El Paso Politics

Alyssa Perez did an interview with KTSM yesterday about the fact that the Council of Judges asked the County Attorney to give them an opinion on a potential conflict of interest with candidate for the 210th District Court Alyssa Perez. The seat is currently held by her uncle, Judge Gonzalo Garcia. So here is the situation, Perez represents CLEAT, which is the law enforcement union. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm a union guy myself and I can tell you Perez has always done a great job and has good reputation acting in that capacity as far as I know. Never heard a single criticism about her as the union lawyer and if I ran a union, she'd be the one I'd hire to represent my members. She's also a part-time fill-in jail magistrate. Honestly, I don't know anything about whether she's doing a good job or a bad job at that. She's a fill-in, so how much harm could she possibly do. You usually hear about the bad ones, so since I haven't heard anyt...

Tejano Democrats are meeting at their NEW location tonight, so spread the word. 6pm at Carnitas Queretaro on the Eastside, 9077 Gateway West. Its NOT at Taco Real anymore, so tell your friends before they end up going to the old location. Also, the Hawkins exit is closed so traffic in the area is cray-cray right about that time, so give yourself a little more time to get there. Luckily for some of you, being able to say the name of the restaurant isn't a requirement to get in. I wrote this in case you didn't get all the emails and text messages Eddie Holguin sent out reminding people its at a new location. And mark my words, someone will go to the wrong place and be mad and say they didn't know.

Its been a REALLY long time since I've done a poll here on The LionStar Blog. So I think its high time that we did another one. So on the left column, just above my twitter feed, you can weigh-in and take the poll about who you are voting for in the congressional race. A few things before you vote: This isn't remotely scientific, nor is it meant to be. Like Fox News, its for entertainment purposes only. The candidates are listed in the order in which they will appear on the ballot. Has nothing to do with anything else but how they show up on the ballot. Next Monday is the deadline to register to vote, so I made that the last day of the poll. Have fun.

Embattled Judge Luis Aguilar, who is on the ballot but has asked for voters to not vote for him, has three opponents. Here is a look at two of the three the night they appeared at the Eastside Democrats Forum. I have other video of the candidates and I'll post that when I get a chance.

For the life of me I can't understand why anyone supports Mike Herrera, but its even more mind-boggling now. There was apparently another big problem discussed at the Council of Judges meeting last Thursday and that is the absence of Judge Mike Herrera. Word around the courthouse is that Herrera isn't handling anything that looks like a complicated family law case, and some allege because he's spending more time campaigning than working. Apparently there is a budget that is set for a visiting judge to hear cases. Sources indicate that several members of the Council of Judges are really upset that the vast majority of that budget is being depleted by Judge Herrera's absence. One of the judges even questioned why Herrera wasn't even at the Council of Judges meeting to explain the depletion of funds. This is why you should pay attention to the judicial races. If you look at Alyssa Perez and Judge Mike Herrera, they are text book examples of the fact that the more you l...

Sources at the County indicate that in a meeting of the Council of Judges yesterday the judges decided to ask County Attorney Joanne Bernal for a legal opinion regarding fill-in magistrate Judge Alyssa Perez. At issue is whether there is a conflict for Perez to serve as a magistrate, represent law enforcement personnel as the staff attorney for CLEAT, and take appointments as council to indigent defendants. The sources also indicate that Perez will not be assigned until the issue is resolved with the County Attorney's office. The sources were unclear whether that means that Perez won't be a magistrate or represent defendants as a court-appointed attorney until such time as the County Attorney has rendered a decision. However another source familiar with the situation says, "The issue will likely mean they err on the side of caution in situations like this and its likely that Perez will not be able to fulfill either role until the County Attorney comes back with a legal opi...

A pro-Fenenbock PAC run by the notorious and controversial GOP political operative Carlos Sierra has ties to the Republican Party. Keep El Paso Honest is the PAC behind an anti-Escobar ad that looks like a really, really, bad South Park Episode. Documents I have obtained show a direct link between the Keep El Paso Honest PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee. For context, read this recent article in the El Paso Times about Carlos Sierra's connection to the PAC called Keep El Paso Honest. Carlos Sierra is a Republican and works for Republican candidates, at least until his past comes to light. But he's pretty much lock-step with the Trump Republican establishment. And the documents I obtained illustrate Sierra's PAC's connection to the NRCC. This first screen shot shows the contract for the media buy for the commercials from the Keep El Paso Honest PAC. As you can see in the document, it shows Keep El Paso Honest Also listed on the document is Del Ciel...

