El Paso Politics

El Paso County Commissioner Andrew Haggerty appears to alleged that there is STILL corruption happening at the County during a recent campaign stop. Specifically on the County Purchasing Board. Here's the thing about that purchasing board - its has five members, three of whom are sitting judges. So for those of you keeping score at home, Haggerty is stating that a department overseen by a board made up of three judges and two county commissioners, is allowing corruption to take place. Oh it gets better.... Guess who is a member of that purchasing board? Commissioner Andrew Haggerty. Pay close attention to the video. He's alleging that contracts are fixed. That is a pretty strong allegation to make. My question is if Commissioner Haggerty thinks there is corruption going on, why hasn't he reported it to law enforcement? I gave him an opportunity to answer what specific actions he's taken to alleviate the situation as well. Listen to his answer for yourself...

So there is some bonus audio from a sit-down interview done recently that featured two of the four candidates running for the 16th Congressional District seat. Basically this race is Congresswoman-Elect Veronica Escobar versus three guys she's going to trounce. But this is a dust-up between Rick Seeberger the Republican nominee for the position and Samuel Williams, a candidate running as an independent. I say running as an independent but honestly he sounds the more Republican of the two candidates. Had he run in the primary he likely would have been the Republican nominee. Rick Seeberger is REALLY sensitive about that dirt that is out there about him - from the PTA not getting money due to them, to the Dona Anna thing, to multiple bankruptcies, and even a mention of a settlement with KVIA. That is something Seeberger seems to pride himself in by the way. He loves to brag about making people settle and he apparently loves lawsuits. For his part, Williams wasn't backing down whe...

City elections are non-partisan but since the elections have been moved to a general election cycle, they will be on the ballot with partisan elections. Parties give you a sense of priorities and governing philosophy, so I decided to compile voting records of all the candidates on the ballot in November. I think you the voters have a right to know as much relevant information about the candidates as you possibly can. So we will go in numerical order by district, starting with the incumbents where applicable. NOTE: Which elections someone voted in is a matter of public record.

The El Paso Herald Post did an interview with the congressional candidates. You can click on this link to read the post, but they also have audio of the interviews. And there is some really interesting stuff that is on that audio. Click this link to hear the audio and read the piece . In the audio of the interview Rick Seeberger, the Republican nominee for the 16th congressional seat can be heard saying that he called for El Paso Republican Party Chairman Adolfo Telles' removal from office. He also complained about not being funded by the Republican National Committee (RNC). Seeberger gives no reason as to why he was calling for Chairman Telles' removal in the interview. However sources in the local GOP indicate that this is allegedly the result of a conversation Chairman Telles had with Seeberger some time ago, allegedly telling Seeberger to reconsider his congressional bid because they had done some preliminary vetting of him as a candidate and some now well-known information...

As you read this piece I want you to understand one underlining principle. Ted Cruz is an asshole. Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke squared off in their first debate on Friday and there are so many things to say about it. So lets get started. First, Ted Cruz is really a libertarian, meaning he believes in all kinds of freaking strange fringe kind of bullshit. Chemtrails, deep state, aliens, 9-11 was an inside job, taxation is theft, the Loch Ness Monster, YouTube Videos, and the chupabra. Although they want to bing the Chupacabra to justice and deport it, after they kill it. All the while decrying the "deep state". So last week Beto "the El Paso Kid", took on Ted"Canadian Bacon" Cruz in a debate. The first of several debates. O'Rourke easily outclassed Cruz, which is a big deal because Cruz really fancies himself a skilled debator. But at the end of the debate, the panel was trying to get something civil out of the two. O'Rourke displays the rational...

Well once again the rest of Socorro city council had to come in and fix problems started by Mayor Elia Garcia and Councilman Ralph Duran. Last night they basically undid the little movida that was underway that many in Socorro say was just a way to funnel the judicial seat to a friend of the mayor. Whether or not that is actually try I can't say, but that is the perception around El Paso County's second-largest municipality. Duran and the Mayor was visibly annoyed at having their plans walked back, and council avoided having to get into a potentially expensive MOU with another entity to hear the cases that would normally be heard in Socorro. So they keep the judge that they had, who is pretty popular in Socorro and there were residents of Socorro there addressing council urging them to keep Judge Velarde. She also gets a small raise of $2,500 per year. In an obvious attempt at saving face City Rep Duran pretended to not be aware of the fact that the amount of raise being consid...

