Eric Stoltz Would Make A Fine City Rep... for the Westside

Under normal circumstances I would've roasted a candidate like Eric Stoltz over a slow burning fire a long time ago.

Stoltz is all about Doo-ruhn-gui-toe, follows that Dandy Max Grossman, wants people in the valley to spend their tax dollars subsidizing wealthy white folks' infrastructure on the westside, and won't stop talking about "protecting" our mountains while never once mentioning anything to do with parts of the actual district he wants to represent.

Policy wise, there is pretty much nothing on the municipal level we agree on.

I must get three or four inquiries a week about why I haven't roasted the vato yet.

The answer is simple.

I really like his parents.

His dad is George Stoltz, who ran for sheriff a while back when Sheriff Wiles ran for the office the first time. His dad is a Republican, and we probably don't agree on a single policy, or Trump, or anything else, but he is a great guy. I've block-walked their house several times and his mom is pretty well-known in the community too.

His brother played for the championship baseball team from Socorro.

Eric was a Bernie guy too. He's a good guy from the valley, comes from a good family, and is liberal as I am. He also has a really strong, I-don't-give-a-fuck-if-you-don't-like-what-I-say way about him that a vato like me can't help but see a little of myself in him.

That being said, I gotta be real.

I think Eric would be a great city representative...for the westside.

Like the really, really, really, really far westside.

But he damn sure doesn't seem like he's standing up for Lower Valley or eastside families.

My issue with Stoltz is that he's the westside's candidate. Every issue he talks about is all about the westside.

Westside, westside, westside, westside. Its all he ever talks about.

His logo, done at least partially by City Rep Alexsandra Annello, even depicts another part of town. I'm sure after reading this he'll try to run over to the mission and start taking pics in front of the Ysleta Mission to give him some more valley cred.

He doesn't go to that parish, or at least I've never seen him at mass there. I think he went to Socorro High School, which is not in the district. Prior to running for office I've never seen him at any civic, charity, or religious event anywhere in the lower valley.

So the only connection I can see from Stoltz to the Mission Valley - prior to being a candidate - is that he still lives with his parents.

What I don't see from his history, which is a big problem for him, is any commitment to the valley. There’s no footprint of involvement from Stoltz in either part of the district - no civic engagement, charity work, church activities, community involvement, etc.

Nothing.

Zip.

Zilch.

Nada.

What I think voters should be most concerned about is the fact that he doesn’t appear to be very consistent in his message about what he wants to do as city representative. I hear him talk a lot about “investment”. He wants to invest in green energy, he wants to invest in small business incubators, he wants to invest in a lot of things.

Out of the other side of his mouth he’s talking about high taxes and debt.

He sounds like a typical politician that wants to have it both ways. He wants to talk about investment, which means spending, while at the same time he talks about not raising taxes and how people are living on fixed incomes.

Okay so this is the part where I should state the obvious. Eric Stoltz lives with his parents, he doesn’t pay property taxes. He’s unemployed near as I can tell from his campaign application where he lists student as his occupation.

So he’s not paying a mortgage, or rent to a property manager, utilities, etc. Maybe he has a car note, insurance (that I assume he has with his parents because he still lives at home and it’s probably more cost effective) and a cell phone bill.

That might explain why he wants to raise and hold the line on taxes simultaneously. He doesn't know what its like to manage a budget.

He gives general statements about "innovative solutions" but there is nothing innovative about saying you want to spend a lot of money, cut taxes, and raise the tax exemption by $10,000, which would mean cutting more revenue.

But in all this empty rhetoric of innovative solutions, he never says what he'd cut.

Is it parks?

Police?

Fire?

First responders?

Street pavement?

But there is nothing in his rhetoric that shows he understands fiscal policy or the budgetary ramifications for what he's advocating for.

Why?

Well because its easier to just lie to voters. Which he seems to be more and more comfortable doing - lately going so far as to say that his opponent, City Rep Claudia Ordaz Perez isn't responsive to constituents. Before that he was saying she didn't do anything about a controversial medical waste facility that is being proposed in the lower valley.

The last thing Stoltz wants is a comparison to Ordaz Perez.

She's a homeowner, he's not.

She takes care of her parents and puts a roof over their head. He lives under his parents' roof. 

She oversees a multimillion dollar budget. He probably has car insurance with his parents and shares their Netflix account.

She has met with multiple levels of government including the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo and the State to try to stop the building of a medical waste facility in the Mission Valley, set-up a public meeting with TCEQ so that the community can be heard, created a petition opposing the location, mailed it out to constituents, and personally collected over 1,000 signatures...on a Sunday.

He made a Facebook post about it.

But lets talk about the one thing Stoltz has done, he got appointed to a commission on animals by his BFF City Rep Annello. What did he do? He immediately tried to use it as a platform against the TIRZ.

A Commission on animals was used for the political wishes of Annello. If that is the "innovative solutions" and "change" he said District 6 needs? If so, thanks but you can keep it.

Seriously you have to have a better argument for running for office than empty rhetoric, vague comments about change and innovation and wanting to make people in the lower valley pay for the infrastructure on the westside.

They can pay for their own, thank you very much.

District 6 needs someone who understands budget, policy, and the needs of the community - not another Max Grossman-bot.