El Paso Politics

Well we now have community-spread Coronavirus in El Paso. Last week the County Judge issued an order closing all non-essential businesses. Today or tomorrow there will likely be a more strict order or perhaps some enforcement measures for the existing Shelter-in-Place Order. If there is a new order or more strict measures, I suggest we start with call centers. Because seriously, warranties on Hyundai's are in no way a critical service right now. El Paso is filled with call centers, mostly located on the Far East and Far West sides of town. Most call centers are repurposed warehouse spaces. Essentially giant boxes with cubical farms in the middle. They cram a lot of employees into tight spaces and they have shift work. So that means you have a lot of people in close proximity, coming and going in and out of those places all day long. If you've ever worked in a call center, you know there is no such thing as social distancing. Headsets, phones, keyboards...all notorious harbors f...

We are all pretty much confined to our homes and your ol' Homeboy LionStart has been slacking it again on the blog. I know. But my beat is usually just politics and I try to stick to local politics because, well there are plenty of other blogs that do the whole national political thing. But hey, if you stick around I'll make it up to you. Turns out, a local political appears to have physically threatened El Paso Mayor Dee Margo over the whole shelter-in-place thing. So how did we end up with a shelter-in-place situation? Well, because all too often, people left to their own devices will always have some pendejos that don't listen and have to ruin things for everyone else. Sorta ruins the entire premise of libertarians' world view, but that is a blog for another day. Apparently El Paso's Dandy boy, Max Grossman now fancies himself some sort of constitutional scholar and has gotten is bloomers and top hat on a little tight. He's apparently having a fit over the sh...

Remember I told you how bad that judicial race was? Well this is part of a series I'm doing on that race in which there are some genuine concerns - magnified by the fact that the issues surround a campaign for a judicial seat. Religious and non-profit entities are strictly forbidden from political activities. You can't be tax exempt and participate in political activities. Its a pretty simple rule. That is why there is some controversy around volunteers or people employed by Marlene Gonzalez campaign. I say volunteers or people employed for a reason - because it is unclear. I'll get to the pay thing shortly. For now, lets talk about facts. The non-profit in question is called Ministerio en Victoria. When you google them this is the website that shows up. It says its a Christian Rehab Center. If you go to their Facebook page , its looks like its a church. They have video of entire church services on the page. From the photos, video, and the fact that the name is in Spanish...

I've covered politics for a long time in this town. I've seen some pretty dirty and nasty stuff. Usually involving races in the valley and usually in a race involving Norma Chavez. But I can't remember any campaign for a judicial seat that is as bad as the one for thee 388th Family Court. Mostly because judicial candidates are held to a higher standard. The incumbent is Judge Laura Strathmann and her opponent is Marlene Gonzalez. Obviously the challengers frequently attack the incumbent. Nothing wrong with that. That is how races are won. You go after one's record. But its the way Gonzalez and her supporters do it. There is a lot of rage and vitriol in their attacks on Strathmann - and stuff that just straight up crosses the line. For example, the Gonzalez campaign has an entire FB page devoted to Strathmann where they post all kinds of stuff that is just really awful. A recent post is pretty creepy. Someone posted a picture of Strathmann and her kids. Did the candidate...

I get annoyed having to do this because well, I hate dealing with stupid. But like all the other things you don't want to do, but you have to occasionally like take out the trash, attend some lame training at the office, hear the wife tell you "I told you so", or read another one of Norma Chavez's Facebook posts where she thinks she's a legit news source about, well, anything. Anywho, there is a commenter on an earlier piece about Bizarro Claudia - the new City Rep for District 6 and the fact that she failed to report $7k of in-kind campaign contributions from the El Paso County Republican Party chair-elect and his merry band of weiners. So apparently the commenter is doubting the authenticity of the screenshots of the email I posted because there was no signature block and the two line says that it was two in-coming Elephant Chair Rick "but what about the kids" Seeberger. I guess he's implying that what I said happened didn't happen. My first re...

