El Paso Politics

Remember last year when everyone was sitting around waiting on big names to get into the mayoral race? What happened? The big name that announced early went on to win pretty easily. There was a lot of scrambling and maneuvering behind the scenes for an opponent but ultimately Margo was the big fish and despite everyone hoping another big name would get in, the mayoral race became a blow out. The race for congress is likely going to be the same thing. I get calls, tweets, texts, and emails from all over asking what the congressional race is going to look like and my answer is pretty simple - you're already watching it. No other major candidate is getting in, Cesar Blanco has shut the door completely on a congressional run - so stop praying the rosary that he'll jump in. This race is between County Judge Veronica Escobar and EPSID School Board Trustee Dori Fenenbock. I don't foresee any other major candidate out there that is going to get in the race. Sure, there's a coup...

My bad. I should've written this post a long time ago. I'm often critical of our local leaders because, well frankly - they deserve it! But I should give credit where credit is due. For far too long in the past, our delegation that represented El Paso was known basically for infighting and making fools of themselves. But now that the main culprits are out office, its about time that we had a legislator recognized for being effective instead of being recognized for being a Bum Steer or furniture. So props to State Rep Joe Moody for making a list for being a good legislator. We already knew that, but its nice that the rest of the state is catching up. Joe Moody, this week's Homeboy of the Week. (Moody has won a couple of times so far, he's quickly becoming the Alec Baldwin of the LSB)

This political cartoon in courtesy of Steve Hern .

As I mentioned previously Commissioners Court lack of action on the jail contract has a lot of really surprising revelations about some of our community leaders that advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. Frankly a lot of it has been missed, so I am going to do a deep dive over the next few days going over what statements have been made regarding local leaders saying out of one side of their mouth that they oppose SB4 but in practice they further Trump's vision of the border rather than combat it. The fact that they have issues within their control and kick the can down the road is disappointing and shows politics and emotion are more important at times that the human being being affected by their inaction. Lets start with Sheriff Wiles' opposition to ending the jail contract with the federal government in which El Paso County incarcerates more undocumented immigrants than another other county in the state of Texas. The lion's share of which are there for charges re...

Congressional candidate and former EPISD Board President Dori Fenenbock along with EPISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera were on KVIA's ABC 7 Xtra last night. It was like watching Donald Trump on Fox and Friends. There's a lot to unpack with this so let me get right to it. First of all, having the two of them on together on KVIA of all stations is going to draw criticism and KVIA should've known that was coming. Hell, I bet it would make a great ABC 7 Listens! To the best of my knowledge, I haven't seen them cover any of the stories regarding the travel scandal at EPISD, but they decided to do an Xtra on the topic. The fact that they had little (if any at all) coverage of the scandal and still do the Xtra on the topic completely blew up their upfront non-apology for having the audacity to put Cabrera on when his brother is the main anchor of the station. The said something about some sort of editorial firewall blah blah blah but the reality is his brother is the main anchor...

I’ve said this many times before but most of you didn’t believe me, so maybe now you will. We often disagree with out friends the most fervently on issues and this is one of those occasions. As much respect and admiration as I have for County Judge Veronica Escobar and Sheriff Wiles, I completely disagree with their recent action, or should I say inaction,  at Commissioner's Court.  This is a long post, but stick with me because there is a lot I'll be revealing that I think people may have missed. And there'll be a few parts to this conversation, so walk with me... I spent the last few days thinking about the events over the past two weeks, and as much as I hate to admit it, Trump’s vision of the border is winning, and our local leaders and advocates who are supposed to be on the frontlines of the “resistance” have let Trump define who we are. And sadly, we’ve had some pretty Trumpian policies in place like the detention of undocumented immigrations before he was even a can...

County Judge Veronica Escobar has stated that she's not running for reelection. So no reason to be coy about it, people only do that when they have a reason to, and in her case we all know what that reason is - to run for congress. There's plenty of talk about who is going to run to replace her but no one has really talked about the ramifications of her impending resignation so lets lay it out there. First of all, when she resigns it will be a decision of the entire court as to who her successor will be. No matter who that person may be, they will need 3 out of 4 votes of the remaining court. So it will be very difficult for Judge Escobar to really line someone up to replace her - so David K should probably not throw around Susie Byrd as a viable option just yet. But think about what that really means to the Court. Generally they don't pick someone with aspirations to run for the office, although there is nothing that legally prohibits it. There are at least two members of ...