Here's a collection of things on the internet involving local politics that amuse me today. Lets start with HD75 and the race between incumbent State Representative Mary Gonzalez and her opponent from the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, Mary Sue Femath. Or as I call it, Mary Edna V. Mary Sue. Mary Sue has a Facebook sponsored ad that is a little creepy. Okay its creepy after you watched a scary movie earlier on Netflix, you're up at 3:30am and scrolling through Facebook and see a political ad with no faces. Its just really weird. You'd think with all that money in her campaign she could've gotten release forms signed or Forma could have actually purchased an image that had faces. But hey, thats what happens when all your money goes to consultant fees and doesn't end up in the field. I warn you people every election cycle but you no one listens. Speaking of warning people...I told you old Norma would be back and I wasn't wrong. Okay, so to be fair to her, she hasn't y...

So it looks like Dori's in-law Michael Gopin (yeah, that guy) is doing Fenenbock's commercials now. Yep, just when you think things can't get more strange, add a personal injury lawyer doing commercials, amirite? Fenenbock's new commercial is a bunch of kids repeating her name, mostly making reference to the Disney movie, Finding Dori. Which is actually what the media calls it when they need to get comment from her - but anywho, back to my point. The commercial ends with "the name you can trust". Now, cut to the other day at the Chamber of Commerce forum. Apparently there was a little dust up between Dori Fenenbock and Enrique Garcia over whether or not Dori Fenenbock is in fact an attorney. Apparently she was waving a card to show she was an attorney. As I've written previously, I checked all 50 states and Fenenbock does not have an active license in any of the states. She did have a law license at some point in the state of Colorado, but her status was i...

I broke this a couple of weeks ago but embattled Judge Luis Aguilar of the 243rd Judicial District Court wants off the ballot. Well, he can't get off the ballot now, so he has take the unusual step of putting ads in the local papers saying that he doesn't want to run and flat-out asking voters not to vote for him. It was an ad that includes the campaign disclosure information at the bottom. Aguilar won't comment to the media and the one thing missing from his plea to voters to not vote for him is really important... And explanation. Quite frankly, Judge Aguilar owes this community an explanation. About a month ago he sent his bailiff to the Democratic Party Headquarters to file the paperwork necessary to run for reelection. I was there when it happened. Less than two weeks later, Aguilar is calling around trying to get off the ballot. In his plea to voters to not vote for him, Aguilar expresses that he's been honored to serve and was grateful to the voters for putting h...

Making a terrible situation even worse, District Judge Mike Herrera has taken the step of removing his Associate Judge Jesus Rodriguez from all cases from Herrera's court because they are opponents in this primary for a County Court seat. The whole reason Rodriguez is a judge at all is because there is a backlog of cases in family courts. His boss is Mike Herrera, who is a District Court judge. Herrera is pursuing a County Court seat for one rather obviously and seamless reason, he wants to double-dip. Why this isn't a news story that a judge with a public reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Ethics is going after another court seat to double dip, is beyond me. I think the media is failing this community on this one. But Herrera's move, which became official just late last week, makes the backlog of cases even worse now. If you think Herrera is going to work that much harder now because of his own selfish moves, you're probably gonna be disappointed. Herrera ...

Here's video from the Our Revolution candidate forum on Saturday. This particular part is an interesting exchange between Dori Fenenbock and Veronica Escobar over charter schools. Fenenbock comes out against charter schools - which is kind of news to everyone because she's always sounded very pro-charter, and she went on the attack against Escobar about the CREEED guys being behind Escobar. Escobar replies with a line about how Fenenbock asked for CREEED guys support and they told her no. But a couple of interesting things about that exchange. A sources tells me Fenenbock indicated that she supported in-district charters during a meeting with Richard Castro of CREEED and flat out asked Castro to go back on his support of Escobar in favor of her. Apparently Castro told her no. What is more interesting is this screenshot (I always have screenshots, right?) This is a tweet from February last year. What are Kipp schools? Well I'm glad you asked. Here's a screen shot of what...

District 23 is one of the largest congressional districts in terms of land area, in the United States stretching from San Antonio to El Paso. It is also one of the few swing districts in the country and is currently held by Congressman Will Hurd. Two of the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination were in El Paso on Monday and I had a chance to visit with them. Gina Ortiz Jones and Judy Canales were both at the Eastside Democrats candidate forum on Monday and so I was able to ask Ortiz Jones some questions that night. I interviewed Judy Canales a few days prior. Here are the interviews...

