El Paso Politics

Here is video of two of the District 2 candidates - City Rep Jim Tolbert and Alexsandra Annello squaring off at the Black El Paso Democrats meeting last week. I am trying to get as much video of candidates as I can because I know most of you don't have the time to attend candidate forums regularly. If you're wondering why its only the two of these candidates, its because none of the other candidates show up to anything. Some quick analysis here - Tolbert seems pretty indignant about the investigation he's currently under, that much is clear the minute he starts speaking. He pulls an Acosta and says something that is pretty freaking unbelievable. He says, "the fact of the matter is that I am accused of listening to people." Uh, no. You are accused of breaking the Texas Open Meetings Act by having a closed door meeting that allegedly involved a rolling quorum in which you are accused of deliberating behind closed doors. Not listening to people. I left the camera run...

I know, its kinda weird. I've seen it, so you can stop sending me screen shots of their respective pages. Dr. Noe has a full-on bromance with District 7 candidate Henry Rivera-Oaxaca. He even has Henry as his profile pic. I've had my dad, Vicente Fernandez, and Cesar Chavez as my profile pics, but I can't think of any other vato I've had as a profile pic. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean me and Vince are cool and all, but I'm not making him my fucking profile pic. But I'll address what everyone is whispering...why is Noe going all in for an opponent to one of his colleagues on City Council? Well its not a new thing. Dr. Noe doesn't like Limón and its boiled over to a really weird level. To the point that it involves Snapchat. I'll get to that in a minute... Dora Oaxaca is Henry's new wife. Dora, who elected all of the Gandara's in Socorro, also helped Dr. Noe in his first campaign and was getting paid by Dr. Noe while working...

He's called himself a progressive and a populist. He's tried to brand himself as several different things during this race, including your "average El Pasoan". He's called himself everything but what he is, a wealthy Republican born into privilege with every advantage in life handed to him. I guess thats why that boxing commercial he did was so funny to me. Boxers come from the streets, not private school. That guy has probably never been in a fist fight in his life. Truth is, he's had every advantage in life handed to him. The average El Pasoan wasn't born wealthy with a silver spoon in their mouth nor spend their youth in fancy private schools. But that is the truth according to David Saucedo. To his credit Saucedo did an extended interview with me the other day and I challenged him on every position and contradiction I've written about since he announced. He took it like a man and didn't duck or dodge a single question. Didn't answer a few, ...

"Transparency is obviously very important." These are the words that were actually uttered by City Rep Emma Acosta at the Tejano Democrats candidate forum the other night. No seriously, she really said that. Emma Acosta, yeah, her. She really did. No, I'm not joking. I'll post the video later, but I assure you, she actually said it. This link takes you to a story about City Rep Emma Acosta's agenda item , done with the help of her advisor and campaign consultant Dora Oaxaca, in which she led the effort to try to limit members of the public having access to public documents. That is not showing that transparency is very important to Rep Acosta. As a result, the City of El Paso was nominated for an award. The award is called the Golden Padlock Award and is given to the "most secretive government agency or individual in the United States". We didn't "win", but she was a major reason we were nominated for it. And she has the nerve to say transp...

Damn, Dr. Noe is gacho! The fancy light-up sign at his practice on the Eastside has Dora Oaxaca's husband's campaign logo. As you know, she put her husband up to run against Noe's colleague Lily Limón. Zas.

Jaime Barceleau came across extremely rude last night at the Tejano Democrats endorsement meeting. Yes, he was heckled, yes some of the old fossils in the back of the room were obnoxious, and yes, Michael Patiño is obnoxious and wasn't even a member, and yes Barceleau was actually correct, but rule #1 in politics dictates that before they shall vote for you, they shall like you. Boy did Barceleau screw up the arena question with this audience! By now as a candidate, and as a freakin' adult, he should know that you don't treat people the way he did. I don't know if it was because he was cranky because of the heat or what (his poor wife was fanning him during the meeting), but he came across as a total jerk. So people ended up getting a look at the real Barceleau. I know what you're thinking...Jaime just doesn't like Jaime for some personal reason that he keeps alluding to but hasn't said yet. Well you're right, I don't like him and every time he says ...

Recent Republican candidate for sheriff Tom Buchino announced the other day on his campaign page that he was endorsing District 7 candidate Henry Rivera. Buchino was strongly backed by the CLEAT unions for sheriff to unseat incumbent Sheriff Richard Wiles. Wiles and Rivera served together in EPPD for many years. So they have something in common now other than their years of service in protecting our community...neither of them were supported by CLEAT. Its particularly interesting when you consider the fact that Rivera was, until very recently, an officer in the organization and ran the PAC. So Buchino reached out to all of those union people that supported him - despite the fact that the union didn't support Rivera. They endorsed a friendly incumbent, City Representative Lily Limón. What's the phrase I'm looking for here...help me out...oh yeah! I remember! "All those badges can't be wrong..."

