Rosales Financial Backer Joins DA Race Against Her

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. I never used any names, but an anonymous poster in the comment section said that before I commit libel (I'm still laughing at that), that I should know that Rosales knew nothing about the candidacy of which I'm about to speak.

Well to borrow a line from Hamlet that I'm fond of (yes, vato's read Shakespeare too) "the lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Funny how "someone" would have that precise knowledge of who the candidate was and drop Rosales name, without me ever mentioning either, que no?

So back in the old days when Joseph P. Kennedy was trying to get his son and future president elected into office, he came up with a really dirty trick. Kennedy was running in a predominately Italian district and the incumbent had an Italian last name. Papa Joe went and found someone with the same last name and paid the guy to through his name on the ballot. It confused the voters, split the incumbent's support and Kennedy won the election.

Of course that was over half a century ago because the advent of the internet where news stories are turned quickly and people have ready access to information.

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The Patsy?

The legal community is abuzz about this situation because there is a rather large segment that think this was an orchestrated effort between Roger Montoya and Yvonne Rosales to confuse voters between Roger Montoya and James Montoya, who made his campaign announcement a couple weeks ago and has been steadily gaining support.

There appears to be a pretty solid reason why people think that Roger Montoya running for DA is part of an orchestrated effort with Yvonne Rosales - and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with Roger Montoya's arrest record.

Oh trust me, there's a lot to talk about when it comes to that particular angle because only in El Paso does someone with record have the audacity to ask to be the main prosecutor in town - but I'll get to that in a few minutes.

So lets start with one of the main reasons that people think that this is a coordinated effort. Roger Montoya is and has been, a financial backer of Yvonne Rosales' campaign to be District Attorney since the last time she ran.

On Rosales' January 2016 report Roger Montoya was good for a $100 contribution. He gave another $100 in the 8 day report of that cycle and another $600 and a $200 in-kind contribution for her final report that cycle.

So he gave her a $1,000 total in that election cycle.

But as recently as last month, Roger Montoya was still a financial backer of the Rosales campaign and was even listed on her Host Committee as you can see in this screenshot.

That obviously begs the question...if this isn't a calculated and coordinated effort to confuse voters between Roger Montoya and Yvonne Rosales' campaign, then its a pretty stinging indictment of Montoya's lack of confidence in someone that just a month ago he was supporting.

Not just supporting, a member of her host committee.

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Confidence Issues for Rosales

No matter how you slice it, Roger Montoya jumping into the race is a big deal. In a lot of ways, it would be better for Rosales if it was actually a coordinated thing because if it isn't, the fact that one of her former supporters now thinks they are a better option just one month after being on her host committee and a couple of weeks since appearing on her most recent campaign finance report, is really bad for Rosales' campaign.

And it speaks to a problem she's had since the last campaign, she doesn't inspire confidence in her ability to win. She got a long-time incumbent into a run-off last time. Those are the races you're supposed to win because a long-time incumbent in a run-off is a weak candidate. Supporters of the incumbent are supposed to be discouraged and supporters of the challenger are supposed to be galvanized and motivated to go in for the proverbial kill.

But she lost to an unpopular incumbent in the absolute best of circumstances for her candidacy. Now there are candidates coming out of the woodwork - a couple of former judges, Lenny Morales is likely getting in the race, at least two women, and now you have one of Rosales' own former supporters throwing their hat in the ring.

That is a whole lot of people who saw her performance last time and now feel like they have a better shot. That problem with that presumption about a candidate, is that it hurts your ability to raise money. When people no longer have confidence in you, they stop donating to your campaign. Or its easier for them to say that they are going to give to someone else because they committed to help that person if they got in the race.

Basically any excuse under the sun to avoid giving money. As it is, Rosales' first campaign finance report wasn't stellar. She was the first candidate out of the gate. She had the donor base all to herself for a pretty long time.

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Roger Montoya's Legal Troubles - "Deadly Conduct"

Someone would have to be completely detached from reality if they think they are going to run for office and their arrest record isn't going to come out. Especially if they are running for District Attorney.

But hey, only in El Paso amirite?

Lets just rip the band aide off and get right to the substance here. Here's an article from the Albuquerque Journal about a story involving Roger Montoya. The story states that Roger Montoya was involved in a road rage incident with a Sun Metro bus here in El Paso.

According to the story, Roger Montoya cut off a Sun Metro bus in traffic and the bus driver honked at Roger Montoya, prompting Roger Montoya to waive the gun at the Sun Metro driver. The story does not say if there were any passengers aboard the bus at the time.

According to the news article, police eventually went to Roger Montoya's home and discovered he had shot a tree.

The article doesn't say if the tree provoked the action with a head-butt, nor does it say how many - if any, Socorro ISD Trustees were present at the time of the shooting.

Maybe the tree was mad-dogging him or was talking shit to him. It also doesn't say if Roger Montoya shot the tree in self-defense.

There was no identifying information about the tree, so I have thus far been unable to get comment from the tree about the incident.