El Paso Politics

I waited a long time to write this post because I have given it a lot of careful thought. This is one of those posts that I wrestle with and put a lot of time into, but will get less traffic than a post about kittens. The reality of the fact that we now live in bizarro world (politically speaking) were almost nothing appears to make sense and there is so much uncertainty was the reason I decided to go ahead and write my thoughts down about the local judiciary. Judicial races are under more scrutiny in this election cycle than others perhaps because of several factors in which the judiciary branch has taken a black eye in El Paso. That is why I chose the imagery I chose for this post - because ALL judges are being impacted by the actions of a few judges. We've all seen the video by Judge Bonnie Rangel that was part novela, part cheesy defense lawyer commercial, part self-inflicted campaign attack ad. Judge Mike Herrera had his own divorce in his own court for a very long amount of t...

The embattled utility and service provider in the Mission Valley that recently fired Jack Alayyan amid an alleged sexual harassment complaint has another controversy on their hands. According to sources, Lower Valley Water District is set to try to appoint a sitting board member to fill the paid position of General Manager, replacing Alayyan. This move is controversial because most boards across El Paso have rules restricting board members from becoming employees of their board for a period of time because of cronyism and conflicts of interest. The Lower Valley Water District does not have term limits and conducts their own elections unlike every other political subdivision in the County that relies on the County of El Paso to conduct their elections. As a result of a lack of term limits, there are board members that have been there since the founding of the entity. The board meeting set for Thursday at 6:30pm will be held at their main office on the Clint Cut-off. According to their a...

I don't recall ever seeing an alleged Democratic candidate attack a labor union and a labor leaders, but it apparently has happened. In a statement released on her campaign Facebook account Monday night, congressional candidate Dori Fenenbock attacked Ross Moore and the American Federation of Teachers following an email to AFT membership today from Moore indicating that Fenenbock was not competing for the endorsement of the labor union that represents teachers in EPISD. This is more than just an attack on one union boss or one union. When a candidate attacks one union, they are attacking all of labor. I'll get to the specifics in just a minute, but first I want to talk about two other things - people who should be embarrassed for supporting her and her hypocrisy. First, lets talk about the support. If you're a member of a labor union and you're supporting Fenenbock, you need to be asking yourself why at this point. Basically, I'm talking to the boys in blue that are...

An email sent out to membership today from AFT union boss Ross Moore today appears to indicate that former EPISD Trustee and congressional candidate Dori Fenenbock will not be eligible for the endorsement of the association that represents most of the teachers in EPISD. This issue has been a big deal because a close campaign figure to Fenenbock allegedly bragged about having the AFT endorsement in the bag. According to the email, screenshot below, Fenenbock failed to return the questionnaire to the AFT in order to be eligible for the endorsement. This is the part where Fenenbock's Spokesmonkey (not David K, the other one) comes out with a statement that says Fenenbock never received the email. That leaves the endorsement down to former County Judge Veronica Escobar and EPISD teacher/perennial candidate Jerome Tilghman. Tilghman is a teacher in EPISD but isn't a viable candidate for congress with no base, poor performance for nearly every office he's ever run for, is essenti...

I was at Demo HQ yesterday for the parade and several of us had a good laugh at the expense of David K. They all found it funny that the candidate that is trying really hard to get people to think she's a Democrat is so fervently being defended by the Republican blogger that doesn't even live here. I explained to them that DK's family money is maxed out behind Fenenbock, so he's obligated to support her. Think of him as her version of The Mooch. But I found out a few more things I wasn't aware of - one of which was the fact that NE Democrats accepted new members, and therefore the ability to vote, on the actual day of the endorsement. Every other Democratic club in El Paso has a membership deadline that prevents campaigns from essentially showing up en masse on the day of an endorsement to "buy" an endorsement. So as if leaking questions to Fenenbock in advance wasn't bad enough, and the fact that prominent members of the NE Democrats including the pre...