WARNING: The video included in this post has some pretty explicit language. Use caution on when and where you press play.  I don't understand what in the hell is up with some progressive liberals that feel strong for an issue like Doo-ruhn-gui-toe but follow a conservative pied piper like Max Grossman. Its literally the only thing they have in common with the guy and they basically sell out the rest of their principles to follow the guy on issue where he pretty much is out to perpetuate the existence of slum lords because at some point Pancho Villa may have taken a leak on some downtown building. But Grossman is determined to buy himself a city council. I warned you guys he was a right-wing conservative and none of you believed me until he pissed off all the Beto fans with a controversial pro-Cruz posting. I also warned you about him trying to buy himself a city council. So today I'm going to expose another extremist Grossman conservative running for office that a few progressi...

The federal government is expanding the camp in Tornillo by a significant amount.  And frankly, its our own fault.  We, as a community, haven't made it hostile enough of an environment for the Trump led-federal government. We say that we oppose legislation like SB4. But its okay for Ice Detainers to be happening in our local jail.  We say that we oppose local law enforcement enforcing immigration law. But we are totally okay with the federal government paying us a ton of money to house the undocumented immigrants we say we don't want local law enforcement arresting.  Stop raging about the Tornillo detention camp and your little bus tours with celebrities and ridiculous cries to abolish ICE if you aren't willing to march your ass to commissioner's court and tell them to end the contract with the feds to house undocumented immigrants.  Wanna see just how embarrassing our bipolar view of immigration really is? The Mayor of Atlanta recently called for the federal go...

City Representative Alexsandra Annello swears she's not helping City Rep Claudia Ordaz-Perez's opponent Eric Stoltz's campaign. Cross her heart and hope to die, stick a needle in her eye. Honest. Scouts honor. Seriously, you gotta believe her. The reality is Annello acknowledged that she helped Stoltz with his campaign logo a long time ago. Why a sitting city rep would have anything to do with a colleague's opponent is beyond me. Its just asking for a strained relationship, or at the very least, a pretty healthy dose of awkward turtle. Its kind of an unwritten rule on council that they don't get involved in each other's races. Its bad ju-ju because at some point they all have to run for reelection. The last thing you want is to support someone against a colleague that loses and then look over your shoulder come time for you own reelection and wonder if your colleague has decided to help someone against you. But Annello has been throwing little chingaqueditos to...

As of 5pm yesterday, the City of Socorro has no municipal judge. They probably now have to go into some complicated agreement with another entity for administration of justice until they fix this. Guess what? That shit ain't free. Socorro City Rep Ralph Duran has caused yet ANOTHER problem for the citizens of the city of Socorro. This guy, and frankly the Mayor as well, are everything that is wrong with Valley politics. So after the Socorro municipal judge kicked a case out of her court to another court because it involved the Mayor of Socorro representing a resident of Socorro against the police department of Socorro, there was an agenda item at the last Socorro city council meeting to extend the contract of the current judge. The one that kicked out the mayor's case. Well, there was a weird movida where the agenda item ended up being changed from extending the judge's contact and a motion was made to take action to go out for a new judge. That should have been a different...

File this under the most Socorro thing you've ever heard. The current Mayor of Socorro - Elia Garcia - is an attorney and the former municipal judge in Socorro. She's still practicing law, which by itself isn't a big deal. However, she is representing a constituent (which if that by itself isn't a conflict, is at least a REALLY bad practice) in a case AGAINST the Socorro Police Department. I don't know that I have ever heard of a case were the Mayor of a municipality represented someone in their municipality against their own police department and I'm pretty sure its a MAJOR problem - ethically and legally. It gets worse. The case was going to be heard in the Socorro Municipal Court. The Socorro municipal judge saw an immediate conflict and referred the case out to Judge Lujan, the JP court in the valley. There are so many conflicts here. The mayor representing a resident of Socorro is already problematic. Then its against her own police department - to which sh...

Give a dog a bone. I have been telling you all that Max Grossman, El Paso's Dandy, is an extremist pro-Trump Republican. And y'all weren't hearing me. I told you the snake oil conman was using raza for his own personal trip, and y'all weren't hearing me. I told you that he was out to buy his own city council, and ya'll weren't hearing me. I told you to watch out for him. I told you to watch out for all the candidates he supports. The Dandy runs the El Paso County Historical Alliance page. How long have I been telling you that most of the history folks in charge for so many years were old white folks telling El Paso history for their perspective? They are all older white Republicans. And now the Dandy showed his true colors to enough people and they finally revolted. Max shared the anti-Beto, pro-Ted Cruz ad on the historical alliance's page. And boy did he get his ass kicked. The post has since been taken down and in typical Trumpian fashion that is Max ...

