EP Dem Party Moves to Stop Fake Candidates

The Paso Del Norte Tejano Democrats met the other night and there were a couple of important changes that were proposed that will likely end up becoming cannon for all the El Paso County Democratic Party Auxiliary clubs.

The plan is meant to limit fake Democrats' ability to win the endorsement of Democratic Party Auxiliary clubs by focusing on candidates' voting record.

This is essentially the Dori Rule. When running for congress a couple of years ago, Dori Fenenbock was endorsed by a couple of Democratic Party Auxiliary clubs over Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. That isn't normally a big deal because clubs each establish their own rules for how a candidate is endorsed and the endorsement is generally made by a vote of membership.

But it was a big deal for Tejano Democrats because two important factors codified in their charter are the promotion of Democratic Party candidates, and electing qualified Latino candidates.

Many in the Tejano Democrats were embarrassed that a white candidate with a mostly-Republican voting record ended up winning the endorsement of the premier Latino-based political organization in town over a Latina candidate with a solid Democratic voting history.

Fenenbock was able to win the endorsement because there are still members of the El Paso County Democratic Party that care more about personal beef than they do about the values of the party and so some Democrats like Mary Bowles-Gasca and Pee Wee Mier supported the white Republican, Dori Fenenbock, not because of anything rooted in their values as Democrats. They supported her because they hate Escobar. They were able to get just enough of their friends to show up and vote on the day of the Tejano endorsement for Fenenbock to win.

Obviously after a development like that, the organization had to take action to protect the integrity of their endorsement. They did so earlier this week by proposing a rule change that will focus on Republican Party voting history.

This will also have an impact on municipal elections. People that aren't Democrats but are seeking the party's endorsement during non-partisan elections will no longer be able to pull a David Saucedo. He courted Dem support even though he's a solid Republican.

The challenge for the organization was to establish a rule that allowed for the fact that some good Democrats today were at some point in their lives, Republicans - while maintaining the integrity of the endorsement by preventing Johnny-Come-Latelys.

Hard-liners wanted to make anyone with Republican voting history ineligible for the endorsement. No one thought that the current system that allows candidates with even recent Republican voting history to get the endorsement was a good idea.

So the proposed rule that is likely to be adopted at the next meeting of the Tejano Democrats is that anyone who has voted Republican in any of the last 5 election cycles is ineligible for the endorsement of the Tejano Democrats. Essentially if you voted Republican in the last 10 years, you can't get the endorsement.

Expect that rule change to make its way to the rest of the organizations this election cycle, making it far more difficult for people that aren't genuine Democrats to be able to secure the endorsements of Democratic Party clubs and further sell their deception to voters.