El Paso Politics

Talk about a tale of two conventions. A decade ago I boarded a bus to be an Obama delegate during the Great Obama-Hillary War of 2008. I sat on the back of the bus with a lot of other then young people supporting Obama and we were loud, obnoxious and drank a lot of beer on the way to the convention. There were only a handful of seniors on the bus. This time the bus was mostly seniors and I sat in the front of the bus. Although there was still quite a bit of beer consumed. Last time it was really ugly in the El Paso delegation. People were yelling and screaming at each other. There were a bunch of lawyers involved, the Hillary people broke every rule they could find to try to screw the Obama delegation over, until we got to the state convention were they got a taste of their own medicine. Things got so ugly 8 years ago that they had to call in constables to come break us up. It was really ugly. The only good thing about that convention was watching Hillary conceded that weekend and watc...

The Texas Democratic Party will have its convention in the next few days in Fort Worth. Should be interesting this year because of how Trump has energized the Party. Conventions are mostly fun, you get a chance to see some cool swag from across the state. I designed a couple of t-shirts that the Party is going to sell. We'll talk about platform and get into a bunch of unnecessary arguments with one another because we are Democrats and that is what we do. But there is one kind of important piece of business that gets done and that is select the SDEC Committeeman and Committeewoman positions. These are mostly popularity contests. Former City Representative and Chairman of the Tejano Democrats Eddie Holguin will be facing a candidate from the NE Democrats who's name escapes me and a guy named E. Anthony Martinez. After spending years in the local Democratic Party, I have never heard of Mr. Martinez. He sent out an email to the delegates and it had a video. After watching the video...

"Don't you ever talk to me like that again." In a surprisingly angry outburst, County Commissioner Andrew Haggerty lashed out against County Commissioner David Stout regarding Haggerty's "no" vote on a resolution condemning the camp that incarcerates children separated from their parents as a result of the Trump Administrations new Zero Tolerance Policy. His outburst has drawn sharp criticism from the Chairwoman of the El Paso County Democratic Party, the Chairman of the Paso Del Norte Tejano Democrats, and his Democratic opponent in November, former City Representative Carl Robinson and other community leaders. The exchange happened after the vote on the resolution during yesterday's Commissioner's Court meeting. Stout spoke after the vote thanking the judge and commenting that "it saddens me and is very unfortunate that we couldn't have a unanimous vote on this issue..." Stout went on to say that he didn't think it was a partisan ...

The more I dive into this EPISD closure movida the more the whole thing disgusts me. It really makes you understand the adage that "ignorance is bliss". Lets cut to the quick - the community was promised long ago that anyone going from a closed school would be going to a better one. That simply isn't true. Its a huge broken promise and there is a false urgency deliberately created to cram these closures down the community's throat. Beall Elementary school is on the chopping block. The kids will go to either Zavala or Douglas. Neither of those schools are in good condition. The board, and frankly more disappointingly, the majority of the trustees, apparently don't have the slightest problem with closing barrio schools and cramming the kids in to other substandard schools. But hey, they are just poor Mexicans that don't vote right? I mean its not like they have to power to do anything about it right? Lets just run over them because theres no ramification, amirit...

Its been awhile since I've given this out and if anyone deserves it lately its State Board of Education Member Georgina Perez. I spend a lot of time being critical of local leaders. Especially on issues having to do with raza. Hell I'm known for taking attendance at the Cesar Chavez march and counting all the brown elected officials that don't even show up for that. But as you read this post ask yourself, what have you done since last Thursday? Well, Member Perez helped a young lady graduating in Tornillo work with Congressman O'Rourke's office to secure a temporary VISA for her mother to be able to cross the border and watch her graduation ceremony. Then, as a Democrat in a 10-5 Republican majority board (meaning Republicans have quorum with 8 of their 10 members and literally don't need Democrats to show up) she was able to pass Mexican American Studies on the State Board of Education. While other states are eliminating that coursework in high school, especial...

Seriously, this is the most El Paso story you can find in politics right now. Look, I'll be straight with you guys. In this whole city attorney fiasco, which I think is universally acknowledged as a huge fluster-cuck, I don't think Margo is the main bad guy here. I think he's made some mistakes, but I think two other city reps, Cassandra Brown being one of them, play a much bigger role in all of this than is being let on (but hey, those are a series of blog posts for later). But I think Margo needs to be more self-aware. Despite the fact that he was elected Mayor, I think he needs to understand that a lot of people don't like him and his personality lends itself to easily slipping into villain mode. For example, Mayor Margo's quote in this story on KTSM about Saucedo's little transparent political ploy. I am confident that David’s accusations are baseless and it’s apparent he is trying to position himself to run for office. He has limited business and governance...

I just watched the replay of the ABC 7 Xtra on KVIA's website about the closures at EPISD. Click here to watch it , its enlightening/infuriating. Lets start with some basics here. To his credit, Al Velarde went on the air and did something most elected officials don't do, acknowledged a mistake. He acknowledged that the closure discussion is something that should have been dealt with by the board long ago. Ross Moore of the AFT also said the board should have dealt with the issue sooner and didn't. And that is something important to acknowledge. The budget with the number of schools they have right now is unsustainable. The math doesn't work. You gotta shut something down somewhere and be more efficient. There's really no way out of closing/consolidating schools. And we as a community have to get passed the NIMBY mentality and make choices that are in the best interest of the district. Therein lies the rub. The community doesn't have that place at the table. Wha...

I'll be brief with this one. I'm glad no one is losing their job. That means the union bosses did their job. But in the grand equation of all of this I don't see how it is sustainable if what Hatch says is true about the number of students EPISD loses every year. I thought the bond was supposed to help with that. I don't think you can protect all the jobs through attrition and salaries are the biggest budget expense, so I have a real concern that the Hatch will go back on his deal to protect jobs. But hey, you really interested in carving out some budget space through salaries...start with the main office. The district is top heavy. Start cutting out some frivolous administration jobs. Or get rid of your police force. Seriously, we already pay for cops, why the hell does your district need its own police force? (I know, its an old rant but its an unnecessary thing we as tax payers have to pay for. Like judicial supplements. I figure if I complain about them enough, some...

I pride myself on being able to correct myself when I'm wrong, so I have to make a correction. I wrote earlier this week that Chris Acosta was on a committee to select members of the El Paso Democratic Party Hall of Fame and I took issue with it because she works with a Republican operative.  I was wrong. Most of what I write is opinion, but when I write something as fact, I try to get it right. So I got it wrong this time. She is not on a committee to select members to the El Paso County Democratic Party Hall of Fame.  She's a member of an award committee of a prominent Democratic Party auxiliary, not the Hall of Fame committee.  My bad. Next, Max Grossman. I don't have anything to correct about him, but I put him in this piece because he says he's not a Republican... He says he's a libertarian.  Well, if he is, he doesn't appear to vote for them. Facts are facts so once again, here is the Dandy's voting record. He clearly votes Republican. If you challenge...