County Commissioner David Stout filed for reelection yesterday. It was a bit surprising because while I said a while back that he wasn't going to run for county judge because the support just wasn't there, he sent out a press advisory to the media that had language that gave every indication that he was going to run for county judge because he spoke about taking the lead on issues such as providing affordable access to healthcare, veterans affairs, economic development and other issues. It pissed off the media because he sorta tricked them into showing up for what would otherwise be a none-story. The problem is I don't think any of that stuff in his release is actually true. He wasn't even on the court for the vote to expand healthcare access through the clinics, that was Lewis. Lewis voted against that and it was probably his biggest political mistake and still something that can be hung over his head, but Stout can't take credit for it. I don't know of anythin...

Remember all that shit David K was talking last year? Remember how many times he said I didn't know what I was talking about? Remember all the times he said was stupid, I was involved in some conspiracy with Susie Byrd, the Loch Ness Monster, the Tooth Fairy, the Chupacabra, the Llorona, and all surviving members of the Jackson Five about a fake news investigation that according to him wasn't even happening? You memmer, memmer? He swore up and down that there was no investigation, he talked all the time about how no member of council had even been interviewed, blah blah blah. Well that allegedly fake investigation by the Texas Rangers was concluded and turned over to the District Attorneys Office . I'm sure now David K will come up with some story about how the Texas Rangers turning it over to the DA means that they found no wrong doing and are going to write apology letters to all the parties involved. Now for those of you that live in the real world, here is what the imp...

In a shocking development, the Northeast Democrats endorsed Dori Fenenbock for congress last night. Lol, JK everyone knew that was happening. Their president has been an open supporter of Fenenbock and has been featured on her social media several times. But was most interesting about the debate last night was that it came to light that there was a mini-Donna Brazille scandal involving the endorsement. Turns out Fenenbock was supplied a list of questions in advance, which even further undermines the credibility of an already suspect endorsement process. The revelation of the Fenenbock campaign being supplied the questions last night came to light when Fenenbock operative Chris Hernandez got upset about the questions being asked of Fenenbock and those being asked of Escobar, though he didn't specifically mention Escobar's name. To the surprise of most of the candidates and most of the attendees, including the president that was an open Fenenbock supporter and tried to give some ...

So there was an article in the El Paso Times about Carlos Sierra setting up a SuperPAC and its express purpose is to go after Veronica Escobar. I seriously can't believe that there are some of you reading this that still give that guy work. If you read the article the big take away is that Sierra is obsessed with a hit list of people he wants to take out. That says everything you need to know about that guy and why he's the ultimate villain in El Paso politics. He doesn't want to make El Paso a better place. He doesn't give a shit about policy. He doesn't want to build anything. By his own admission, he wants to destroy. And if you believe what a source has told me about that ugly robocall he was alleged to have been secretly behind, then the guy clearly will do whatever it takes, stoop to whatever depth possible, to destroy the people on his hit list. Maybe that is why everyone disavows the guy as quickly as they can. Like the kid with piojos in elementary school....

Two incumbent Justices of the Peace are going to be in a tough battle to try to keep their seats. Each of the male incumbents face not one, but two Latina candidates challenging for their seats. And in each race, the two Latina candidates have started campaigning early. Why is that significant? Because both of the incumbents won their races by taking Latina incumbents into run-off elections. Now both the incumbents are in the position they had the incumbents they defeated in. The advantage that both incumbents have, and Justice of the Peace for Precinct 5 John Chatman to a much greater extent, is name ID and money. But there are also some disadvantages the two incumbents have to deal with in this election. First, the fact that they are both facing not one, but two Latinas that are campaigning hard and doing so early. As incumbents, they have courts to run. As candidates, they had all day to campaign. Not so much anymore. If they are suddenly out of the office more than usual, it will b...

