El Paso Politics

The Chairwoman of the local El Paso County Democratic Party is a big time supporter of charter schools, which makes union support for the chair of the Democratic Party a big problem for unions. I'll get to that in a little bit, but first let me give you the backdrop. The hypocrisy of the Holguin family political business is troublesome. I thought about that this weekend when I saw that Iliana Holguin showed up to an Ysleta football game all of a sudden now that she is running for office and has a campaign sign at the home of a prominent Republican in the Lower Valley. His name is Fred Chavez and he's a former Justice of the Peace and lives on the same street as Commissioner Perez, who is the Precinct 3 Commissioner. In fact, when Commissioner Perez won his seat, he won the seat by defeating Chavez in the November general election that year. Chavez is a big time Trump supporter and a big time Ted Cruz supporter. He has had Ted Cruz signs up in his yard since Beto ran against Ted...

From what I've seen out in the streets, Cassandra Hernandez is in big trouble and about to lose. But for whatever reason, the media has treated her with kid gloves. Well, here's an interesting story they aren't likely to cover even if they would cover it if the story were about anyone else. Hernandez common-law spouse Jeremy Jordan is running the bond for the PD union. The amount an amateur like him is making is pretty obscene, people saying anywhere from $40k to $80k. Well not surprisingly, Jordan doesn't have block walking going on all over the city - or even in the high turn-out areas where it would make sense to have block walkers. Instead...and not surprising at all, he has leveraged the campaign resources for the PD bond in the same precincts in which Cassandra Hernandez is on the ballot. You know, the same city rep that actually VOTES on the PD budget... Oh, not sure if that is really happening? Oh I assure you it is. I have pics. I always have pics... I have ple...

Mayor Pro-Temp Claudia Ordaz-Perez announced today that she was going to run for HD76, a seat vacated by Cesar Blanco who is now running for senator - and Elisa Tamayo gave a cringe-worthy interview that really makes the delegation look bad. I'll get to that in a minute, so walk with me... Ordaz Perez announced her candidacy at the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, with the Ysleta Mission as a backdrop, which was a start contrast to Elisa Tamayo, the hand-picked candidate of the delegation, who has spent more years living in Austin than El Paso. Tamayo announced her campaign from Austin and then did a formal announcement for the HD76 in another State Rep's district. I guess that makes sense because the reason she's being picked by the delegation is precisely because they want her to do what benefits them, not necessarily her district. But don't take MY word for it - one of the state reps that came out to endorse Tamayo actually articulated pretty clearly that the delegations prior...

Every time I turn around there seems to be another shady issue with the Holguins and money.  Here's the latest for those of you keeping score at home.  The Sheriff Officers' Association has come out in support of Iliana Holguin. She's been putting their endorsement on all of her campaign literature. Why is that important? Well I'm glad you asked.  The reason its important is because the candidates for Commissioner's Court are required to report campaign contributions in excess of $2,500 on the Commissioner's Court Meeting Agenda. The two law enforcement unions put in big money into Commissioner Leon's campaign coffers. Like I said, candidates AND incumbents are required to report big contributions. Commissioner Leon obviously knows this rule and has complied with it - which is how we know how much money they gave him.  Which is the entire point of the rule - transparency. The rule exists so that the public knows who has contributed large sums of money to can...

I had a Facebook exchange yesterday that inspired me to write this post because the conversation reminded me of something really important. We've seen a candidate that was recruited to run for a seat in a community they don't live in before. Tamayo certainly isn't the first, but in terms of HD 76, she's a first. State Reps from HD 76 have traditionally had strong roots in HD 76, Cesar Blanco has a home in San Antonio but he at least went to high school here. The other people that have held HD 76 have very strong roots in this community. Tamayo has almost no ties to HD 76 and only some thin connective tissue to El Paso but she was recruited specifically by the delegation to run for the seat being vacated by Cesar Blanco because "they all get along". Now don't get me wrong, getting along as a delegation is important. It wasn't always the case. Norma Chavez, who once held the HD 76 seat was notorious for not being able to get along with anyone but her ugl...

