Holguin Ousted Over Conflict of Interest!

In a shocking development former City Representative and owner of Sun Circle Strategic Group Eddie Holguin was abruptly ousted from his position as Chair of the Tejano Democrats last night over what a source indicates was the "appearance of a conflict of interest".

The alleged appearance of a conflict of interest was the fact that he is chair or the organization but is part of campaigns for his clients that seek the endorsement of the Tejano Democrats, which according to the back-and-forth of the meeting, undermines the integrity of the organization's endorsement.

His position as chair of the Tejano Democrats, his wife as Party Chair, and the fact that they business is literally down the hall from the Democratic Party HQ is part of the appeal to prospective clients.

Well that appeal appears to be all gone now.

Holguin was not only removed as chair, it was - as we say in the valley - gacho!

Let me back up a little bit and explain that since it was revealed that Holguin was paying himself money with club funds for services and that under his wife's leadership the Holguin's directed Democratic Party funds to their family consulting firm to support Eddie Holguin's client Carl Robinson, Eddie Holguin has been under pressure from membership. I wrote about these developments back in August.

At a recent meeting Holguin announced that he would be taking a leave of absence as Chair of the Tejano Democrats, which is the flagship auxiliary of the El Paso Democratic Party, presumably because the Bylaws were being reviewed - something that will come into play later. Holguin then attempted to hand-pick his successor, which was not received well by the membership because he attempted to make the move without the consent of the organization.

You'd think that once he stepped down that it would naturally go to the First or Second Vice Chair of the organization. But it turns out that there is a provision in the Tejano Bylaws that Holguin and both of the Vice Presidents were in violation of. According to Article IV, Section 3 of the Tejano Bylaws, officers shall not endorse or campaign for a candidate that is not endorsed by the organization.

Under that rule, Holguin has apparently been in violation of that rule since the 2018 primary election cycle - at a minimum. Holguin had already been running Carl Robinson's campaign for County Commissioner. Robinson eventually was endorsed by the Tejanos, but any work done on Robinson's campaign BEFORE the organization voted to endorse Robinson, whether he was paid for the work or not, was when Holguin violated the Tejano's Bylaws.

So even if his candidates secure the endorsement of the organization that Holguin was the chair of, any campaign work done BEFORE thee endorsement constitutes a violation of the Bylaws, which is significant because that essentially means that Holguin should never have been re-elected Chair of the organization early this year because of this violation of the Bylaws.

Obviously that calls into question pretty much every vote under his leadership in this term.

While that section of the Bylaws is very clear - the vote at last night's meeting was actually to permanently replace Holguin rather than name a temporary chair while Holguin takes a hiatus to run his wife's campaign.

Why?

Because the membership's issue with Holguin wasn't a legal issue about whether he was following the Bylaws, but rather a political question as to whether there was an appearance of a conflict of interest with Holguin running campaigns for his firm's candidates and being chair of the organization - who's endorsement the candidates will ultimately seek.

Holguin was trying to have it both ways and the membership wasn't happy about it. He was trying to simultaneously say he was respectful of the rules by taking a hiatus - which is no where in the Bylaws - and still provide himself a way to come back as chair of the largest auxiliary of the El Paso County Democratic Party.

As a member put it to me, that is Eddie's problem. My source said that he was disappointed with the fact that Eddie is always trying to see what he CAN do as chair rather than if it is something he SHOULD do as chair.

Apparently during the discussion of trying to name his successor, the membership was so upset with Holguin that they made a motion to permanently REPLACE Holguin as chair instead of his desired hiatus, and hold a new election for chair right then and there. This was made possible because both Vice Presidents were also in violation of the Bylaws and therefore could not assume the chair.

As a result, Mary Bowles-Gasca was elected to replace Holguin for the unexpired portion of his term as chair. That means Bowles-Gasca will be Chair of the Tejano Democrats until May of 2021.

That seems to be a trend for Holguin. He was forced to leave City Council early when he resigned to run for County Judge and a special election was held to replace Holguin as City Rep for the unexpired portion of his term as City Representative.

Holguin's relationship with the membership of Tejanos started to turn sour when Holguin led an effort to oust Mary Bowles-Gasca as the Vice President of the state entity of the Tejano Democrats. Looks like Bowles-Gasca has the last laugh.

It is a pretty head-spinning series of events when you consider just a few months ago the Holguins were at the height of their power within the El Paso Democratic Party.

A few months ago Iliana Holguin was a popular party chair who's integrity was above reproach. Holguin was a popular chair of the flagship auxiliary of the El Paso County Democratic Party, he was the gatekeeper to support for candidates from both the Party and the Tejano Democrats.

Now ethical questions about nearly $10,000 of Democratic Party funds funneled to the Holguin's family consulting firm and violations of the Tejano Bylaws have arisen, Iliana Holguin's campaign aspirations have been challenged by the entrance of another attorney into the Precinct 3 race, Eddie Holguin directed Tejano funds to his consulting firm, and Eddie Holguin was unceremoniously ousted from his position at Tejanos.

My source summed things up pretty succinctly stating, "This is about what is ethical and protecting the integrity of the endorsement of our organization...what Eddie did should anger all of us. He should care about the organization as a member and the Chair. But it wasn't personal. Anyone that had a conflict should not be an officer of this organization."

My source is alluding to how heated things turned during the meeting. Tejanos used to be NOTORIOUS for their meetings being a total desmadre. Yelling, screaming, name-calling, and even scuffles were a pretty routine occurrence back then. It looks like those days came back with several former elected officials being involved in the shouting, name calling, and a near fist-fight at the end of the meeting.

Othon Medina is a pretty strong supporter of Eddie Holguin and he didn't like how things went down, calling it a coup. He apparently blamed Mary Bowles-Gasca for engineering a coup and was raising his voice at her. Apparently Medina was pretty upset and Gasca's spouse stepped-in to protect his wife. At one point words were exchanged between Medina and the spouse of a former elected official as well. The men had to be separated.

Things got so bad during the meeting - before the after-meeting dust-up - that several members got up and left the meeting.

I've been around the Democratic Party in El Paso since before the great Hillary-Obama War of 2008 and during that time, I've seen a lot of drama from the Tejano Democrats. But even in its darkest days under Blanche Darly...never have I seen a complete change in leadership from one meeting to the next, without a scheduled election.

This is going to make Thanksgiving really interesting because the Democratic Party usually has a party along the parade route at the Party Headquarters for the regular Party members. Eddie organizes that party he usually uses it as a chance to heckle the politicos in the parade that he doesn't like and support his candidates like former Mayor Oscar Leeser.

For the first time since she's been Chair of the El Paso Democratic Party, Iliana Holguin is going to be in the parade. Obviously, because she's a candidate for County Commissioner. Campaign materials are strictly prohibited from the Sun Bowl Parade, but you just know Eddie Holguin is going to try to come up with some way to advertise her candidacy.

But now that he's been so solidly rejected by his own organization, it will be interesting if Holguin shows up to the Thanksgiving event.

Either way, this is a pretty noteworthy nose-dive in popularity within the Party. It is unclear what impact this will have on the Holguin's bottom line. Holguin's candidates may not want to be associated with the Holguin firm now that there are ethical questions arising. Especially those in closely contested races because it may become a political liability for them.