Here is video of the mayoral candidates at the Black El Paso Democrats forum and endorsement meeting last week. That was the longest forum I've ever been to. It may still be going on for all I know, I left at 11:00 last week and it didn't look like it was done yet. Here's video of the three major candidates for mayor. So here's a quick run-down of what they all said. Saucedo sounded like Howard Dean and Donal Trump had a baby. Yelled a lot and spoke about making history and prosperity for El Paso. It was very "Make-El-Paso-Great-Again". Prosperity for all! Acosta sounded terrible. She fumbled her opening and most of her answers were terrible. But take note around the 5:00 mark of the video. Its pretty interesting how she characterizes her retirement settlement deal. She makes it sound like she was fighting for women, which as I understand it, is complete bullshit. Dee Margo, and it causes me physical pain to admit this, sounded the most prepared. Don't tak...

Ah yes, the team at Forma Group is at it again. Way to go, I knew you guys wouldn't let Jaime Barceleau mailing outside of his district go unchallenged. Way to one-up him...you guys mailed outside of the state! Thats definitely an innovative GOTV strategy...

Socorro City Rep Maria Reyes successfully led the ouster of Mayor Gloria Rodriguez last week through manipulating two other members of council.  Some of you may have seen the media accounts of what happened but I'll fill you in on some of the important details that have probably not been reported widely. No matter how you slice it, Reyes has dragged Socorro backward, cost tax payers $20,000-$25,000 and has contributed to the stigma of Socorro politics. Why? Because she wanted payback. No amount of explaining from her will make the facts any different. And here's how you know its just another Socorro movida... First of all, who put the item on the agenda? It wasn't Reyes, it was Rep Yvonne Colon-Villalobos. Reyes had to be the person to "second" the item in order to get it on the agenda. She originally didn't want to and was trying to get another rep to do it. Why? Because she knew if it came from her everyone would know that it was her personal beef. And while...

Be cool. I'm working on the video from the Black El Paso Democrats Forum and I'll post it later - along with some video from the NE Business Association. It's a lot of stuff and needs to be cleaned up. All the major mayoral candidates attended last night and I got some good video. Including all the D3 and D4 candidates were there and two of the D2 candidates. One little tidbit about Saucedo...a source high up in the Democratic Party tells me that David Saucedo's campaign was rejected by the Texas Democratic Party for use of VAN because of Saucedo's Republican voting record. The source tells me that his field organizer has two other municipal accounts on VAN for Jim Tolbert and Sam Morgan. So that looks like the Saucedo slate of candidates. Also, Max Grossman is still trying to strong arm candidates telling them all that he has 30,000 voters at his disposal. Someone tell Grossman to put down the pipe.

On the day of a crucial vote regarding funding of projects that El Pasoans need City Reps Emma Acosta and Cortney Niland were not in attendance. I guess Acosta thought no one was going to notice that she wasn't around for an important debate? And Niland...has she completely checked out? She's almost never at council anymore. She's really missed a lot of meetings. I thought Dr. Noe did a good job of using video to put his colleagues on the spot about on the one hand saying they support projects but then not willing to fund them. That is pretty much the problem with most members of council. -------------------------------------- Leeser's Media Item Really dumb move on the part of the mayor to put the item on the agenda having to do with the release of material. You can't single out a group of people when it comes to the application of a law. Treating media differently than anyone else that makes a request is shockingly stupid. My question is how bloggers would be trea...

I took video of the forum last night at the Northeast Business Association Candidate Forum for District 4. I'll edit the video and post it soon. Interestingly there was one little exchange at the end of the debate that may end up being pretty interesting when the KCOS debate airs. Jose Plasencia, the artist formerly known as "The Other Guy", alleged that Sam Morgan came out against Domestic Partner Benefits during the KCOS debate taping. That debate will be aired April 2. A source in the Plasencia campaign says that the Morgan made the comment on an unrelated question. When confronted about it, Morgan denied saying it and was pretty upset at being accused of discrimination as a black man in America. This will be resolved when the debate airs on April 2. Either Team Other Guy has to apologize to Morgan, or Morgan is going to have some explaining to do. So that will be interesting. But make no mistake, if Plasencia is wrong, he's going to owe Sam Morgan a really big apo...

