Records: EP Republican Candidate Filed for Bankruptcy 6 Times

Before I get started, I have been warned by several people (Republican and Democrat alike) that I should tread lightly when writing about Republican candidate Rick Seeberger because he is "litigious".

I get that a lot. People threaten to sue me all the time and I view it like I view any street fight - if you could, you would and you damn sure wouldn't talk about it, you'd just do it.

So Rick Seeberger doesn't scare me. I appreciate your concern but I took a look at what he has filed in the past and it was pretty laughable. Also, since he's a candidate for public office now its a lot harder for him to sue someone that writes a political post about a candidate for office, so good luck with that buddy.

Okay, now that we have that out of the way lets talk about what I've found out about Seeberger. He's taking on County Judge Veronica Escobar in the general election in November for El Paso's 16th Congressional District.

Despite the fact that he isn't a viable candidate, he is still the Republican nominee for the seat and as such he deserves some healthy scrutiny.

Seeberger's biggest problem appears to be finances - both personal and business. There appear to be at least 6 different filings for bankruptcy - 2 personal filings and 4 business filings. Mr. Seeberger appears to have filed for personal bankruptcy twice in the past 11 years in the Western District of Texas and four times for business entities since 2011. Three times were for the same non-profit entity called the 20-20 Leadership Foundation and the other was for an entity called ORSA, LLC.

None of the business filings appear to have been approved by the Court.

This link contains a copy of the documents filed with the Court relating to the various bankruptcy proceedings. 

Interestingly listed as creditors on at least one of the filings are the Seebergers themselves, the City of El Paso, and Doña Ana County in Las Cruces.

The most recent bankruptcy filing was in 2016.

The funds owed to the City of El Paso appear to be for property taxes and are a pretty hefty chunk of change.

Speaking of that 2016 claim - one of the creditors listed in that most recent claim was a lawyer who handled a previous bankruptcy claim!

Those are some pretty big financial issues facing the El Paso Republican Party's nominee. To add yet another layer of irony to this situation is a Facebook post I came across on his campaign page.

You've gotta admit that it takes a lot of nerve to have that kind of financial background and have the stones to make a list of things you want voters to think about when voting and the #3 thing listed is his business acumen.

Thats like Max Grossman giving advice on how to be humble or Norma Chavez telling someone how to be nice and act stately in public.

I know, crazy right?

There's also some problems with his FEC filings that I'll talk about in an upcoming posts.

Everyone has money problems from time to time. It happens, I get it. I'm honestly surprised that this bankruptcy thing didn't come up in the Republican primary. If you have this amount of finance problems, maybe you shouldn't be criticizing someone who managed a multi-million dollar debt.

And if you owe property taxes to the extent that he apparently does, I totally get why you're complaining about how high they are, but most voters with far less income pay theirs every year.

After knowing this information, it doesn't appear that "Think First" is something you really want to be telling voters because if they do, well it probably won't work out very well for Mr. Seeberger.

Seriously, only in the age of Trumpism does the party of fiscal restraint have the audacity to nominate a candidate with that level of finance problems to congress.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Seeberger still has not replied to my question about whether he is the same Rick Seeberger listed in an LA Times article I wrote about last week).