El Paso Politics

There were almost no elected officials at this year's Sun Bowl Parade on Thanksgiving Day. Most notably absent was Mayor Dee Margo. Only City Reps Peter Svarzbein and Cassandra Hernandez were in the parade. Margo may have made the calculation to not attend due to the fact that the parade goes right by the El Paso County Democratic Party Headquarters. Last year in the parade they trolled him. The Imperial Death March from Star Wars was played as he drove by. Thats Darth Vader's music for those of you that don't know. Margo is a Republican and the Democratic Party is coming off of an election cycle in which they swept out the last Republican elected officials in the County. Mayor Margo is a Republican but city council races are non-partisan and he ran against the weakest field of candidates in the history of a mayor's race. Margo probably knows that the Democratic Party isn't happy about the fact that the only Republican still in office in El Paso is the mayor. So sin...

The District 6 race was the most solid win for a candidate in El Paso County not named Beto O'Rourke of this election cycle. Its also arguably the most solid win of any municipal candidate going back quite awhile. Well, other than Claudia Ordaz-Perez's last election in which she also got 72% of the vote. Ordaz-Perez, for which I am just going to abbreviate it as COP at this point, earned 72% of the vote for the second time, defeating her opponent by almost 45 points. Normally you'd expect some erosion of support over time of an elected official but COP's first election netted her a voting percentage in the high 60's - which politically speaking is a major ass-whooping - and has gone up to the 70's in two subsequent election cycles. I don't know that another elected official has achieved such an accomplishment. Actually I do know - and I can't find another that has. COP has 18 precincts in her district - 9 north of the freeway and 9 south of the freeway. ...

District 5 winners and losers is gonna be short and sweet. Isabel Salcido won with a big margin despite a crowded field of candidates. Pretty easy to see that Saucedo had really strong support on the eastside. If it wasn't for D6, Saucedo would probably be the big splash story of the municipal elections this cycle. Latina candidates all did well election night and Salcido was no exception. She trampled her opponents in early voting and maintained her lead throughout the night on election night. The other winner in this race - Forma Group. The team at Forma have been on an epic losing streak. Seriously they make the Cowboys look like actual Super Bowl contenders. They are sort of the Raiders of political consulting but they FINALLY got a win on the board. I mean as usual all the campaign money appears to be sucked up by consulting fees, but hey in this game wins and loses matter and they finally got a win. Salcido is another example of how voters have shown that Duranguito "iss...

The Democratic Party flipped the last two seats in El Paso County that were held by Republicans. So in a way, the El Paso County Democratic Party were winners because it was party muscle that helped make those wins happen. For the first time in YEARS the Democratic Party was actually the machine that has been talked about. Dozens of volunteers filled HQ the last few days helping the party. I'll be honest, there are still clicks. I got really annoyed at the click that showed up to only put out signs for Escobar and Beto, but didn't take the straight ticket signs or any of the other westside candidates' signs to put up. But I was heartened to see some of the old school Veronica-Beto haters have come around and were actually WORKING and WORKING hard for all the Democrats. Seriously, for a vato like me who has been in the Party for a long time, no matter how much a lot of them hate my guts, it was really really really nice to see those folks all-in. That is 100% because of the ...

Winner - Obviously the big winner in the District 1 race was Veronica Frescas. The least-funded candidate beat out Rick Bonart who essentially self-funded his campaign. He also proved that you should never hire someone to do a job that they haven't demonstrated they have the ability to actually do. There was probably a collective "Holy shit" exclaimed by people across the city when the numbers were published. Her performance shocked everyone and she alone deserves the credit. This was the upset no one saw coming. She made me look like a prophet when I wrote a couple months ago that she would surprise people, although I predicated it on her having a little money. She did it pretty much without any money and having absolutely no one to help her with her campaign but herself. She was an army of one. Roni was the first name on the ballot. She was the only Latina in the race. She, probably more than anyone else on the ballot, benefitted from the Beto Bump of turnout. Losers - ...

I normally do a winners and losers post after an election. Since this one had so many things going on, I decided to do a series of posts. We'll start with some broad strokes in the municipal election. By far the biggest loser in this election cycle is Max Grossman. Grossman had a stable of candidates and they all had the same message. And they all got their asses handed to them. Seriously Max Grossman should stick to whatever the hell it is he's good at and leave politics alone because he got a serious ass-whoopin' last night. None of his candidates that he funneled thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to from the Houston Billionaire sugar daddy performed well. Stoltz took a major beating - and he didn't even get hit. I can't imagine how much worse it would've been had a negative campaign message been leveraged against him. Wright is in a run-off, but that is because he's Rich Wright. Its not because of Grossman. He's smart and dynamic, that ...

District 6 candidate Eric Stoltz has a big problem with the truth, and by that I mean he's not very good at telling it. The vato flat out lies a lot. And its been catching up with him. Lets start with his arrest record and the term "slander". That is a legal term and its pretty specific. So Stoltz has been whining about the fact that his arrest record has become public. First of all, its 2018 and you're surprised that your arrest record came up? Come on Stoltz, you're a candidate for goodness sakes. Be a big boy and accept the fact that as a candidate you will be scrutinized. Its not only relevant, but it is the public's business. You are asking voters to be in charge of their tax dollars and you think the fact that you have an arrest for theft isn't a big deal? I assure you, its a big deal. Seriously, grow up. You think the fact that you were arrested just last year for probation violation isn't relevant? Stoltz tries to explain away his arrest record...

I caught the District 8 candidate debate and I thought it was pretty interesting and inspired me to write down a few thoughts. Click here to watch the debate. I couldn't find an embed code to display it here on my blog, but follow the link to catch the debate. Incumbent Cissy Lizarraga didn't attend the debate so it was just the challengers. If there is a turning point that ultimately leads to a run-off, which could be a tall order as I said previously, then its possible Dylan Corbett ends up in it. I'll admit, I'm becoming a bit of a fan of Corbett. Don't see eye-to-eye on policy with the guy on several issues, but he clearly comes across as very qualified and ready to lead. Corbett is head and shoulders above everyone else in terms of speaking and knowledge of the issues. He's a pretty gifted speaker. Again, I say that as someone who disagrees with a lot of his positions on policy, but he articulates his positions much better than his opponents. I continue to...