I was at a forum last night and I met Elisa Morales. Before I go on, let me explain something really important. I don't agree with all of her positions. There are some based on my conversation with her and a look at her website, that I think she is completely wrong on. BUT...when I spoke to her I was thoroughly impressed with the fact that she's the only mayoral candidate that seems to have any solid understanding of policy. Smart, articulate, poised, and tough. I put my foot on the gas with her a couple of times on policy just to kick the tires and see how she would respond and she was extremely well poised and kept herself together. Usually when I press a candidate they either get pissed or they find the nearest exit. I think I'm voting for her. Not entirely convinced, but I'm about 80% there. She's way smarter than any other candidate I've seen in the mayoral race and seems willing to take a stand on issues, even if its the wrong stand, as opposed to someone ...

So by now you have seen that yet again, Socorro is going to be in the spotlight for their pendejadas. While the agenda item has the name of Rep Colon-Villalobos, make no mistake about it, this movida is coming straight from City Representative Maria Reyes.  Rep Maria Reyes (Left) - Mayor Gloria Rodriguez (Right) And frankly, Reyes has come to embody everything that is wrong with Socorro politics. First, let me give you some background so you understand why Maria Reyes has become the way that she is. Reyes - to her credit - was the lone dissenting voice on a council that was corrupt even by Socorro standards. Little Jesse Gandara and his clique of mean girls changed rules, ordinances, and the charter to become a patchwork of rules that essentially made Reyes completely ineffective as a member of council. She was mistreated by them and pushed around a lot. But she stuck to her guns and for that she should be given credit. But that was a long time ago and shouldn't be used as an excus...

As I do every election cycle, I post any campaign announcement that is sent to me. So far this is the only one that has been sent to me so far, so if you want one post you know where to send it. I post them as a courtesy to all candidates.

Socorro City Council has an agenda item to remove the current Mayor Gloria Rodriguez from office in a special meeting called moments ago. The special meeting will be on Thursday. The current city representative Yvonne Colon-Villalobos for District 4 put an item on the agenda to remove Mayor Rodriguez. This is the product of a long personal dispute between City Rep Maria Reyes and Rodriguez. Reyes has been singularly focused on removing Rodriguez from office since she regained her seat. In Socorro the mayor has no real power. The mayor only votes during ties and can't put anything on an agenda unless they have permission from another member of council. Here is a link to the agenda .

There are conflicting stories as to what circumstances Oaxaca is no longer with the City of El Paso as a staffer for Mayoral Candidate Emma Acosta.  One story I keep hearing from sources in City Hall and former employees is that Oaxaca was fired. Its not clear why because even that theory has a lot of versions to it, none of which can be verified but are everything from being upset with her because she had her husband run against a colleague on council to allowing her to collect unemployment while she is able to campaign full time for Acosta and Rivera. So who knows… The other story floating around City Hall and political circles is that she wasn’t really fired, she was just put on extended medical leave. I haven’t heard any indication as to what the medical issue was, and frankly that is none of our business anyway, but one assumes if Oaxaca’s medical situation is such that she can’t work, then she probably can’t campaign either.  However, in an email I acquired Acosta and Oa...

Its one thing to make a mistake. Its another thing entirely to not learn from your mistakes, so I don’t feel sorry for the self-inflicted political wounds CLEAT keeps accumulating.  Although to be fair I should point out that the rest of their endorsements aren’t terrible. It makes sense that they would endorse Limón because she’s a friendly incumbent, Shane Haggerty because the Fire Fighters’ Association has endorsed him and he’s a union member himself, and Cassandra Brown is pretty liberal.  I guess thats why Saucedo’s endorsement is such a head-scratcher. Sure, its probably at least partially due to the fact that this field of candidates is the worst ever, which is saying a lot in El Paso.  But its also a tremendous slap in the face to Emma Acosta, who is an incumbent and has been on council for 8 years. If after 8 years on council and you’re the only active member of council running for office and the police that serve under you don’t support you, well thats just a pr...

Jaime Barceleau is a candidate for the District 3 seat being vacated by Emma Acosta. He is also a Democratic Party Precinct Chair for precinct 92. Precinct Chairs are supposed to be the most ardent party loyalists. That's why this sign in his yard is a little surprising. Seriously what was he thinking? As it is a candidate would be wise to stay out of other races, it just helps you avoid being tied to anyone else when you're trying to win an election. But when you're an officer in the Democratic Party and you're openly supporting a Republican? Tisk, tisk tocayo.

Well just when you thought Joaquin Castro's visit to El Paso was going to be a funny campaign troll move, O'Rourke completely snatched away his attention with a brilliant idea of doing a cross country buddy-cop movie with Republican Congressman Will Hurd. Its hilarious. Its the best bromance this side of Obama and Biden. I like the idea of two congressmen from opposite parties road tripping it and getting to see the back and forth is pretty interesting. Mostly mundane stuff, like normal people. They are running a little late for their vote at 6:00pm eastern, so watching them panic as they get closer to DC is going to be hilarious. I got them to play some Prince, so that was fun. Beto is trashing the back seat of the car with hamburger wrappers. Actually now that I think about it, its sorta like riding with me. Fast food and politics, which is pretty much any ride with me. Check out Beto's and Will's (I feel like I can call them by their first names now) respective Faceb...

