I'm Under-Voting in District 6 Race

I know, I'm slippin'. Several of you have reached out to me because you don't know who to vote for in the District 6 special election and I should have written this post a long time ago.

It kills me that there are no candidates that I can support in the District 6 special election. At this point, I am seriously worried about the severe downgrade in representation District 6 is about to undergo.

I checked the voting history of all the candidates and it kills me to say this - I mean it almost physically pains me - but Eric Stoltz is the candidate that has the voting record that appeals most to me.

But lets be real. There's no scenario in which I would vote for him. He's an internet troll who loves to to troll electeds and candidates on social media because he's just oh-so-busy being a burnout on his parents' couch that he can't fit time for phone call between bong hits, but can't take honest policy questions and so he blocked me from his pages. Whats gonna happen when people inevitably disagree with him on council?

That tells me he can't take heat or criticism and we have an orange Cheeto in office right now that shows us how well that works out for us.

Aside from being a hypocritical troll, I have much more substantive reasons to not ever vote for him. Number one, his recent criminal history is a problem. I don't much care that he's a marijuano, but not taking care of basic probation shit after having multiple opportunities to do so shows me he didn't learn his lesson.

Second, and truthfully probably more importantly to me, the guy cares more about the westside and westside issues than he does the Eastside or the Valley.

I'm sorry but the westside has enough city reps already, thank you very much.

When the most important issue ever to face the lower valley arose, Stoltz was no where to be found, except when he was trying to make it a campaign issue for him.

That is downright shameful. He's already proved that when given the opportunity, he didn't stand up for the community he seeks to represent.

So I can't support Stoltz.

Next is Arnulfo Hernandez. The guy has a lot of credentials and I'm sure he's a nice fellow. Looks sorta like Chente Quintanilla, but that is beside the point. I have major concerns about politicos he's connected to, but that is a post for another day. My biggest issue is that he's got no connection to the district. I'm pretty consistent with my problem with candidates running to represent communities that they aren't really a part of. He went to Bowie, which would be GREAT...if he were running for District 8.

But I checked his voting history and guess what? He's never voted in a District 6 race.

As in ever.

In fact, he's never voted in a municipal race in at least the last decade either.

In any district.

Zip.

Zilch.

Nada.

In fact, he's only voted in an El Paso election one time according to his voting history...the last November election. A man his age with only one election under his belt in this community, I don't care if you do claim La Bowie, you just doesn't have enough local knowledge and experience for my vote.

And that leads me to the two Republicans.

Claudia Rodriguez and Debbie Torres.

Claudia Rodriguez is very clearly - and ironically - running on the name "Claudia" because of Claudia Ordaz Perez's name ID. Interestingly Rodriguez is a straight up Republican. She's supported by Max Grossman, which is interesting in and of itself because he supported Stoltz the last time he ran against Ordaz Perez. But after suffering one of the worst political beat-downs in local elections that I can remember, it doesn't surprise me that Grossman would look for a new horse to back.

I got a kick out of one Claudia Rodriguez's campaign fliers because it listed a precinct that was actually in Horizon. District 6 is in El Paso, not in Horizon City.

I saw some video of her being interview by some fool who was endorsing her. He spent most of the interview doing the talking so if you didn't know, you'd think HE was the candidate, not her. He was doing a lot of mansplaining to her, but she didn't seem to mind. My favorite part was where she was talking about how council spends money, talked about the trolly, talked about potholes, the quality of life bond and it was all conservative talking points. She also spoke a lot about how the ballot language is so confusing and that if she was in office she was going to fix that by doing PSA's about the bond items etc.

Funny thing though...all that complaining she does about what the city does (when she could actually get a word in) and how it spends money and bond language etc...well it would mean a whole lot more if she had actually ever, ya know, actually voted in a municipal election.

Her voting record not only showed she's a Republican, but it also showed something else...it showed that she's never voted in a city election. So she does all this complaining about how bad the city is, but she apparently never felt strong enough to vote in a city election. Now that the elections were moved to November, she might have actually voted in her first municipal election. Assuming she actually went through the whole ballot and wasn't just voting for Ted Cruz and calling it a day.

I was leaning toward Debbie Torres.

She's a nice lady and seems to know policy pretty well.

But I saw her voting history and she voted Republican in 2016 and 2018. She was a Democrat as recently as 2008, but for some reason, she went to the dark side in those two elections. And I have a major problem with someone voting Republican in those two elections because that means she was supporting Trump AND Ted Cruz.

I could (almost) forgive thee 2016 election because I know a lot of people feel really strongly about Hillary Clinton. But voting Republican in 2018 means she voted for Ted Cruz.

That tells me we don't have the same values.

And so did the El Paso Times interview she did. She was asked about the cite and summons issue for people being arrested for small amounts of marijuana. She tried to bob and weave around the question but eventually she made it pretty clear she's not supportive of it.

Back in the day she had the kind of record that I would have jumped to support. She protested at UtEP for better education for Mexican Americans and more Mexican American faculty. Then she fought for better education for kids that are different abled.

My kind of hell raiser back in the day. But that was the 70's. Her recent history is supporting a party that is anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-public education, and her own position on the cite and summons agenda item show me we just don't have the same values.

So there's just no one I can bring myself to vote for. I know that someone has to win. I'm not gonna stay home and not vote. I'm gonna vote and choose none of the above. I fully understand that it means that someone else will choose the city rep for me, I get it. But that doesn't mean I need to help somebody win by voting for someone who hasn't earned my vote. So I'll go and cast my vote for None of the Above and be miserable for the rest of this city rep term and hope that once the term is up, that a better candidate comes forward.

And let me tell you, as a Democrat I think the fact that there are no good Democrats running for the District 6 race is a direct reflection on the Chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party, Iliana Holguin. Its shameful that there is a high likelihood that one of the Republicans is going to win and the Chair of the Democratic Party allowed it to happen under her watch. Not only that, Holguin lives in the district and her husband used to represent it.