Moore Uncovers Fenenbock PAC Connection to Carlos Sierra

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 Honest PAC was created on Tuesday, according to Federal Election Commission records. It’s custodian of records and treasurer is listed as Lindsey Workman of Dublin, Ohio. 

I called Workman on Thursday for information about the PAC. She said the PAC was going to support “candidates for Congress and other local offices in El Paso.” When I asked which candidates, she said Fenenbock, who's seeking the Democratic nomination for El Paso's 16th Congressional District seat. Workman said the PAC hadn’t yet identified any other candidates to support.

Workman was evasive as I asked more questions. She repeatedly said “we” when describing people behind the PAC, but when I asked who else was involved, she said, “I’m not at liberty to talk about that.” When I asked if anyone in Fenenbock’s family was involved with the PAC, she declined to answer.

Although Workman declined to talk about any others involved in the Keep El Paso Honest PAC, available public records point to Sierra, an El Pasoan who has been involved in numerous political campaigns. He was a former aide to Arizona Sen. John McCain and, like Workman, worked on Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

Workman’s LinkedIn profile says she served as “national grassroots director” for Johnson’s 2016 presidential campaign. Sierra’s LinkedIn profile says he served as "national field director" for the former New Mexico governor’s Libertarian campaign last year.

FEC records show Workman as the custodian of records and treasurer for another PAC created on Oct. 2, called Keep Texas Honest. In addition to Workman’s ties to both PACs, Keep El Paso Honest and Keep Texas Honest use the same Ohio bank, FEC records show.

In the initial filing for the Keep Texas Honest PAC, Workman gave her email address as lindsey@renegadepublicaffairs.com, and listed carlos@renegadepublicaffairs.com as a secondary email.

She dropped the Renegade Public Affairs emails when she filed amended organizing forms, FEC records show. For the Keep El Paso Honest PAC, she listed a Gmail address.

Sierra’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a partner in Renegade Public Affairs. Workman does not list the company in her LinkedIn profile.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated driving while intoxicated, a felony, in Arizona in 2014. Drunk driving becomes a felony in Arizona upon a third DWI conviction in seven years. He also was charged in El Paso with indecency with a child, though that charge was later dropped. 

Sierra was an organizer of an effort in 2015 to draft Vice President Joe Biden as a Democratic presidential candidate, but the group dropped him after his criminal charges came to light.

He also worked on campaigns for El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and city Reps. Carl Robinson and Lily Limon, who said they were unaware of Sierra’s legal history, according to reporting by the El Paso Times.

Workman told me that she has worked for Libertarian and Republican candidates in the past. She said she is supporting Fenenbock's Democratic campaign because Fenenbock is “very pragmatic, very sensible.”

Under federal election laws, political action committees can’t coordinate efforts with candidates. They must maintain separate operations.

If you recall, Sierra has publicly stated he has a political hit list of people he wants to run out of local politics. A list that has since grown since he declared it in the El Paso Times.

Sierra, aside from the legal controversies, is a bigger problem for the candidates he associates himself with because of his win-at-all cost and his alleged disregard for campaign laws. As you recall, a source came forward recently that alleged that Carlos Sierra is the source of the ugliest and dirtiest robocall in the history of local politics.

Heres the call to refresh your memory.



Surprisingly people were still willing to hire Carlos Sierra after that accusation. He was connected to a couple of candidates in this election cycle including Richard Samaniego, who is running for County Judge, and Adolfo "Spanky" Sanchez until he was fired from those campaigns.

So it is certainly noteworthy that the longtime Republican operative would work with a PAC that is going to be involved in local campaigns and one connected to Fenenbock, who already has a difficult time dealing with questions about her credentials as a Democrat.

What is even more interesting is that apparently around the same time that the PAC Moore uncovered was being formed, Carlos Sierra was reaching out to Jerome Tilghman's campaign to seek campaign work. As some of you may know Tilghman is a running for congress (again) and is technically an opponent to Fenenbock.

Sierra personally told me a couple months back that he intended on creating a PAC so that he would have the ability to go after candidates. Doing so as a PAC allows him to work independently of a campaign.

This is a clear indication that things are going to get REALLY dirty in the congressional election. It is interesting that when Moore asked if the Fenenbock family was going to be connected to the PAC that there was no definitive answer to that question. It was long rumored that Forma Group was going to be the place where the family was going to put their money for independent expenditures.

That may have changed because of a longtime rivalry between Dora Oaxaca - the person Sierra allegedly attacked in that robocall, and Carlos Sierra. Oaxaca now does work for Forma Group.

Things are gonna get ugly. And its surprising that anyone would still want to be associated with Sierra.