Lewis Paints Himself in Corner
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 opportunist. The reality is that for whatever reason we expect a lot out of elected officials but God forbid we actually pay them a decent salary right? No we naively feel better about ourselves by ensuring that they basically earn nothing and we expect them to always be on the job, no matter how terrible the job pays. We also expect them to know everything and be thoughtful in their votes. We expect them to meet all of our needs and find money to do so out of the clear blue sky. And we want them to do that for free.
Which means that only the retired and independently wealthy can afford to hold office - which most certainly doesn't look like the average El Pasoan.
So that pay raise is an issue that you can leverage very effectively.
But here's Lewis' problem.
He's critical of the raise. If he wins, which I believe he will, then he can't turn around and take the pay raise he says he was against.
If he does, he will look like an even bigger douche than that guy who voted for his own raise because he'll be the guy that campaigned against the raise but very happily accepted it.
That isn't being honest with tax payers and its hypocrisy.
But I know what some of you might be thinking right now, "Jaime, that isn't fair. Why should he do the same work as other commissioners but not make the same amount that they do?"
Congratulations, you now agree with the commissioners that voted for their own raise because that is essentially the same argument that they made for the raise - why should El Paso commissioners make less than commissioners in other parts of Texas?
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 opportunist. The reality is that for whatever reason we expect a lot out of elected officials but God forbid we actually pay them a decent salary right? No we naively feel better about ourselves by ensuring that they basically earn nothing and we expect them to always be on the job, no matter how terrible the job pays. We also expect them to know everything and be thoughtful in their votes. We expect them to meet all of our needs and find money to do so out of the clear blue sky. And we want them to do that for free.
Which means that only the retired and independently wealthy can afford to hold office - which most certainly doesn't look like the average El Pasoan.
So that pay raise is an issue that you can leverage very effectively.
But here's Lewis' problem.
He's critical of the raise. If he wins, which I believe he will, then he can't turn around and take the pay raise he says he was against.
If he does, he will look like an even bigger douche than that guy who voted for his own raise because he'll be the guy that campaigned against the raise but very happily accepted it.
That isn't being honest with tax payers and its hypocrisy.
But I know what some of you might be thinking right now, "Jaime, that isn't fair. Why should he do the same work as other commissioners but not make the same amount that they do?"
Congratulations, you now agree with the commissioners that voted for their own raise because that is essentially the same argument that they made for the raise - why should El Paso commissioners make less than commissioners in other parts of Texas?
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