In a surprising development, City Representative Lily Limón landed a key endorsement from CLEAT, which is the organization that represents the police and sheriff’s unions.  The endorsement going to Limón is a major blow to Dora Oaxaca the controversial consultant and recent staffer of Mayoral candidate Emma Acosta. Oaxaca, who was responsible for the political dynasty in the Lower Valley of the Gandara family (nearly all of which have been convicted of some wrong-doing while in office) has long had a very close and cozy relationship with the police unions. Her new husband, Henry Rivera, is the municipal police officers’ association’s money guy.  And he’s also the opponent of City Rep Limón. Limón has been the biggest political ally of the union on council and they were obviously in a tough spot with one of their own running against a very friendly incumbent.  I’ve known Oaxaca for years and its obviously always pretty difficult to know what to believe from what she says, ...

Today is International Women's Day and it reminded me of something. Exactly one year ago today is when City Rep Acosta had an agenda item to try to make the City less transparent. She wanted to restrict which members of the public could have access to their own documents. And why? Because she didn't like the fact that I had done a similar open records request of her office that had been done to other members of council's office. And lets do a quick integrity check...she looked me straight in the eye, and the news cameras as well, and said with a straight face that the agenda item wasn't aimed at me. With a straight face. She's running for mayor. You should remember that she did that. I know that there are two Republicans that don't deserve our vote, Dee Margo and David Saucedo, but Acosta is even less deserving of it. Just wanted to remind you of that. Something tells me you'll be getting lots of reminders about that.

Its gonna be a rough day for Rep Svarzbein because pretty much everyone thinks it was a knucklehead move to pull what he did on the agenda. It was bad enough that he put an item on the agenda that had no chance of passing, probably wasn't legal, and essentially did nothing anyway. Its worse to pull it when you get a little heat for it. Frankly, I was surprised that Svarzbein put it on the agenda in the first place considering the area he represents is probably the area in town MOST IN FAVOR of Trump's wall. At first I figured it was an attempt to draw attention away from the whole Texas Ranger investigation thing, or at the very least a move to try to garner public support. Boy did he mess that one up because he found the one way to piss off everyone on this issue simultaneously. The anti-immigrant pro-Trump crowd for putting the item on the agenda in the first place and the pro-immigration reform crowd by taking it off so fast. Take a lesson from others who love to jump on imm...

I've been having this conversation with a few of my activists friends, especially after they all found out about how much of a right-wing extremist Max Grossman is, about what it means to "stand with Duranguito". I get annoyed when I hear people talk about "selling out" instead of protecting abuelitas that live in the area. So here's my query to those of you who feel so strongly about those abuelitas in the area...what are you doing about the damn slum lord in Duranguito? See Grossman never talks about that. Why? Because like I said, he cares about the buildings, not the brown people. None of you cared about the area until Grossman started using abuelitas as human shields. The reality is that most of those abuelitas, if not all, are renters. They are probably on fixed incomes too. You got a slum lord who doesn't give a shit about people and poor people who are at his mercy because of their economic condition. At any point, those abuelitas could be kicked...

A few things today and I'll just put them all into one post. First, Dora Oaxaca isn't working for Acosta anymore at the city. There are conflicting reports as to whether she is taking a leave of absence to do campaign work full time, or if she was fired in an effort to get unemployment - while she does campaign work full time. Oaxaca was probably the highest paid staffer on the 2nd floor because she was getting paid by multiple reps and departments. So after the previous week in Austin telling anyone who would listen that she had no idea that her new husband was going to file and run for office, which those rumors started about 15 minutes after their Vegas wedding, she is now running campaigns full time. I'll bet next she's gonna tell people she's not helping her husband run his campaign... Speaking of her husband, the union finance guy is facing a friendly incumbent to the union in Lily Limón. Watch the union fuck this one up royally. They have been on a roll screw...

"When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state." - Max Grossman, quoting Euripedes. He was talking about Hillary Clinton, but in my opinion, he could've been talking about himself. Max Grossman's emails are the most entertaining thing around these days. He wrote another one and I have to tell ya, that guy has a Trumpian ego problem. Before I go on, let me explain that this post has one intent - to prove what I have been saying about Grossman all along, that he has been duping people (especially Chicano activists) into thinking he's someone he's not. I told you from day one that Grossman cares about buildings, not the brown people who live in them. So this post is long, but its because there's so much to show you, so walk with me. In a rant that you would think was straight from Donald Trump if Alec Baldwin were reading it off a script on Saturday Night Live, Grossman complains about elected officials, conspiracie...