David K & Order of Succession

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:

You should be suspect when your delegation picks a staffer that didn't live in El Paso for a long time as their pick for the seat.  What control are they trying to have the person who is in that seat?  The good people of District 76 are stripped of their representation and instead have to have someone beholden to other El Paso reps and Cesar Blanco as their house member.  How fair is that?  Is Ms. Tamayo going to pick up the phone and ask Cesar how to vote, or is she going to ask her constituents?  Cesar will tell her what to do.  Mayr Gonzalez will tell her what to do.  The people of her district will have no access. 

Each of you should have sniffed this out from a mile away.  How neat that this woman who didn't live in El Paso happens to move to El Paso just in time to announce she's running and then all the local players endorse her immediately without even waiting five minutes to see who else might get into the race.  Be angry that your house delegation tried to decide for you who represents you.  Maybe a few of you should primary your "representative" given that they don't value your input.  This is the egregious disfranchisement move I've seen in El Paso in a long time.  It's all legal, but it's ugly.  

Under any other circumstances the people and the media would be really upset about the fact that someone who doesn't live here, made her campaign announcement video live from Austin, Texas (seriously could they have underscored the fact that she's not from El Paso any more obviously?) and has almost no actual roots here, was going to be ordained to be the next state rep by a small group of people. It really is the height of arrogance that the delegation decides who THEY want to work with, as though We the People don't matter to them. 

The people's representatives aren't about what club you are in and if it approved by the delegation. The people's representatives are chosen by the people. I'm sure Tamayo is nice young lady. But she's a scheduler in her 20's. Joe Moody was in his 20's when he ran for the state legislature the first time - but he was an attorney with couple years of experience under his belt! That is a whole other story than a staffer who is a scheduler - not even a staffer with legislative experience! 

The delegation had this movida going for a long time, which as someone who actually lives in HD 76, really pisses me off. I'll lay out exactly how I know that later, but David K is 100% right about it. 

It should be an insult to everyone who lives in HD76 that the delegation thinks they know better than you who should be YOUR state rep. It should be an insult to everyone that lives in HD76 that they think someone from Austin should represent people in the Valley and the Eastside. It should be an insult to everyone that lives in HD76 that they think the talent pool in the district is so shallow that the best we can do is low-level staffer. 

And also, I know the poop emoji when I see it.