is the next closest EPISD schoo...

The railyard is a bad location for the stadium because it screws the valley. The stadium doesn't have to be downtown. The ordinance language says it does, but not the ballot language. An ordinance can be changed, therefore council could decide that downtown isn't the best place for it. Frankly, it is the best place for it. Now back to the railyard. Union Pacific is willing to sell the railyard spot to the city but there is some major horse trading involved. In traditional form, it's a deal that would screw the valley. And that's not hyperbole, it would be a major screw job to the valley. Thankfully the two valley reps drew a line in the said and protected their constituents. At stake is a master plan that Union Pacific has for closure of 31 crossings. That is their ultimate goal in order to maximize the use of their fancy new Santa Teresa railyard facility. UP is planning to double, perhaps triple the train traffic in and out of the hub. UP is sort of treated like a pol...

Republican Sheriff Candidate Tom Buchino participated in the Ysleta High School Homecoming Parade. Buchino is in the cowboy hat and you can clearly see his campaign signs and Ysleta High School in the background. According to an internal document in the Ysleta ISD, the district's general council "reviewed Texas statute and determined that the candidate's participation in the parade was inappropriate and did not comply with Texas Education Code..." This however is not the first time Mr. Buchino may have violated the Texas Education Code that forbids Unlawful Use of Public Funds for Political Advertising (Texas Education Code 255.003). Earlier in the year Buchino participated in the Del Valley High School Homecoming Parade. Violators of this portion of the code are officers of political subdivisions or employees thereof that allow the Unlawful Use of Public Funds for Political Advertising and are guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. It is unclear if the participants (Buchin...

Hold your horses people, wait til all the information comes out before you start lighting your torches and finding your pitchforks. I still have questions about the ballot language and the ordinance language but that is sort of irrelevant at this point because the vote on Tuesday was a first step, not a last step. Now the city can start negotiating with the property owners for the parcels of land that they are wanting for the arena. Personally I think they are doing a terrible job of getting the facts out to the public and media, but the reality is this is really the first step and not the last. I think the city needs to clearly articulate what their plans are for each parcel of land and explain how many property owners, commercial and residential, we are actually talking about here. Eminent domain isn't at play yet. They are attempting to buy the property first. So there is a good chance that the homeowners especially, are going to make a bit of a profit. Maybe a handsome one. Emi...

I'm gonna make this quick because the downtown arena is obviously the thing every one is talking about lately. We have known there was going to be an arena downtown for years, since we first approved it. So issue number 1 to clear up is that council didn't just suddenly come up with this, we as voters approved this several years ago with the QOL bond. Issue number 2 to clear up is that it has to be downtown. It is part of the ordinance language. But.... Its NOT part of the ballot language as a friend of mine points out. Some will argue that ballot language is general because there simply isn't the space to put the entire ordinance language on a ballot so they just include the big stuff like amounts and what the projects are - you'll notice the Westside pools aren't mentioned by site in the ballot language either. So whether it indeed needs to be downtown is now in question. However I don't think that is the real issue at this point. Here is where the city gets i...

Republican candidate for sheriff Tom Buchino had a significant advantage in fundraising over incumbent Democratic candidate Sheriff Richard Wiles. Buchino raised more in one report that Wiles has raised in the entire campaign so far. In his last campaign finance report Buchino raised $40,583 and his total contributions for this election so far are at $58,571. The El Paso Sheriff's Officer Association and Municipal Police Officer's Association with are both mart of CLEAT contributed $14,500 on this report. When you add that to the $10,500 they have contributed on a previous report, that brings their total investment in the Buchino campaign to $25,000. That is more than they have ever contributed to a single candidate in an election cycle. For comparison, the unions gave more to the Republican candidate than the Republican Party of Texas, West El Paso Republican Women, Midland County Republican Women, and the Republican Party Chairman...combined. In the 30 Day report Wiles raised...

