El Paso Politics

Saucedo's campaign is the worst campaign I can recall in terms of communications - my only question is whether its intentional or strategic. He'd hardly be the first stereotypical politician to talk but never say anything. But he seems to have mastered that ability to master's level. But again, I don't know if that is because his communications consultants just really suck, or if its an effort to try to get media attention without actually taking a position. But if you read his statement, which I've provided in its entirety below, he doesn't actually articulate a stance. He never comes out and says whether he's for or against the wall and Trump's 20% mordida to pay for the wall. And yes kids, he even included another video. Frankly, I'm disappointed the lucha libre guy isn't in it, it would make more sense to be in this video. So since he never actually says what his actual position is, I'm gonna help you guys decipher it based on his previou...

Jaime Esparza declined to prosecute Father Time. Leeser shouldn't have called the cops because an old guy was disrespecting his wife. He knew they would respond because he's the freakin' mayor. He should have man'ed up and dealt with it like any other man would handle it when another man disrespects his wife. Seriously, if the mayor can't handle an old man, give me a break. Thats all I have to say about that.

In a pretty serious early blow to his campaign, District 3 candidate Jaime Barceleau will likely have to go before the city ethics commission and answer questions as to why he didn't file his campaign finance report on time. The complaint was filed by Cassandra Hernandez-Brown, a fellow candidate for District 3. The full statement follows (I drew attention to her quote by making it bold to make it easier to find). What makes this unique is that the ethics complaint was filed not only with the state, but with the El Paso Ethics Commission that is also hearing complaints against the Mayor and members of council for alleged violations of the Open Meetings Act and complaints against the City Attorney for not referring those complaints to outside council. Barceleau came in with the most amount of money by far. He's bank-rolled by the rich ruling class to a greater degree than any of the other candidates - to include the mayoral candidates. I think her quote summed up the situation n...

At this point, I don't care where they put the downtown arena. Its only a downtown arena because of an ordinance and that can be changed, so put it at Cohen stadium for all I care. But this is a post more for the activist community. There's an important lesson to be learned from this debacle. You can't have the moral high-ground and defend a corrupt process. The bottom line here is that the meeting in secret with the members of council, the mayor, and Grossman has poisoned the process. The big corruption scandal was called Poisoned Pawns, so this should be called Poisoned Process. The more that gets revealed about the events surrounding this meeting, and trust me there are more things that will come out, the more you can see just how shady it was. The Texas Rangers just don't investigate things for the hell of it, no matter what anyone else tells you. Obviously there needs to be a solution to the issue. No one wants little viejitas moved. So tell the landlords not to mo...

If Judd Burgess was paying attention to the meeting last night, then he knows all he has to do is slightly reword his ethics complaint to allege that there was an ethical violation or violation to the city's ethics ordinance and the Ethics Commission from the City of El Paso can hear his complaint that was dismissed by City Attorney Firth. If you want a good wrap-up of the meeting last night, KFOX did a good job of summarizing the meeting and you can see the report here . Basically, Firth was under fire for most of the meeting. The Commission was already deliberating some changes that they wanted to recommend to council and voted on those changes. What will be interesting to watch is how those recommendations are going to be treated at the council meeting in which they are to be formally adopted by city council. The very people that are going to be affected by the changes proposed by the ethics commission are the same people that will vote the changes up or down. You see what is go...

City Attorney Sylvia Firth's actions on the ethics complain make zero sense. Actually, before I go on let me make something clear if you haven't figured it out yet - Judd Burgess is taking a page from Jim Tolbert's playbook. He's using an ethics complaint to get in the public eye to launch his bid for Tolbert's council seat. Maybe that isn't is ONLY reason for doing it, but its certainly part of it. And that is how Tolbert got elected. Which I have to admit, is pretty ironic and kinda brilliant. So the whole, "arrest me" and ethics complaint stuff should be seen from the lens of a guy who is running for office and free press goes a long way for a political candidate. Kuddos to Burgess for doing more than just complain on social media, the guy went through the trouble of actually filing the ethics complaint. I questioned him as to why he didn't take it to the DA right away because he was alleging that council actually broke the law, but looks like i...

I'm just curious about something. A bunch of folks marched on Saturday to send a message to President Trump about how he treats women among other issues. Lots of female leaders from various sectors in town attended. Teachers and activists and union members and business leaders, lawyers, local celebrities, and yes, elected officials. I know my feed was full of pics and video of people from the march. So help me understand... If you were so motivated to march about those issues, then why aren't any of you pissed that Bernie Sargent, a member of a local government commission in El Paso, Texas, referred to two sitting members of council as "pussy's"? What am I missing here? Activism starts at home people you won't stand for Trump but you're apparently okay with it in El Paso...

