Carlos Sierra Digs Loweree's Hole Deeper

I haven't seen a story handled this poorly by a campaign staff since David Saucedo's campaign team asked for a time-out in the middle of an interview when it wasn't going well.

KVIA decided to follow-up on a story broken by the El Paso Times about Loweree's education and experience, or rather lack thereof in terms of what she stated to have on her bio on the EPISD website.

From a public relations and campaign perspective, this is an example of a very easy story to deal with and kill immediately. First, if the facts are on your side, be first. Be first to release the information. Had they actually had documentation of the degree, teaching certification, and work experience, they should've released it right away. That would've undermined the union and prevented them from framing her has dishonest.

If they had it and they didn't release it, then that is just simply a failure on the part of her campaign team. Frankly, unless Loweree for some reason didn't want it released (and I can see any reason why), its hard to see that as anything other than malpractice as a consultant.

But what if there was no degree, certification, and work history to support her claims on the bio? Is this way of dealing with the story appropriate under those circumstances?

Hell no.

If her campaign team found out it wasn't true, then they should've advised her to deal with the issue head on, end the questions and controversy, express remorse and contrition, minimize it and move on.

That is how you deal with a negative story. She would've taken a hit, but there was time to overcome it. How they are dealing with the issue now is the worst possible way to deal with it.

First lets be real here, if she actually had the degree, certification and experience, she wouldn't pass up the chance of making the union look like they don't know what they are talking about. That would strategically be very beneficial to her because they put so much money into her opponent and there's no logical reason she wouldn't take that route.

But having a controversy magnet like Carlos Sierra be the media contact for her campaign was a huge mistake to begin with. But if he was the one who came up with the idea to say that the degree, certification, and work experience exists - but she doesn't want to release it until after the election - was Hall of Fame stupid.

The best case scenario for Loweree is that she loses and no one will care anymore if she was lying or not because she won't be a school board member.

That is LITERALLY the best case scenario for her. Why? Because if she wins (which this story ironically makes it pretty clear that she's not going to) then there is ever MORE pressure for her to come through with the proof of the education, certification, and work history.

And if she doesn't, it would then be actionable.

The reality is that no matter how much money from God knows where that she dumps into the campaign, it is not going to help her win at this point.

I can't recall of a trustee that has a worse reputation among teachers in EPISD. Her statements made at the Westside Democrats hurt her even more. She made a comment that basically said that class size doesn't matter if you're a good teacher.

Now I know that because of Trump we are almost conditioned to look past the fact that an elected official is lying, but just because people are used to Trump lying a lot doesn't mean that they are going to be okay with an untruths allegedly coming from a school board trustee.

This answer makes her sound like Trump and his taxes. They apparently haven't learned their lesson that people don't like when you insult their intelligence, which is what that ridiculous answer was.

The unknown factor is if Tom Hicks, Sierra's other candidate in EPISD, will face any negative blowback from association with Sierra.

Click the video below to see the story that aired on KVIA and Sierra's answers to the questions from the reporter.

Teachers' union questions credentials of EPISD trustee