Sometimes I watch a story on TV and my eyes just roll in my head, but a recent story about Sheriff Wiles left me scratching my head. Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) has sent a letter to commissioner's court to ask them to investigate Sheriff Richard Wiles. Frankly it sounds more like the union wants the sheriff to do something that is impractical, inappropriate and probably illegal . I'll get to that later. Lets start with some context. The El Paso County Sheriff's Officer's Association is all-in for Republican candidate for sheriff Tom Buchino. To date they have donated more than $10,000 to Buchino's campaign, which is the majority of the political contributions he has received. Even more if you count the individual members of the union that have also contributed to his campaign. And that figure is just as of July. When the 30 day report comes out, the EPCSOA will likely make up an even larger portion of his campaign contributions. Thats imp...

In one of the most competitive congressional races in the country Texas District 23 Congressman Will Hurd has finally tried to put a little daylight between himself and the Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump following his comments about grabbing women by the genitals. That is commendable, but too little, too late. And frankly, the only reason he is doing it now is because Trump is tanking and he's likely to take Hurd down with him. The fact that Hurd has been so silent on his party's nominee's rhetoric is reprehensible when you consider the people of District 23. The district is almost 70% Latino. When Trump was making disparaging remarks about Mexicans and immigrants - silence was Hurd. When Trump implied that a judge wasn't qualified to hear a case because the judge's parents were Mexican - silence was Hurd. Congressional District 23 district has parts of two major military communities (El Paso and San Antonio) with over 45,000 veterans. When Trump mock...

I don't do much national stuff because there is plenty of that out there in cable land. But I'm writing this piece today because of an unexpected development. I have a lot of libertarian friends and they aren't going to like to hear this, but third party candidates proved to be a big flop. First, you need to know that libertarians love to paint themselves as some ideal best-of-both-worlds party that has the liberalism of social issues but conservatism of constitutional issues. That my friends is a bunch of crap. The reality is that libertarians differ on their views about national issues that are polarizing to the rest of us as much as any party does. Abortion is an example. Gay marriage is another, although on the whole they tend to be okay with gay marriage and take a similar position that I take, gub'ment don't belong in marriage. The universal truth about Clinton and Trump is that they are polarizing. That is to say they are hated a  madre. If there were ever a ...

A few things to cover so I wrapped them into one post. Trump Look, you all saw the video and heard Pussy-gate. He's imploding and lost a lot of support from GOP leadership. Since people got mail-in ballots last Friday, I thought Hillary Clinton missed a real opportunity to deal a death blow to Trump by going after him in the debate and making him lose his shit completely. I mean more than he did on his own. But she didn't and Trump was able to act like a fool, which is just the kind of stupidity that his basket of idiot supporters like. And instead of the Party just completely abandoning him and leaving him to hang out to dry, Hillary's lack of a death blow gave Trump an opportunity to try to find his footing again. People have ballots already in some states, including Texas. Its too late for the GOP to try to get another candidate. Had she dealt the death blow Republicans all over would've been screwed. Buchino I'm anxiously awaiting the campaign finance reports so...

So my buddy David K wrote yet another piece on his blog about how I am allegedly involved in a grand scheme to elect a mayoral candidate. If you haven't read that piece, stop what you're doing and click here so you can read it . Otherwise the video below will make no sense to you. He's convinced himself that there is a plot in place for myself and others to run a candidate for mayor. Here's what you have to understand about David K, the truth doesn't matter to him. He just wants anything that will support his narrative. Supporting his narrative is what is important to him. I found out about the post because someone sent me a text and asked me who I was running. He told me he saw it on The Juice, so I went and checked it out. It annoys me when he does that because we've known each other for going on 10 years and if he'd just ask me, I'd tell him whatever he wants to know. So I sent him a text and told him basically that it was well played. He wrote a piec...

