El Paso Politics

Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. Today the Ysleta ISD Board of Trustees is going to meet to discuss what, if any, action they will take following an incident in which two area Superintendents were involved in a physical altercation, Dr. De La Torre and SISD's Dr. Espinoza. YISD's Board of Trustees is likely to take action that will be some form of punishment. SISD's Board of Trustees not only didn't take any action against Dr. Espinoza, but they actually REWARDED him with a contract extension. SISD's Board of Trustees and Dr. Espinoza should be ashamed of themselves and quite frankly, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. The El Paso Times wrote an editorial completely bashing the YISD Board of Trustees and said they were involved in covering up the incident. I can't believe that any rational person who has seen all the facts would believe that YISD was involved in a cover-up. Oh, don't get me wrong. I ABSOLU...

Courtesy: EP County Sheriff's Office via KVIA I love posts like this because they have all the stuff that make El Paso politics fun...threats, denials, finance reports, screenshots (my particular weapon of choice), public records, and news articles. And what fun would be an El Paso race without at least one candidate having an arrest record? Get used to the idea of a guy who was arrested for "deadly conduct" and discharging a firearm within city limits (both multiple times) running for District Attorney. Told ya it was gonna be fun! Strap in, lets dig into this one... There are two ways to view this - either Yvonne Rosales tried one of the oldest dirty tricks in politics, or her own supporters are turning on her and running against her. This post is a few days coming because well, when people threaten me I like to make them sweat it. I wrote a previous blog and had a throw-away line in it about a candidate being put up for DA that was really a patsy for another candidate....

Well I've done some digging and with a little help from a source, I can update you on some of the GOP figures that are, or considering, a run for the GOP nomination to get wiped out by Congresswoman Escobar in November 2020. Irene Armendariz-Jackson is considering a bid for the congressional seat. She worked a bit to help out Rick Seeberger in his last bid for the congressional seat. As you know, Seeberger had a range of financial issues that made him a very controversial pick for the GOP. He famously pulled a Norma Chavez and alleged that there was massive voter fraud that led to his defeat. Completely unsubstantiated, much like Norma Chavez's claims. Blanca Trout is a Republican who is also a school board member on the Canutillo ISD Board of Trustees. She, I'm not exactly sure why, thinks she can beat Escobar in a general election. Again, I don't have the slightest clue what led her to the conclusion, but she is also considering a bid. The El Paso GOP is supposedly ge...

"Its not fair that you're getting all the bad rap, or the bad press..." Those are the words of SISD Trustee David Morales to YISD Superintendent Xavier De La Torre regarding the now-famous Whataburger incident in San Antonio, Texas in a recording that is now pretty much all over the internet. SISD Trustee David Morales also says that the version of the story that SISD Superintendent Dr. Espinoza and the other SISD Trustees have been saying is a "fabrication". SISD Superintendent Dr. Jose Espinoza has been sticking to his guns about a story that seems to be coming apart at the seams as more information comes to light. I took the time to break down and sift through the recording to layout the most troublesome part of this account of what transpired. SOURCE: Their own words. Before I do that, here's a quick run-down of what happened - according to the police report. The police report says what Espinoza says happened - that De La Torre saw Espinoza, made a remar...

Well you're going to hear a lot of chatter about things that may or may not pan out over the next few months in terms of candidates, so expect a few of these types of posts. Former Judge Gonzalo Garcia is rumored to be thinking about running for District Attorney. That is actually an old rumor that resurfaced once State Rep Joe Moody made it clear on Thursday that he is running for reelection rather than running for DA. A union friend of mine had jury duty near the end of Gonzalez Garcia's last term on the bench. Judge Garcia is affectionately known as "GG". She called me after the jury selection was over because she couldn't believe what she'd heard GG say. She indicated that he flat out told all the jury pool that he was ending his time on the bench but that you'd see his name on a ballot again soon. I think I wrote about that a while back but its interesting because if you recall, the alleged plan was that GG was going to run for another judicial seat b...

Did you ever see the movie 8 Mile with Eminem? At the end he has a rap battle with a guy who eventually went on to be an Avenger. In the rap battle Eminem pretty much exposes the vato for being a fraud. The guy's real name was Clarence, he went to private school, and he came from a stable home with both parents who had a "real good marriage". Essentially he showed that the guy was a big phony. So is "Conservative Anthony". I guess it would only be appropriate for me to start off this part the way Eminem did..."I know something about you..." Conservative Anthony is a made-up character. His real name is Pedro Aguero and he's been convicted of multiple felonies. He goes by the new moniker presumably to hide from his past of drugs, alcohol, and violence against women. The last time I called him out on his record, he tried to explain it away by acknowledging making "a mistake" but its his past and he's moved on. Back then I was specificall...