Cartoon by Steve Hern, https://www.facebook.com/steve.hern So, what are we all just going to pretend that EPISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera's little live-streamed taxpayer-funded temper tantrum wasn't about defending Dori Fenenbock? Let me get this straight, week before last there ends up being a big hub-bub about the AFT Union Boss Ross Moore coming out to clarify that despite alleged suggestion to the contrary, Dori Fenenbock did not have the support of the American Federation of Teachers in EPISD yet, and this week Juan Cabrera goes on the attack against Moore? And we are all supposed to believe that is just some sort of coincidence? Seriously that is one of the most blatantly obvious political moves to support the candidate that he allegedly was trying to help campaign, but then said he wasn't but now looks like he is... So now this has really gotta put the establishment Democrats into a bad spot. You have Cabrera attacking a union - and labor rights is a central part o...

Becky Bustamante is running for JP 4 on the eastside. I post any and all campaign event announcements that are sent to me. But a quick note about Bustamante - she is far and away the best candidate for the position.

This post has lots of pics, but I swear its worth it. I love social media during campaign season because something funny always happens. So this is a bit of a potpourri piece, so I'll end it on a humorous note. For now, lets start with pandering. Pandering isn't a new thing and there is always that one candidate that will surrender any bit of self-dignity they have for the sake of getting a vote. Happens every election cycle. Last election cycle it was David Saucedo that embodied pandering. This cycle, it is Dori Fenenbock far and away. She's really taken the pandering to the next level. I mean she's not dancing cumbias like David Saucedo did, but lets be real...that will likely happen before this is all said and done. I'm getting used to the Mexican pandering, which I'll go more into in a second, but I want to focus on Veteran's Day pandering. So I found this picture and it annoyed me on so many levels but I'll start with the fact that as a veteran who ...

The filing window is open for candidates to place their names on the ballot. I often get asked by folks about who has or has not signed up to run so far. Shout out to the Party for having a lot of comprehensive info on their website and providing me with the names of who has filed already. You can see a list of everyone who has declared candidacy so far, which is different than actually filing. Here are the Democratic Party candidates that filed for office on the first day of the filing period to appear on the Democratic Party ballot. The filing window continues until December 11th. Candidates can appear on the ballot by paying the fee or by providing signatures on petitions of registered voters. The Party website also has a page that lays out the fees and number of signatures necessary to appear on the ballot. Congressional Race: Veronica Escobar Jerome Tighlman State Rep Races: Cesar Blanco(I) MarySue Femath Joseph Moody(I) Evalina Ortega(I) County Judge/Commissioner Candidates: Ser...

So far the race for County Judge has been very similar to the last mayoral race - an incredibly weak field of candidates. All of them are incredibly nice people, but you don't read my blog because I pull political punches, so I'm not gonna start now. The candidates are nice, but none of them are strong. And there is talk of a sitting elected official who is being urged by a lot of folks to do El Paso a solid and jump in the race. If he did, it would be an immediate impact. First, it is looking less and less like County Commissioner David Stout is going to run for county judge because the support just isn't there. Stout is a perfect example of what happens when Max Grossman latches on to your political career. Straight-up boat anchor. Stout needs to hustle hard to even keep his seat at this point. His opponent is former County Commissioner Sergio Lewis, who is a now a Forma candidate. And guess what? Lewis' campaign is already block walking. He hit some doors over the we...

Former El Paso Times Editor Bob Moore found a connection between a PAC supporting the Fenenbock congressional campaign and the infamous political operative, and Republican, Carlos Sierra. Sierra is a longtime Republican operative who has worked in local campaigns but has been largely disavowed as his tactics have come to light and caused controversy. Sierra has recently said some pretty nasty sexually-charged remarks about a local elected official. Moore, who recently retired from the Times has apparently been keeping his eye on local politics as a private citizen now and uncovered an interesting connection between the Fenenbock campaign and Carlos Sierra. Here is what Moore wrote in a recent post on Facebook: The Ohio organizer of a new political action committee says it was formed to support Dori Fenenbock’s El Paso congressional campaign, but won’t say much else. However, it appears the PAC has ties to controversial political consultant Carlos Sierra of El Paso. The Keep El Paso Hon...