In a conversation between El Paso County Historical Commission honchos, EPCHC Chair Bernie Sargent referred to two El Paso City Representatives as “pussy’s (sic)” according to a recent article in the El Paso Times .  That label was aimed at City Representatives Mike Noe and City Representative Carl Robinson.  Not sure what the ladies on the EPCHC or County Judge Veronica Escobar feel about how that phrase reflects upon the commission or the county, but it is certainly problematic for the duo of Max Grossman and Bernie Sargent.  Talk about making things a little awkward the next time he runs into those  gentlemen during lunchtime in the downtown area... The text messages were outlined in a story by the El Paso Times. Here is a screenshot of the part of the story that mentions them.  Sargent and Grossman were speaking about the  vote  to move the proposed arena from the Union Plaza area to the convention center site and Representatives Acosta and Ordaz v...

Okay enough with candidates that play dress-up. All hell is breaking loose at city council and its going to be a big couple of news days from what I've read so far. Talk amongst the media folk in town is about how they are all dropping open record requests at city hall. The feeding frenzy is about to begin and you're going to probably see a lot of city officials ducking and dodging the media. KTSM broke the story last night during their 6pm broadcast and they were followed by KFOX and the Times. Here's the story on KTSM and the Times because they seem to do the best job of putting it all together in a comprehensive manner. Am I the only one here wondering how stupid can members of council be at this point? Have you people learned nothing from Textgate? In fact, that may ultimately be an issue and I'll talk about that at the end so stick around. So now that you've read the stories, here are some things that stand out to me - intent, public perception, and City Atto...

David "There is no Tomorrow" Saucedo I feel a little bit like Nero fiddling while Rome burns for writing a blog about David Saucedo's ego when there is so much important news happening at the city with the arena. I'll get to all of that, so for now, fiddle I shall. Surely with all the consultants surrounding Saucedo there had to be a voice or two trying to save the candidate from himself. I've been around a lot of candidates and a lot of them have some pretty silly and narcissistic ideas run through their head. A good team will step in a save the candidate from themselves when necessary. But the fact that the video ever made it beyond a cocktail conversation gives you insight into just who David Saucedo is as a person. It tells you a lot about Saucedo. Mostly it tells you about his ego, his arrogance, and how he sees himself. He sees himself as some sort of hero. Like he's a costumed hero that is out to save El Paso. And that isn't just a crazy level of do...

Jaime Barceleau, candidate for El Paso City Council District 3 has failed to file the campaign finance reports before the deadline. Campaign finance reports are required by law for transparency purposes so that the voters have a clear understanding of who are the financial bakers of a given candidate.  Fellow District 3 Candidate Antonio Williams only recently filed for a treasurer and was not required to file a financial report during this period.  Cassandra Hernandez-Brown has filed her campaign report in accordance with the requirements set forth by the Texas Ethics Commission. Her reports indicates that she raised about $6,300 so far.  This screenshot from the City of El Paso website shows all of the candidates that have filed their financial disclosure documents and conspicuously absent is a report from Mr. Barceleau.  This is a screenshot of the candidates that have filed a treasurer so far. As you can see, Barceleau's name is present in this section.  Bar...

Well as if the Boys and Girls Club financial disaster wasn't bad enough for Saucedo's fiscal conservative message to voters... Take a look at how he's blown through his campaign cash. He better hope he hasn't tapped out his cash flow because he's gonna need a ton of it for mail against Dee Margo if he's smart - and he can't afford to blow it on consultants. Saucedo has basically spent the vast majority of his money on consulting fees and campaign video. How much? Well he spent a total $30,832.20 so far on consultants. That is about 64% of the total amount of money he raised and it was spent on a staggering 10 different consultants . That is a higher percentage of his campaign money than even Forma charges. But I guess its not so bad if it produces good results right? Well get ready to LOL! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the stupidest fucking campaign ad I've ever seen. I mean ever. Seriously, I didn't make this myself and I'm not screw...

Its shocking to me how little money there is in the mayoral race so far, which may be indicative of the fact that the money guys aren't happy with the field of candidates. There is a lot to go through with the campaign finance reports but the major headline is that Saucedo has the early money lead and is spending a lot of it on consulting fees. A lot. And City Rep Emma Acosta's campaign is in lots of trouble early. Basically she's broke and based on the news story I saw last night, it looks like she spent a lot of money on her fundraiser last night. Last night's fundraiser won't go on this latest report, but when you figure what she paid for the location, food, mariachis, etc she better hope she raked in the cash last night because her latest report shows she has around $700 left. That is an embarrassingly small amount of money for any race, in fact it appears to be the least amount of money on hand for any credible candidate for any of the city council races as wel...

New Balance shoe company called. They want their logo back. Actually upon further review... His logo looks like the New Balance Logo had an ugly illegitimate child with the Cuban flag. Maybe he's just a fan of Fidel Castro. I also think its hilarious that he had the nerve to put the phrase "Leadership you can trust" on his campaign signs. Pretty soon, you'll know why I think its hilarious.

The El Paso County Historical Commission is under fire as of late and you can see a couple of news stories on the issue done by  KVIA  and the  El Paso Times . According to both reports the EPCHC allegedly violated the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) when board President Bernie Sargent allegedly polled the members of the County Commission on their position toward the site of the proposed downtown arena. TOMA requires that if a government entity or body takes an action on an issue that the public be notified and it be done at a meeting open to the public. The action that was taken was to oppose the site of the city's arena location. They then publicly opposed the arena site and frequently used their titles as members of the EPCHC in doing so. Its pretty hard to see how this was not a BLATANT violation of the TOMA. And then... They participate in a meeting with members of council that appear to be trying to skirt the TOMA by rotating members of council participating in the c...