(Editor's Note: This was posted on social media by Texas State Representative Cesar Blanco, who is my State Representative in the Texas House. I thought it was an important message and I'm reposting it here.) My grandfather immigrated to this country from Mexico in search of a better life.  A good education, military service and hard work allowed me to advocate for my community as a Texas State representative and as interim director for Latino Victory Fund. But it is my grandfather's sacrifice and the values my parents instilled in me that make me so proud to be a Latino and the grandson of an immigrant.  My story is similar to that of many other Latinos, who with blood, sweat and tears have persevered and forged a better life for their families.  Perhaps this is why when, during last night's debate, after Trump’s VP candidate, Mike Pence, dismissively said "that Mexican thing" as a way to avoid talking about his campaign’s behavior towards all of us, not just...

One of the strategies that the pro-bond people are utilizing is telling senior voters that if they are 65 or older, that their taxes for the bond won't go up if its approved by voters. I know because I did the same thing with the YISD bond. But they have to be completely honest with voters otherwise they are just preying on seniors that don't know the full story. (We - my block walkers and I - made sure we were completely honest with voters when we knocked on their door for the YISD bond.) They should tell them that their taxes CAN be frozen and won't go up, they shouldn't tell them it WILL be frozen and won't go up. If they haven't gotten the door knock yet, they likely will very soon, and probably some mail as well, that will tell seniors to vote yes on the bond and their taxes won't go up because of their age. But that isn't true. Unless and until those eligible seniors take the step of contacting the Central Appraisal District and apply for it, their...

I mean this with all sincerity, unless a better candidate gets in the field, I'm voting for Jorge Artalejo for Mayor. The reality is I don't see anyone else worth voting for right now. Dee Margo - A Republican that doesn't reflect the values of this community who has voted for a lot of bad things, most especially huge cuts in education. Emma Acosta - She has huge problems with transparency and has to wear her support for the City Manager and her defense of Romero all over herself in this election. Carl Robinson - He wouldn't confirm or deny the fact that he's running. Which means yes, he's running. Because if he wasn't he would've said so. Mayor Robinson...Jesus, really? David Saucedo - Never ran for anything before and he's most notable for trying to bring Lou Holtz to El Paso after very controversial remarks at the GOP convention and for going to bat for the city manager. The Rest of the Field - Yawn. There's really no one to vote FOR. There...

Take this with a grain of salt because its just things that I'm hearing and not anything that I have had a chance to independently verify but these three things have been floating around so I thought I'd mention them. Buyer's Remorse -  Word on the street is that Mayor Leeser is having a little buyer's remorse about not running for re-election. I've heard this rumor since they day he let it slip that he wasn't running for re-election. And this rumor has had a ton of different incarnations - everything from lamenting about it aloud, all the way to reconsidering his decision and getting ready to announce that he is going to run again. I don't know if that is true or not, but there are several rumors about Mayor Leaser's decision circling around El Paso politicos. Mr. Robinsons' Neighborhood - A couple of friends of mine went to a meeting in the Northeast this weekend and Robinson and Mayor Leeser were in attendance. According to the people in attendanc...

I'm an Arizona Diamondbacks fan and have been ever since my hometown got the franchise. As a consequence, the Los Angeles Dodgers are major rivals and I have learned to have that special place in my heart for the Dodgers reserved only for other things I don't like, like molé, macaroni and cheese, people who take too long to get to the point, people who talk too much, people who talk during movies, and the Dallas Cowboys. Just kidding, I don't hate anything as much as I hate the Dallas Cowboys. But, my dad was a lifelong Dodger fan and up until the day we got a franchise, I used to bleed Dodger Blue. I grew up in a great time to be a Dodger fan with a lot of great players like Steve Sax, Mike Scioscia, Pedro Guerrero and of course #34, the one and only, Fernando Valenzuela. We had Fernando Mania like you couldn't believe. Every Chicano kid that ever picked up a bat or glove in the barrio wanted to be Fernando. My kid brother would mimic his delivery for hours, only to ge...