There is a big problem with operations in the judiciary and frankly, if they had the will power, the judges could fix it. Most of their clerical staff, the ones that work in their courts, don't actually work for the judges. They work for the District Clerk, Norma Favela. As I have written recently I talk to all kinds of people in the courthouse and by far the most unhappy department of workers is the District Clerk's Office. Things are so bad there that following this post there will likely be someone looking into who talks to me, who reads my blog, or who leaks complaints. The morale complaints range from policies about dress code that have been characterized as "abusive" to problems with getting leave that is due to the employee, being in trouble for trivial issues, allegations of favoritism, to complaints about having to participate in the over-the-top holiday celebrations. From my conversations with county staff and elected officials the biggest complaint is the f...

I talk to a lot of people in the courthouse. A lot. Even before I worked there and I talk to everyone from janitors to judges (plural) and everyone in between.  It is election season and it’s one of the rare times that the folks in the black robes venture out to come mingle with us common folk. After all, they need our vote.  Well a lot has transpired over the last few days that negatively reflects upon the bench. Everything from pistol-packing JPs with a fondness for their own picture, to reprimands, to a video that is part novela, part cheesy lawyer commercial, part self-inflicted negative ad.  So it’s been a long time coming for me to walk you through some of the issues going on at the courthouse, so the next several paints will cover everything from recent reprimands, a district court judge that is alleged to be considering running for a county court seat so he can double-dip on retirement, to judges having a problem with how District Clerk Norma Favela’s Office treat...

City documents reveal that Socorro City Representative Ralph Duran received $37,615.00 from Socorro tax payers in a settlement in 2014. The amount of money came under previous City Manager Willie Norfleet. The funds come from tax payers and were settling a claim in which Duran alleged some items of his were taken by the City of Socorro. I can't find any documents substantiating what was allegedly taken from his property or anything that actually establishes the value of the items allegedly taken so I can't pass on any details as to what the settlement was actually for or the value of the items. However, Duran tried to get ANOTHER settlement to be paid by Socorro tax dollars just this year. That item was not approved by city council. Sources indicate that Duran authorized a construction company to park some vehicles on his land and that resulted in some damages that he attempted to get the tax payers of Socorro to pay for. There are no documents available indicating what Duran...

I went to a Democratic Party event over the weekend that was really nice, but I was reminded of something about a lot of party regulars...they don't reflect the actual electorate in El Paso. I was reminded because I heard quite a few cheers for Dori Fenenbock who attended the event for about 15 minutes before leaving. She was recognized for "recruiting" 20 new members, which is to say she purchased 20 new memberships so people would vote for her to get the endorsement of the organization. It troubles me that amongst folks who consider themselves hardcore Democrats, that they would so quickly sell-out the platform of the party to vote for someone who has more of a Republican voting record than a Democratic one and who has a secure-the-border-first approach to immigration reform. But that is because those few people care more about settling scores than about voting for who best exemplifies the values of our Party. Which is why a recent spat between the American Federation o...

This has happened several times now and Socorro City Rep Ralph Duran continues to engage in the same activity, which can only mean he doesn't care what the law says. Duran, who is facing an election in just a few short days, appears to not care about complying with the state election code by using a traffic control device for a non-traffic related purpose on a state highway.  Let me underscore that last point...ON A STATE HIGHWAY. Not next to one. Not in the right-of-way. ON THE ACTUAL ROAD. At issue is a traffic control device usually used to advise motorists of some change in driving conditions due to an emergency, safety hazard, or other construction-related issue. Duran, along with Apache Barricade Company, have been putting a message that has nothing to do with traffic control on the signs that says "Re-Elect Ralph Duran for District 2 Representative". This is obviously completely unethical and an indicator of the fact that he thinks laws shouldn't apply to him, ...