Its not often that I agree with my buddy David K, but he wrote a post recently in which he pretty much nails it. He wrote a piece about Elisa Tamayo running for HD 76, the seat left vacated by State Rep Cesar Blanco who is going to fill the seat left vacated by Senator Rodriguez who will be retiring. The delegation, rather than letting the people of the Eastside and Valley pick their state rep, decided to begin the coronation of a scheduler as the heir apparent to State Rep Cesar Blanco. Also, her campaign sign is supposed to be the Franklin Mountains and the star. It just sort of looks like the poop emoji and a star though. David K lays out an entire timeline of events - although I would add one part to it. She was recently hired by Speaker Pro Temp Moody's office to be a part-time staffer. Convenient, que no? Now she has the ability to draw a tax-payer funded check and still campaign. Anywho, you should read David K's piece because he really nails it. Particularly this part:...

Quite frankly it is impossible to see anything productive that County Judge Samaniego has done. He rarely does anything noteworthy but has a lot of pet projects that seem like a waste of time and money. The latest is probably the most egregious. At a time when the tax payers have been hit pretty hard lately, Samaniego decided to push forward an idea for a float in the Sun Bowl Parade.  Now mind you, the budget season just happened last month. Why this wasn't discussed then is ridiculous. Maybe be knew it was just a stupid way to spend money that he didn't want to put it in the budget.  At any rate, the County Judge pushed the idea of a float for the County of El Paso in the Sun Bowl Parade that would cost the county tax payers $10,000. Yes you read that right, ten grand for a float! Commissioners have always just ridden in cars provided to them by the parade organizers, or they get their own vehicles.  I guess Samaniego figures that he's living in the shadow of Escobar an...

I had a chance to hear two of the DA candidates at the El Paso County Democratic Party meeting the night before last and there is a major difference between the two. Eddie Holguin's candidate is Karen Dykes. Holguin said he was staying out of the DA race, but like I said, you can't believe anything that comes out of Eddie Holguin's mouth these days. But hey, don't take my word for it. There is always a tell when someone is Eddie's candidate. He usually will roll out his slate of candidates to show up and take pictures with the new candidate. His favorite to roll out is Oscar Leeser. But you can also tell she's his candidate by the fact that he's actually hiding in the back of the room in this picture. I don't know Ms. Dykes at all. I've never done any vetting on her at all. So I'm basing this solely on the one time I've heard her speak. She's very charismatic and engaging. But she sounds like she is confusing the DA's office with the ...

The Tejanos are having their dinner this weekend and since they were, I thought I would mention a few things about it and the Tejanos that you might find humorous. First, you're paying all that money for tickets to see a Juan Gabriel impersonator. Seriously, that is what you're blowing your money on. Why are you paying that kind of money to see a Juanga impersonator? Because Eddie is obsessed with Juanga. And not only is he obsessed with him, Eddie Holguin thinks he's still alive and that he faked his death. I'm not making that up. He sat and waited for the resurrection day holding vigil. I'm surprised he didn't put candles up at the Virgen mural on Alameda. But then again, sometimes he says that Juanga's son killed him. But its Eddie and so you can't believe anything he says anyway. They had the budget to get a really good performer - there were a few people suggested like Michael Salgado and some other performers. Previously they've had Little Joe ...

For those of you on my social media I posted a few weeks ago about meeting someone who was thinking about running for mayor and I mentioned that the person was smart, brown, bilingual, and cares about El Paso. I also mentioned that I might not agree with all the policy positions of the candidate, but that I think the person is a great candidate and it was the first time in a very long time that I actually felt excited about a candidate for Mayor. Right now we have a binary choice between two old white guys that are mayors. Old White Guy Mayor #1 Dee Margo or Old White Guy Mayor #2 Oscar Leeser El Paso is on the national stage lately. Never has the national focus been stronger on this community. We are a large Latino community and if you look historically at all of our mayors, we have mayors that are wealthy rich white guys going back to the mid 1800's. The ruling class in this town has always been wealthy white guys. But now we have a choice other than Old Rich White Mayor #1 or Ol...