There are a lot of people that are pretty upset with the central labor union over their endorsement process. Apparently they did a terrible job of letting candidates know that they were even holding endorsements. Not all the candidates got an invite or the word that there was an endorsement process going on, as evidenced by the fact that so many of them found out at the last minute and just sorta showed up to try to compete for the endorsement. Not sure if there is a fix for this, but labor needs to get it right. There was a time when CLU endorsement was the crown jewel and labor was the backbone of the Democratic Party. Now the collective CLU no longer holds the status it once did and the individual labor unions like the Fire Fighters and Teacher Associations have been carrying the fight for the labor movement in town. Seriously - we need to fix this.

I feel a little late on catching this but Alyssa Perez, who signed up to run for the seat held by her uncle Gonzalo Garcia in a coordinated last-minute maneuver, said something at the debate on Monday night that made me curious. I've got no beef with Perez personally, I just don't like the way it looks like a sitting judge was trying to bequeath his seat to his niece. Seems wrong, but hey, I don't think we voters are qualified to pick judges in the first place, so what do I know? But back to my query. Perez has three jobs. She's a part-time jail magistrate, so she fills in on shifts that the permanent magistrates aren't able to take. Magistrates sign warrants and read you your Miranda rights when you're arrested. She's also an attorney in private practice, and most of her defense work comes from judicial appointments from what it looks like on the county website. And, she's the staff attorney for CLEAT. And therein lies the rub. So she's a magistrate...

The Marys from the Valley where both at a candidate forum early this week. Mary Edna and Mary Sue both attended the Eastside Democrats forum on Monday. Mary Edna being State Representative Mary Gonzalez and Mary Sue being Mary Sue Femath, her challenger from the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. They are both vying for the seat held by Mary Gonzalez that represents the far eastside and the Mission Valley. Here is video of Mary-Mary. No one asked them "Why ya bugging'?" (If you don't understand that quote, shame on you for not understanding classic rap lyrics)

So normally a forum on a Saturday night during the Wildcard Round of the playoffs is a terrible idea. But I was pleasantly surprised that the first forum to feature all of the Democratic candidates for the 16th congressional district on one stage at the same time was well-attended. In fact, very well attended. I'll post more video of the event once I've had a chance to edit it all (its a lot), but for now I wanted to focus on one question in particular. The organizers had a lottery system for the audience members to be able to pose a question to the candidates, which is actually a pretty smart idea because you allow questions from the audience, but it doesn't become a free-for-all and who asks the questions becomes random chance. Luckily, my number got pulled. Which everyone had quite the laugh about. Most of the night everyone complained about President Trump, even the Republican candidate that went to a small degree. Since the Democratic candidates were all anti-Trump, I ...

Things appear to be really falling apart in the Fenenbock campaign. Last night at the candidate forum for the Eastside Democrats, which ended up with a crowd similar to that of the Westside Democrats, Dori Fenenbock was a no-show. Frankly, it was a bit of a surprise because Fenenbock has prided herself on having good relationships with a few party leaders and I think they all took it for granted that she would clean-up with all the party endorsements. Except she hasn't. The one Party endorsement she has so far is the NE Democrats endorsement which had a tainted process because her field guy Chris Hernandez let it slip that they were supplied with the questions in advance when he was more or less complaining that the questions for Dori were too hard. The Westside Democrats endorsement didn't go the way she wanted and Escobar won that endorsement. That turned out to be a bit of a surprise to the Fenenbock camp, but I'll get into the ironic reason why shortly. I'm pretty s...

I think I figured out why Aguilar doesn't want to be on the court anymore. Shocker, its about money. I'll get to that in a minute, but walk with me while we talk a little about the power of incumbency as a judge. It is hard running against an incumbent judge because for the most part, lawyers use the fact that they practice in a judge's court as an excuse not to donate to opposition. Frankly, the implication never speaks well of the opponent because it implies that they fear retribution if they contribute to an opponent. Some are actually genuinely afraid of retribution. Which makes things interesting for 3 courts on the ballot right now - the 243rd, 210th, and County Court at Law number whatever. I forget the number and honestly it doesn't matter anyway. Its the race that has a sitting District Court judge running for the seat. Aguilar is getting all the attention, and rightfully so, for having a pretty hard reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Well...