Okay, I'll be quick about this post because there's a lot of chatter going around and some people are experiencing some visions of grandeur and apparently don't have anyone around them that will tell them the truth. So allow me... Cassandra Hernandez - apparently someone put it in her head that she was viable for something. It's the political rumor that just won't die, but its actually pretty damn funny. Now don't laugh, but apparently they were kicking around the idea of Hernandez running for mayor. Someone close to her was asked if it was true and gave a non-answer response. She's already got people circling in the waters to run for her city council seat and I think she'd have a hard time holding on to it, I don't know what on earth gave her the idea that she would be viable for mayor, especially when you see the amount of money Leeser and Margo raised. Seriously, the last thing she wants is Forma whacking her for panty-gate and the assault thing ...

So finance reports were due this month and there's a couple of interesting developments. I'm gonna start with the sheriff's race because the Democratic Party had a big function this weekend and coupled with the release of the finance reports, it was probably a rude awakening for one candidate in particular - Carlos Carrillo. Carrillo is a running against El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles. There is one fundamental problem with Carrillo's candidacy that is going to make it very difficult for Carrillo to gain any real traction among Democratic Party regulars - Carrillo voted for Trump in the last presidential election. To be fair to Carrillo, he's indicated that he is no longer a Trump supporter, but the only other major political even't Carrillo has attended this year was, you guessed it, Trump's visit to the El Paso County Coliseum. Trump still owes the City of El Paso a pretty penny for that event by the way. A quick look at the finance report supports wh...

Ambassador Stout loves the jail contract in which the County of El Paso receives revenue from the Trump Administration to execute his policy of separating families. Since its Monday and a normal meeting day for Commissioner’s Court, he’s likely to have yet another do-nothing resolution about the Trump administration’s immigration policies.  I mean assuming Ambassador Stout actually shows up to work. Real talk - there are two commissioners in bad health and Ambassador Stout is pretty often off galavanting somewhere on the planet - whether its Machu Pichu or the Kentucky Club in Juarez - Ambassador Stout misses a lot of work time to travel, which really impacts the productivity of the Court.  Anywho...where’s his resolution about the roundup this weekend?  He doesn’t have one. I’ll tell you why. Because he’s literally the biggest proponent of the cash the County of El Paso gets for rounding up immigrants. Not only is a big proponent for the contract...and he can’t deny it n...

He graduated from Americas High School at just 16 years old. When he finished law school and passed the bar he was the youngest lawyer in Texas. He's also an Eagle Scout. And now several years later James Montoya is a seasoned prosecutor looking to succeed longtime District Attorney Jaime Esparza. Montoya launched his campaign outside of the El Paso County Courthouse this morning in front of a large group of supporters, family, friends, elected officials, and members of law enforcement. Montoya joins Yvonne Rosales in the race for District Attorney. Rosales announced several weeks ago and then did some weird re-announcement announcement. What was weird about it is how she sort of fumbled it. I don't think she got any media attention the first time she announced and then took the opportunity to re-announce her announcement when District Attorney Jaime Esparza announced he was not seeking reelection. She posted a campaign announcement on her campaign page telling people to be rea...

Okay expect the political deck to start shuffling soon. Today District Attorney Jaime Esparza made it official that he wasn't going to run for reelection and would be retiring. That has long been rumored along with State Rep Joe Moody being rumored to jump ship and run for District Attorney to replace Esparza. That is going to leave Moody's seat open. Current City Rep Peter Svarzbein raises money like nobody's business and is likely thinking about running for state rep, except that would mean he'd have to resign to run. But if you look at today's city council agenda, almost a full year after his reelection, City Rep Svarzbein is reporting three $1000 campaign contributions. I doubt he had debt from his last campaign run, so its interesting that he's still raising money to the extent that he has contributions so large that he has to report them. Its also interesting because Svarzbein has never had to run in a partisan race before and it is unknown how he'd do...

In general, resolutions annoy me. They are non-binding action taken by a body and have been used for so many different things that they have cheapened their impact - everything from Chuck Norris recognition to state and federal policy stands. Sometimes they are feel-good efforts to recognize an individual or say a high school team that won a state championship. I don't mind those so much. Usually they have about the same impact as a letter from Epstein's mother. Sorry, that is a pretty obscure reference to the show Welcome Back Kotter , but if you got that reference, good for you Jeopardy Champ! But Ambassador Stout has been using resolutions for his political soapbox - whenever he is actually in the United States or actually in the precinct he represents. I guess it makes him feel like he's doing something. More often than not, it exposes his hypocrisy - like his resolution yesterday. Stout brought forth another resolution in opposition of Trump's policies on immigrati...