Tejanos in Turmoil

If you miss a Tejano meeting, you miss a lot of drama. Talk about a desmadre at the last meeting!

The first and second vice chairs of the Tejano Democrats are in clear violation of the organization's bylaws.

The Tejano Bylaws clearly state that officers shall not campaign or work for candidates that are not endorsed by the Tejano Democrats. That provision is in Article IV, Section 3 and it reads:

Section 3. Officers shall not endorse a candidate or campaign for a candidate who has not been endorsed by the Chapter or who has been opposed by the general membership.

So by that provision in the bylaws, Eddie Holguin had to resign because his consulting firm had several candidates and he was by definition, working for them and it was before the endorsements were done.

Second Vince President Lily Limón should have also resigned because she is his partner in that firm. First Vice President Chris Acosta, who never even attends meetings, should have resigned because she was working for a candidate as well.

The fact that they violated the Bylaws has been a big issue and a faction in the Tejanos reminds me of the Senate Republicans. No matter what the facts are, they are going to vote to excuse the behavior. Aaron Paz is one of the people in that click and incredibly, he led an effort to try to sweep it all under the rug. So I seriously never want to hear that guy talk about ethics, transparency, or trust against.

Plus, he sold out to Republicans a la madre. He's gotten to the point of providing one of them with contact. But that is also a post for another day. We really dodged a bullet when Dora Oaxaca scared him out of thee race for Party Chair.

But no matter how much that faction tries to look the other way on that particular issue of violating the Bylaws, the First and Second Vice Presidents actually violated the same portion of the Bylaws for a SECOND time and this one was even more egregious.

This is a screenshot from Iiana Holguin's Facebook page and as you can see it shows their block walking group on a weekend. Pretty typical campaign stuff. Nothing earth-shattering.

But there are a couple of things of note that make this particular post the smoking gun of a very clear violation of the organization's Bylaws. First take note of the green arrow pointing to the date of the post. January 19th at 7:43pm, which was the day after the Tejano endorsements. If you notice, Holguin uses the Tejano endorsement one are campaign materials.

Again, so far, so good.

BUT, if you look closely in that picture, right at the center you'll see a yellow arrow pointing at someone. That is Chris Acosta, First Vice President of Tejanos. She's there wearing a Wiles for Sheriff shirt and she's there to block walk for the sheriff. Normally, no big deal. She's a staffer, so naturally she is supporting the sheriff.

At the bottom you'll see highlighted Second Vice President Lily Limón's name and here comment of "Vote Sheriff Wiles".

So what's the problem?

Well, the problem is that about 24 hours before they took this picture, the Tejano Democrats voted to endorse Carlos Carrillo for Sheriff.

This is a clear violation of the Bylaws. No matter how you look at it, it is a very clear and obvious violation of the Bylaws because they are officers. You can't explain it away. There are no "yeah, but" scenarios. Its a violation or the organization's Bylaws, clear and simple.

They are clearly campaigning for someone who didn't get the endorsement. Chris is block walking for Wiles and Lily is telling people to vote for Wiles. It doesn't get much more clear and public of a violation than that.

The rule is in place to protect the integrity of the endorsement. What if all the officers were supporting people that weren't endorsed by their organization? What would be the point of even endorsing someone?

An officers going against someone that is endorsed by the organization is a serious slap in the face to the membership.

Inherently when you have a political organization like Tejanos, everyone is going to be supporting or working to get someone elected. But this rule is specifically for the officers. So you can either be an officer, or support your candidates.

But you can't do both.

Hell, not a single person I wanted to get the endorsement in the races I care about, got them.

Not one.

You don't see me undermining the Tejano endorsement. I just go on supporting the people I support. But the difference is - I can do that and they can't.

Why? Because I'm not an officer. I'm just a regular ol' member like anyone else in that organization. So I'm free to support anyone.

Now if the members decide they don't like that rule they are completely free to change the rule. They have a method in place to do so. But they haven't. Its the rules that governs.

I'm sure the First and Second Vice Presidents will try to find a way to pull a Donald Trump and try to be "above the law so to speak", but they aren't.

Th fact that two officers couldn't even wait 24 hours to violate the organizations Bylaws is a slap in the face to the endorsed candidates and the membership that participated in the process.