Dori Fenenbock's campaign is slowly morphing into the recent David Saucedo mayoral bid. It just seems to be an endless stream of a comedy of errors, blunders, pandering, and fish tales. And the video on this one is hilarious, so sit tight. For someone who came out of the gate attacking her opponent on telling the truth, Dori Fenenbock seems to have a relationship with the truth that reminds me a lot of President Trump more every day. The other day at the Westside Democrats of El Paso endorsement meeting Fenenbock made a claim that I just let go without comment because it was just so silly. She indicated that she had spoken to nearly every family in EPISD. Do I believe its possible that she spoke to a lot of families in EPISD? Sure, I'll buy that. Lets, for the sake of argument, say that she's the most engaging school board member in the history of EPISD and in between all of her out-of-town trips funded by the taxpayers in the school district, she devoted every waking hour ...

Here is video of the other congressional candidates that attended the Westside Democrats of El Paso forum last night. Like I said, Ken Sutherland berated the people that didn't show up, so I should mention here that Enrique Garcia didn't attend last night, which is why there is no video of him. Also, Norma Chavez TIED with Jerome Tilghman for number of votes in the endorsement. I know I mentioned it before, but it just surprised me that they tied. You'd think she would have done much better considering all her years in the public eye. For those of you that have been waiting for her to go back to the old Norma, she's been very disciplined about not doing that publicly and her message is mostly focused on her. Everyone expected her to start through bombs at Veronica Escobar, especially because she spent so many years personally attacking Escobar on social media after Chavez's demise, even going so far as to modify Escobar's first name into something no feminist sh...

The Westside Democrats of El Paso held their endorsement meeting last night and I got video of most of the candidates running for office. I'll post video of them by individual race along with a little bit of analysis. We will start with the congressional race and then move on to the other races. Before we do, some quick thoughts about what I learned last night. I learned the following: If you don't show up to a westside Democrats forum, Ken Sutherland will berate you and speak badly of you to the membership. He did that pretty much all night. People were getting annoyed.  I learned that all those people with the flu and an enclosed, hot room is guaranteed to spread that stuff like wild fire.  I learned that it was announced the Norma Chavez only got 1 vote, but she actually received 8 votes, which put her in a tie with Jerome Tilghman for 3rd place.  I learned that being VP of the organization doesn't guarantee a win, Alyssa Perez won with only a handful of votes.  I...

The Westside Democrats will hold the first debate of the New Year tonight. This is a big one for the congressional because the westside plays such a big part of countywide races. Its also where Veronica Escobar and Dori Fenenbock are probably strongest and where newcomer Norma Chavez is weakest. But none of that matters now that they are on the debate stage. That'll be the main event but there will be some other interesting debates as well. The County Judge candidates will be featured so hearing from them will be interesting. The Westside Democrats debates are known for being run pretty smoothly, although I expect there to be some old school embarrassing behavior because it will be the first time some explosive personalities will be in the same room and there is likely to be something interesting that happens. Don't worry, I'll be there with my camera to film the whole thing. The debate starts at 6 and is going to be held at the Galatzan Rec Center (Polly Harris) 650 Wallen...

Former County Commissioner Sergio Lewis has a FB ad that I saw a couple of times and I saw it again today and watched it all the way through this time, which is why I am writing this post today. You can see the video below. His message in this video is kind of all over the place, weaving through some personal family tragedy that occurred during the last election, then talking about Precinct 2 being "entitled" although I'm not clear on what exactly he was speaking about, and the raise that Stout voted for. Frankly, he should have just made the ad about the raise and it would have been more effective, but hey maybe the guys at Forma billed him by the second on this video. Anywho, I think the raise is a strong issue for Lewis to run on. Its a perfect campaign issue because it forces Stout to defend the vote and there's no way for anyone who voted for their own raise that was that large, to not sound like an absolute douche defending the vote. At best, you look like an op...

Controversial 243rd District Court Judge Luis Aguilar wants off the ballot. I confirmed with El Paso County Democratic Party Chair Illiana Holguin that Aguilar has been trying to see if there is a way to remove his name from the ballot. However, that is not a power that rests with a local party chair. Had Aguilar acted sooner, there was a small window that would have allowed him to take his name off the ballot, however that time has expired. The only long shot for Aguilar to be removed from the ballot would be for him to pursue legal action to compel the Party to remove him, though it is not clear there are any actual grounds to do so. Holguin confirmed that Aguilar does not want to be on the ballot, does not want voters to vote for him and will not serve if he is somehow reelected. Chairwoman Holguin indicated that she consulted with the Secretary of State's Office after reading the relative statutes and they agreed with her interpretation of the statue in which she concluded that...