Not too long ago on the El Paso Times Facebook Live interview of candidates for Precinct 3, El Paso Democratic Party Chairwoman and Precinct 3 candidate Iliana Holguin was asked about money from the El Paso County Democratic Party that was paid out to her spouse, former El Paso City Rep Eddie Holguin. Chairwoman Holguin responded by thanking the reporter for the question because she wanted to "set the record straight" about the issue because there was "a lot of misinformation" circulating about the situation. No there wasn't. No matter how she tries to explain it, the facts are that under Chairwoman Holguin's watch, thousands of dollars from the El Paso County Democratic Party funds were given to her family's political consulting firm. That is a fact. Its a fact in its entirety. Its not a half-truth. Its not innuendo. Its not a chisme. It is a 100% verifiable fact and Iliana tried to make it seem like it never happened. Oh it happened alright - here'...

So hey, while we are talking about ethics complaints filed by Tamayo's financial contributors, lets talk about Arnulfo Hernandez. He's the guy who recently ran for City Council District 6 with basically no voting record in El Paso because he recently moved back to El Paso from California. Now everyone knows you gotta meet residency requirements before you run for most offices - certainly city council. The state is a bit more complicated, thus Tamayo's ability to run for HD76 even though she's been living mostly in Austin. Anywho - November the 5th was the last scheduled city election and it was the election to replace out-going City Rep Claudia Ordaz Perez. Arnulfo Hernandez ran in that election. Which means he would've had to meet the city's residency requirements in order to be eligible to run for the seat. Which makes these entries on two separate finance reports - of two separate candidates - pretty damn interesting. This screenshot is from the January Semi-...

First of all - she apparently didn't know what voting yea or nay meant. Seriously. So Max Grossman decided to try to weaponize the city's ethics complaints for political purposes and the Dandy managed to con the media into covering them even though they were all tossed out. But the candidate he supported for city council in District 6 appears to be ripe for an ethics complaint herself. You know the adage, live by the sword... Well it looks like Dandy Boy and the city rep he owns have a problem on their hands. Turns out - its also a self-inflicted wound that came as a result of their desire to toot their own horn. And as it turns out, it involves the Republican Party Chair-Elect Rick Seeberger. There was a big faction in the local GOP that warned others that voting for Seeberger was going to virtually guarantee that their would be an issue involving money or a scandal...or both. Turns out they have both on their hands. Lets rewind a little to the special election run-off electio...

As is tradition, its time for the winners and losers post that comes after elections. Obviously, this one is going to be a long one so sit tight. Lets cut to the quick - the delegation lost and they lost big time. Along with their political allies, which pretty much made up a large portion of El Paso's political establishment. So did Sun Circle Strategic Group and their clients. So did a bunch of loudmouths like Max Grossman, and Jud Burgess, who is now COP's constituent - in what I consider a nice bit of political poetic justice. But lets start with winners. Obviously the biggest winner of the night was Team Perez. Claudia Ordaz Perez won in convincing fashion over the state delegation and pretty much every political group, faction, team, and organization in town in defeating Elisa Tamayo soundly. Vince Perez was ahead going into a run-off in a race he was basically fighting with one hand tied behind his back and the Holguin's having a shadow candidate do no campaigning fo...

Don't worry, I'm doing my traditional post-election winners and losers post, but this one is dedicated to the biggest loser in this election cycle. Its actually not Max Grossman, though he's definitely in the next post. This cycle's biggest loser is AFT Union Boss Ross Moore. Ross Moore likes media attention because well, Ross has a big ego. But Ross is all talk and never produces results. Ever. Before we go on about how he is the biggest loser, lets first outline what a massive hypocrite he is. I almost don't know where to start with the guy because there is just so much. I guess we'll start with start with the name-calling. Ross starts by calling COP a DINO - which means Democrat in Name Only. Then when I looked up his voting history I found out that COP's voting record was FAR more Democratic than that of Moore. She's probably have his age and appears to have voted in twice as many elections. Then there's the fact that he didn't even vote in t...

Money has always been an issue in campaigns. Interests - good and bad - get involved in races. Sometimes that interest is a wealthy billionaire, sometimes that interest is wealthy white people on the westside who want a trail. Point is, it costs money to run a campaign and there is no way around that. Unless you're independently wealthy, you're going to have to take campaign contributions. The same people who complain about the influence of money in campaigns are the same people who complain about an elected official making a decent salary. Which means they want it both ways, they want some idealistic do-gooder who is talented, smart, and has the right heart to enter public service, take no money, and get paid basically nothing to do it. Ask yourself something - do you really want the wealthy people the ONLY people that can represent you in public office? Because that is the alternative to not taking campaign money. There is a book floating around political circles about who in...