Have you seen the El Paso Times' latest investigative piece on travel involving the EPISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera's extravagant travel? If you haven't, you should click here to read it . I don't know what is more frustrating about the story, the fact that he doesn't seem to care what he spends, the fact that Dori Fenenbock doesn't seem to care either, the fact that Bob Geske didn't fucking know about it, that Chuck Taylor not only knows about it but has the absolute dumbest justification for it in the history of dumb shit said by a school board member, or that they wasted time on some AIPAC meeting. I know, that was one hell of a run-on sentence. But there's a lot to unpack here, so walk with me. First of all, expect David K to have a total meltdown over this story because Dori Fenenbock is white and David K not only loves to defend white people, but white people his family has close ties to. Moving on, lets make sure we have a little reminder about ...

It looks like David K's political boss and close family friend Jim Tolbert as given the Juice his marching orders. Expect David K to be 100% in the pocket of Dori Fenenbock from here to Election Day. It'll be all Dori all the time. Because his daddy said so. This is why David K is always talking shit about Susie Byrd and why he's straight-up obsessed with her and I lately - because Susie ran his opponent's campaign and because I didn't lie and tell everyone he's not under investigation.

The amount of money spent by EPISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera is obscene and there's no nice way to put that. He spent 4 times as much time out of the district as his counterparts. He spent twice as much as YISD and SISD superintendents COMBINED. And its not just that he's spending a lot of money, its how he's spending it. According to the story in the El Paso Times , Cabrera spent the money on First Class and Business Select flights, SUV car rentals and Uber rides in luxury vehicles. You the tax payers are funding his fun time. Look I'm not naive, a certain amount of travel is often necessary. People don't have a problem with that. But what they do have a problem with, and what undermines public trust, is when officials make bad decisions. Cabrera doesn't have to take First Class flights. He doesn't have to rent SUV's. He doesn't have to take Uber rides in luxury vehicles. He gets a salary, so the District doesn't HAVE to foot the bill every ti...

But I had a funny observation. The El Paso County Sheriff's Officer's Association spent a ton of money - I mean wasted a ton of good union dues - on trying to get rid of Sheriff Richard Wiles. And they talked a lot of shit about him on Facebook. And even more shit at the polling places. I mean a lot of shit. But after blowing all the money, they got their ass kicked. Which is why its funny to me that while I review the video of the meeting, its hilarious to me that the guy they spent so much time and money to destroy was the guy that stood up for them. I mean he's wrong as the day is long, but he's the one that went to bat for them. I think the jailers should form one big long ass line after their shifts to go and kiss the Sheriff's ass for going to bat for them, especially after the shit their leadership pulled in the last election. Sit tight, I'll have a detailed post with video showing how the Court failed this community. Stay tuned.

I know, I know a lot of you have been waiting around for the election post. Sorry, got busy doing other things. Winners & Losers - well you know the election results but there are always some extra important results that have a little more to talk about than others. Before I get into that - this is a note for candidates thinking about running for office in El Paso. When you hire a consultant or a firm, you better make damn sure you're the only client, or at least the main client. If the candidate isn't 100% focused on your campaign, don't pay them. Seriously. I mean that shit. Pay attention. Don't pay them! You might as well light campaign checks on fire. Okay lets get into it... This election cycle was mostly full of beat downs. 8+ points is a solid victory but double digits is a beat down. Anything in the teens and above and its a wipe-out. Most elections were around the neighborhood of 60-40 - a 20 point margin is usually unthinkable but happened a lot this cycl...

I have a lot to post about how our leaders let this community down on Monday at Commissioner's Court. Trust me, I have a lot to say about this and how some of them are flat out misleading the public. I have a lot to post about the election. Winners, losers, and sprinkles. I have a lot to post about the congressional race coming up. Someone else is trying to mislead people. But for now, all of that can wait today. A very tragic accident occurred recently and a good guy, Alberto Halpern, is in critical condition. Sometimes politics needs to take a back seat. Y'all say a prayer for a genuinely decent human being. Worked with him when I was a staffer and he was a reporter. When he was a staffer and I was doing my day job. Drank some beers with the guy. Seriously a decent human being. Oh, and treasure your loved ones - things like this are never planned or expected.

For the most part, despite what people campaign on, local government is pretty mundane. You don't really change the shape of people's lives in a way they "feel it" very often. Most days are pretty routine.  But today is different. Today is the day where Commissioner's Court discussing the continuation of a bad policy that directly contradicts our collective values of opposition to things like SB4 and a border wall.  Today is pivotal and is one of those rare  opportunities  where local government has the opportunity to make REAL and MEANINGFUL change to policies that should eat at our collective conscience.  An  article in the El Paso Times over the weekend really puts the importance of this issue into perspective because it outlined County Judge Veronica Escobar's likely congressional bid along with Commissioner's Stout and Leon's interest in running for County Judge.  Depending on how things flesh out today, all will likely be impacted by today's ...