Well I've treated this issue with kid gloves so far, but now I gotta do a little speaking truth to power here for just a minute. The campaign of Kizito Ekechukwu is a dead campaign walking. His campaign is over. He just doesn't know it. You can't get arrested in the middle of a campaign and expect to win. You most especially can't get arrested for domestic violence-related charges and expect to win. Honestly, the guy never had a shot at winning to begin with. He's never voted before running for office. He has almost zero name ID, even with a unique last name. He's got family money to blow on a campaign, but he doesn't have anyone on staff that knows a single thing about campaigning. Which is a consequence of the fact that he was never engaged in public policy before running, thus the lack of a voting record. I'm about as politically engaged as it gets in this town and I never heard of him before he decided to run for office. If I haven't heard of you...

You gotta love campaign season. Its the time of year that people will do stuff they wouldn't normally do just so they can get a vote. Remember when then-candidate, now-consultant David Saucedo ran for mayor and he ended up dancing at some Democratic Party event ? Seriously, the vato isn't event a Democrat. Then there was Dori Fenenbock and her Menudazo - down in the valley no less. So some people will do ANYTHING for a vote. This year is no different. At the Labor Day Breakfast today, which is traditionally a major Democratic Party event that marks the final push before November, there was a surprising guest at the Labor Day Breakfast. A Republican. County Commissioner Andrew Haggerty was in attendance at the breakfast which featured Beto O'Rourke as the main speaker. Why was a Trump-supporting anti-union Republican at the most Democrat of functions? Simple, its campaign season. People always try to reinvent themselves during campaign season. Remember when El Paso's ans...

More than anyone on a Texas ballot, Gina Ortiz Jones needs strong Democratic turnout in her bid to become congresswoman of the 23rd District of Texas. Its one of the few swing districts in Texas and she's taking on someone that is actually pretty popular in the valley, Congressman Will Hurd. In order to get it done, she needs about 3300 votes to come from the El Paso County portion of her district. Its a tall order, but doable. If you're working the ground hard. And wait until you hear where her field guy was while she knocked on doors for 15 minutes... You'd think that knowing all along you need that pocket of voters stretching from east of Zaragoza, Socorro, Clint, San Elizario and other communities to come through for you big time, that you'd be dropping a major effort in that area. So GOJ makes a swing through El Paso during Labor Day weekend. You'd think she'd be squeezing everything she possibly could get anything out of her time here in El Paso. You'd...

According to a report from the El Paso Police Department, the altercation leading to the arrest of Kizito Ekechukwu happened shortly after a campaign event. The report details an interview with the victim and mother of his child who alleges that the defendant, City Rep Candidate Kizito Ekechuckwu, has allegedly assaulted the victim before but hadn't previously called police. The report also refers to the victim stating that the candidate allegedly called her a "stupid bitch" and struck her with an open hand on her face. Here is a portion of that report containing the details I mentioned: The report in its entirety can be read by clicking here . 

This one is gonna be long, but hopefully worth it. One sitting city rep is helping a challenger against another city rep, so stick around for that one... Incumbents have a bigger advantage in this election cycle than they ever have before in municipal elections. Essentially these races are going to be name ID races. Normally in municipal elections you have a finite number of folks that regularly vote and you know who is going to come out and what doors to knock on. That is how its usually done and how you can level the playing field when it comes to money. If you can out-hustle the more well-financed candidate, you can win. But this election is going to be different because its the first time the election is going to with a general election. So the number of people that will vote that have ZERO municipal voting history is going to out-number the number of people that have good municipal voting history. That makes it a much steeper hill to climb for challengers. Here's what you need...

District 5 candidate Kizito Ekechukwu was arrested on a family violence charge recently. Jail records indicate that the 28 year old first-time candidate for city council district 5 was arrested on August 26. In an interview over the phone tonight Mr. Ekechukwu characterized the incident as "...nothing serious...not a big issue". I asked Mr. Ekechukwu if he was going to continue to campaign for the office of City Representative for District 5 and he indicated that his campaign would continue, adding that it was a family matter. District 5 covers the far eastside of the city of El Paso. In a subsequent phone call Ekechukwu indicated that the incident involved his fiancée but did not disclose her name. Had he done so, I would not have included her name in this post. Ekechuckwu gave a full interview with me and you can listen to the entire conversation and hear what else he had to say about the media, negative politics, and more conversation about his arrest. (NOTE: Due to low vo...