Solis Hits Ground Running

El Paso Community College Trustee and prominent attorney Selena Solis was literally a last-minute sign-up for the 243rd District Court to take on embattled Judge Luis Aguilar.

Aguilar recently received a public reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that included more than 60 different points of discussion. That is the most wide-ranging reprimand that I can recall. The reprimand's conclusion, which can be found in its entirety here, included some pretty damning language about Judge Aguilar.

"The Commission concludes from the totality of the facts and evidence presented that Judge Aguilar willfully and persistently failed to comply with applicable law...The Commission further concludes that Judge Aguilar engaged in a persistent pattern of treating those in which he deals with in an official capacity with a lack of patience, dignity, and courtesy...Finally, the Commission concludes that Judge Aguilar's willful and persistent conduct cast public discredit upon the judiciary and the administration of justice..."

Like I've said before, its gacho.

And like I've said before, that mailer writes itself. That reprimand is so bad that you could pretty much pull any quote from it you want and slap it on a mailer and it'll be effective with voters.

Aside from being a last-minute addition to the race, Solis hit the ground running. She has sent out a letter to supporters and a press release announcing her campaign and you can tell from both that her message is going to be critical of Judge Aguilar's conduct.

Thats a big deal because despite having had an opponent that announced he was running against Aguilar for while now, we've basically seen or heard nothing from him yet. That is likely what spurred Solis and Felix Castañon to both jump in to the race.

Solis had a bit of luck as well. She was the last to draw for a position on the ballot because she was the last to file. As you recall from what I wrote yesterday, the Party determined places on the ballot by who drew the lowest number on a series of 10 balls in a bucket.

In that race the candidates drew 6, 7, 8, and 9. So even though 6 is a high number, she still ended up having the first position on the ballot for that race.

The question for the candidates in the 243rd race is time. Aguilar has been here before. He was in a race with Alyssa Perez and everything looked like she was going to defeat Aguilar, and in the end, Aguilar was able to pull out a win. Do they have enough time to sufficiently mount an offensive campaign and defeat Aguilar in that short of a window and can Aguilar beat back the field this time.

there are some different factors in this election at play than the previous election. First, Aguilar is facing better competition and competition that appears to be focused on Aguilar's record as a judge. Second, this is a bigger and wider-reaching reprimand than the one that Aguilar had hanging over his head last time. Its also more recent.

Aguilar's strategy last time was to show up to everything and basically dare Perez and others to talk about him and his record while in his presence. Frankly, that was pretty smart because he Jedi Mind Tricked opponents into not making it a real issue until it was used rather sloppily against him at the last minute in mail. But he's not doing that anymore. He's not been to a political function this election season and its unclear to what extent that strategy will be effective given the nature of the points outlined in the reprimand and the make-up of the candidate field.

There's one more factor that is different for Aguilar, but frankly its true in almost every race on the ballot this election cycle. But that one deserves its own post, which I'll write about later today...

Here's Solis' press release. It'll be interesting to see what the other candidates do in this race, so I'll keep you posted on anything relevant I see.