I know what you're thinking, that LionStar is just poking fun at one of those two Republicans running for mayor again . Well I'm not. Okay, I am. But I'm not making this up. You'd expect a fringe candidate or one of the crazies to hold a campaign reception and fundraiser at a place like Peter Piper Pizza. But in his effort to not look like an entitled wealthy white guy, Dee Margo is going to be one with the people and have a campaign reception and fundraiser at everyone's least favorite place to hold birthday parties for 5 year olds. Honestly, this is way out of Margo's comfort zone. Remember the last time he ran for a race this big he spent 3/4 of a million dollars so its a stark contrast for Margo to be holding a fundraiser and reception in a place that sells beer in a pitcher, has game tokens, a lot of kids running around. I think this raises a serious ethics question. Are those red tickets from skee-ball something that has to be reported as in-kind because t...

Let me begin by saying that I am a big fan of our congressman, but he doesn't have a snow ball's chance in Phoenix of winning a race for the United States Senate. I'll vote for the guy because its an easy choice over either of our two current senators, but he apparently hasn't looked at election math. It ain't gonna happen and he's going to be the next election cycle's version of Wendy Davis. That being said, he will shuffle the political deck in town in a big way. Basically the vacating of his seat will get a lot of people to toss their hat in the ring including a likely group of people like Mayor Oscar Leeser, County Judge Veronica Escobar, State Rep Cesar Blanco, and probably several more people that could be considered viable. And that is not counting all the crazies that will run. But Beto's jump may open up several other seats that will likely change the face of local government in a very meaningful way. So stay tuned because things are likely to g...

Shane Haggerty (L) - Andrew Haggerty (R) If you haven't figured out yet, the Haggerty's come in blue and red. El Paso's biggest political family has been a fixture in Northeast and Westside politics for years. In fact in some parts of El Paso, a Haggerty has represented the area in almost every single level of government including school board, constable, justice of the peace, city rep, county commissioner, and state rep. If we elected dog catchers, they'd win that election too. These days, most of the Haggerty's are Democrats and only one of the elected Haggerty's currently in office is a Republican. That would Andrew Haggerty, the County Commissioner that represents mostly the Westside and a sliver of the Northeast. The rest are Democrats. Commissioner Haggerty took a position on a meaningless resolution from Commissioner's Court the other day - I'll go on a my rant about resolutions in a minute - that President Haggerty of YISD disagrees with strongly...

I could make this really short and say that he won't win because he's white and Republican. But let me illustrate my point a little more clearly because the people blowing up Margo's chances of winning are comical to me. City Rep Cortney Niland was going to run for mayor and backed out at the last minute. I think she could've beat Margo. Yes, you read that correctly. The rep that almost lost to a weak candidate was a stronger mayoral candidate than Margo. Walk with me down memory lane for a moment, shall we? Dee Margo has run in a race that encompasses the entire city of El Paso previously. A little over a decade ago he ran against Eliot Shapleigh when the senator was politically at his weakest. At the result? Margo got his ass handed to him: He didn't even warrant getting an Adelante Con Ganas Award from Senator Shapleigh following the loss. Mind you, that was 11 years ago, before anyone really was introduced to Margo in the electorate. Now he's been a Republic...

check out KTSM website for breaking news story on Mayor Leeser considering a congressional bid. Very different from his mayoral race where he was last to enter the race. Details to follow.

One of the most annoying things about the City of El Paso under Tommy Gonzalez has been their refusal to take responsibility for their actions whenever there is a screw-up. And there have been lots of screw ups. But kudos to the El Paso Times and their requests for information from the City. The fact that the City of El Paso has screwed up so many times, just on releasing (or not) releasing information is a story that should bother all El Pasoans just by itself. Now add what they are finding. Remember when the City got scammed out of almost $3,000,000 as part of the Choo-choo Train to Nowhere? First thing the City did was point the finger at someone else and throw them under the bus. Not only did they do that, it appears they want to use that as an excuse to take over the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority. Right, because the City does such a great job running everything else it touches...A power grab? During this situation? Give me a freakin' break! Anywho, the CRRMA's di...

Man December really was a rough month for local politicos and several of them have done some really douchey things this month. Its been a Hall of Fame month for douchedom in local El Paso politics really. So it has necessitated a new poll for the biggest Douchebag of December. Your nominees are: Republican Mayoral Candidate David Saucedo - Talk about a douche! Been with an organization for the last decade but says he was "blindsided" by their economic collapse. The day before he was dodging media because of the story but the following day he sends out a press release to try to change the subject. He was critical of council for changing the venue, but was publicly thanked for his efforts in supporting a change of venue by Max Grossman. Only in El Paso. But what earns him the nomination is having a super-secret bunker of a campaign headquarters that has basically nothing on the walls, conducts an interview there with his two campaign consultants, dodges a question about the Bo...