Carlos Gallinar to Run for Mayor

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 Old Rich White Mayor #2.

We can have a Chicano.

We can have someone who looks like us, talks like us, eats like us, acts like us, and truly represents us.

There's no reason this community shouldn't be represented by someone that looks like El Paso - a young, educated, Latino/a leader that is committed to making this community a better place.

And its time this community was represented by someone who wasn't part of the wealthy class.

Carlos Gallinar is going to announce his candidacy for Mayor this weekend. Is he going to raise as much money as Dee Margo and Oscar Leeser?

Probably not.

But maybe we will actually get a campaign that is a debate about policy and ideas instead of dueling consulting firms appealing to the lowest common denominator.

And I think its high time that we finally had that in this community.

Finally, we have a choice.

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Who's Gonna Be Angry About This?

The reality is that Mayor Margo is going to lose. He might be the only person on Planet El Paso that doesn't know that, but at some point he's going to have to come to grips with it.

But the one that is probably the most pissed about it is going to be Leeser and Eddie Holguin. Holguin has been selling his consulting gig as "equalizing the playing field for the 99%". That motto is a complete joke coming from Holguin because 1) its a rip off of Bernie Sanders and Eddie Holguin - who is borderline Republican - has the nerve to say that Sanders isn't a "real Democrat". But it is also a joke because Holguin's firm serves some of the wealthiest campaigns in town.

99% ni madre.

The Mayor's race is now going to be between Leeser and Gallinar. Its still Leeser's race to lose, but if Leeser actually does lose - along with some other big losses Holguin is going to have this cycle - its going to really hit his credibility.

He's REALLY gonna be mad when he finds out that Gallinar's field guy is Mike Apodaca - which was a good hire on the part of Gallinar.

You know who else is probably pissed?

Cassandra Hernandez. Honestly, she should be pissed at herself more than anyone but God forbid she actually take responsibility for anything, amirite? If Hernandez somehow manages to win the special election that she caused (which I don't think she will), Gallinar completely kills any visions of grandeur she might have about being the mayor.