As if the menudazo debacle wasn't funny enough, it gets better. Turns out that the big Fenenbock Freebie for folks in the valley turns out to be a bit of a waste of menudo for Fenenbock. Some of the precincts that were walked and had the menudazo invitations delivered to their homes...wait for it...aren't even in Congressional District 16! Not exactly sure how deep they went into District 23, but I can confirm that they ended up inviting voters that live in Congressman Hurd's district. But, there's a chance that it was actually some gamesmanship on the part of Fenenbock. Maybe she invited folks that live in Hurd's district to the menudazo at the VFW hall that is ALSO in Hurd's district, for a reason. Think about it, it makes sense. Those voters are already represented by a Republican. Maybe it makes Dori feel more at home to invite people that live in a Republican congressional district to a menudazo that is also held in said Republican district. Well played Dor...

Judge Luis Aguilar who was recently in the news for receiving a more than 60 paragraph thumping from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that outlined a series of complaints from threatening to issue a bench warrant against an attorney who wasn't properly notified of a hearing because she was on maternity leave, to berating prospective jurors, has another issue on his hands.  Aguilar, who presides over the 243rd Judicial District Court and is currently seeking re-election, landed on a list compiled by a Texas publication for people in the legal profession, Texas Lawyer .  The end-of-year list was called "The 2017 Top 10 Troubled Lawyers and Judges in Texas List” and was released in late December. You can see the list in its entirety by clicking this link .  The list was mostly attorneys but three of the  individuals profiled were judges and Aguilar was the only judge from El Paso to make the dubious statewide list. There was one other attorney from El Paso ...

I swear I'm not trying to write about Fenenbock every day, but it seems like lately her campaign is on quite a roll. Trust me, something else is gonna break later today about a judge and that is what everyone will be talking about. So here's the latest funny thing about the Fenenbock. She apparently has FINALLY decided to remove a controversial phrase that has been in her website for months. Apparently the change happened yesterday afternoon. If you recall I posted a picture of Fenenbock and put a comic book speaking bubble and a thought bubble. In the thought bubble, I included a quote from her website that included a controversial statement where she very proudly bragged about defeating Hispanic candidates. So she deleted it. Thats not the funny part. The funny part is two different things. 1) That she would ever include it in the first place. I guess she was trying to convince donors that she's viable against a Latina but why she would use her website to leverage that me...

Sometimes candidates do things that make you shake your head. And sometimes candidates need to be saved from themselves. No, I'm not talking about David Saucedo. Hell I think this stunt would even make him blush. In a campaign event that harkens back to the old pachangas that have thankfully gone away, Dori Fenenbock is having a Menudazo this weekend and I was invited! I feel special because apparently the invite was block walked to voters in the lower valley because I came home to a door hanger and an invitation to the event. And we all know Mexicans in the lower valley like the words "free" and "menudo", amirite? There is apparently no end to the amount of pandering Dori will do to get a vote. Its embarrassing at this point. Seriously, are there no Latinos in the decision-making huddle that stood up and said, ya know this might not be such a good idea for a rich white lady from the westside to be dangling free menudo to lower valley raza. It might be a little ...

Dori Fenenbock is a direct result of the Trumpification of politics. She's saccharine, a fake substitute. Something packaged to look like the real thing, only not . Over the holidays I've been watching to see how campaigns are going and since Norma Chavez got into the race, Fenenbock's campaign seems to have come to a screeching halt. Maybe its because of the holidays or maybe its because they don't know how to deal with Chavez or whether she's going to be a factor. Personally I think they are scared to death of her. But there was some social media activity that caught my attention. Trump has taken lying to a new art form when it comes to politics, to the point that he feels he has to do it to get attention and we have just become accustomed to it. And that is dangerous for America. Well check out two interesting posts from Fenenbock that she really shouldn't be allowed to get away with saying. The first one is about being made a "compañero" in the Dem...

Happy New Year to you if you're reading this today. I hope your cruda isn't too bad and that you've cuddled up to a nice warm bowl of menudo to help you recover from last night. (Also, I didn't write this today, I wrote it yesterday. I'm probably headed to mass wondering why I'm up and how soon I can take a nap.) So lets start this new year off by talking about the races since its not a dead sprint to Early Voting. I chose to start with the race for County Judge. Its like a redo of the mayoral race - not a lot to be excited about in terms of talent, although I think one of the candidates will learn quickly and if elected could be a good county judge. No one appears to be campaigning too terribly hard and don't look now but Early Voting is 50 some odd days away. But somebody has to actually win first, and frankly none of them really look like they have been doing too much campaigning. Nothing strategic anyway, mostly just throwing up a bunch of signs or wrapp...