Loweree Doubles Down on Experience, Ed Claims

Well, talk about a surprising development. Carlos Sierra's candidate Mickey Loweree had some peculiar answers to the El Paso Times' questions about her experience and education.

She was also at a candidate forum last night where she added another layer of intrigue to the questions surrounding her education.

The Westside Dems asked the candidates to send in a bio so that it could be printed and the attendees could read about the candidate before they spoke so that the candidates didn't have to waste time giving biographical information. I'm gonna assume that Trustee Loweree's bio was submitted before the news story came out about the allegations from the El Paso American Federation of Teachers regarding Loweree's education and experience hit the news.

Now keep up because Loweree's description of her education twists and turns quite a bit over time. So on her bio on the EPISD website it says that she has worked in EPISD as a teacher for 10 years and that she was UTEP grad.

In her campaign lit, that language changes a bit. UTEP grad changes to graduated from college in El Paso. That could mean anything from UTEP to EPCC to any of the for-profit degree mills in town. 10 years as a teacher in EPISD also changes to teaching for 10 years as a volunteer.

Well there is now another change. Now she says she has a Bachelor's in Kinesiology, and has started taking classes toward a Master's Degree in Kinesiology.

It should be easy enough to verify if she is a student in a Master's Degree Program.

But verifying her employment and education claims has been the problem. As you can see in the article in the El Paso Times, rather than clarify her education or experience by definitively stating when and where she was a teacher and when and where she earned her degree from, she instead states that she went to UTEP in 1994 and refused to give specifics about when or where she worked at as a teacher in EPISD stating that her lawyer told her she had to be careful about that.

This issue came about because union boss Ross Moore attempted to verify her claims about employment and education and was unable to verify the veracity of Loweree's claims. Now Moore has standing in this. He's the union boss that represents teachers.

He's defending the profession.

He is also calling for her to drop out of the race and resign as a trustee since none of what she has claimed as so far been able to be verified as true.

"These are not the first lies Ms. Loweree has told, nor do I believe they will be the last," Moore said in the Times article.

Well she can't drop out. That actually isn't possible. It would take a court order to have her removed from the ballot at this point.

Loweree's rationale for not turning over any information that would verify the claims she's made - of which the institutions were unable to verify as accurate, defies logic. Essentially her reason for not turning it over is that Moore isn't asking her nicely enough for it.

Again, from the article "He's (Moore) going about it in the wrong way of demanding, not even asking, for information...That's not the way we work. We work respectfully and if we can't, then you don't need anything."

What kind of bullshit response is that? So the Times asked for it. Why hasn't she given it up to them?

Loweree was actually asked a question last night by Dr. Kathleen Staudt last night that alluded to the article in yesterday's El Paso Times regarding her employment and education claims.

Loweree's campaign team, and I'll get to them in a minute, crafted an attempt to reframe the issue. Loweree is now alleging that she is being bullied. She's also said that she's a human being that needs to be treated with dignity.

She's not being bullied and the fact that she tries that middle school cop out to avoid being held accountable in the world of tax paying adults is an insult to kids who have to deal with actual bullying.

She's being held accountable for claims about her education and experience that cannot be verified. That isn't bullying.

And you have absolutely no standing to talk about bullying when your campaign manager is known for being this town's dirtiest player in the game. I mean come on, your campaign manager - the guy who probably came up with the idea to claim you're being bullied, is the same guy who sent an anonymous and unreported robocall about someone with a disability - and make fun of the disability in the robocall!

Seriously, you're the last person that should be crying wolf about bullying when he's your campaign manager!

And quite frankly, if she really wanted to stick it to the people that are critical of her, all she has to do is release the information and she ends all the talk.

She'd make a lot of people look really stupid and she'd get some positive free media attention.

Come on Carlos, do I have to do your job for you? Do you really suck that bad at this?

Well according to Carlos, no he doesn't.

In the same article, there is an part that talks about Loweree's opponent Daniel Call alleging that Loweree is violating campaign rules by filming on school grounds in a campaign video.

So Carlos Sierra sent an email to the El Paso Times with a statement from Loweree that says, "My campaign team is one of the best in the country and has the best equipment on the market, so the zoom effects of their camera are obviously really exceptional...Their camera and equipment was not on school grounds."

Yes, you read that correctly. Carlos Sierra sent an email from his client saying he was one of the best in the country. I laughed so hard reading that for a few reasons, one being - what kind of asshole writes an email on behalf of his client and them pats himself on the back in said email? and two - come on Carlos, if you were that good people wouldn't always have to disavow you.

Seriously that response was the most Carlos Sierra thing I've heard since his last unreported robocall.

But let me get to the massive pile of shit that answer about camera's and zoom effects is. Carlos Sierra's bullshit story about camera zoom presumes you're stupid. The violation of campaigning on school grounds has absolutely nothing to do with where the camera is located. If you shoot from across the street or on a sidewalk - but the candidate is still ON SCHOOL PROPERTY - it is a violation.

Camera zoom is just about how close they can get to the subject. They aren't using CGI to make it look like she was on campus...she WAS ON CAMPUS.

And its silly little lies like that, that are so BLATANTLY obvious that have undermined the public's trust in her leadership.