Local Movement Calls Out Iliana Holguin for "Cop Money"

The fallout against local elected officials in the wake of the murder by cop of George Floyd, a local Twitter user named Gracielita (@GBinEP on twitter) compiled a list of local elected officials and candidates that have received political money since 2018 from law enforcement organizations. I am unsure if they contributed to federal candidates and the spreadsheet doesn't indicate if they have or haven't.

According to the user's totals, El Paso County Democratic Party Chair and candidate for County Commissioner Iliana Holguin received about 50% more than the next nearest recipient - although that amount is only up to the last 8 day report of the primary election. Holguin is in a run-off election and has likely received even more funding. She is far and away the largest recipient of money from the law enforcement unions.

Thats the group that typically finances the defense funds of officers on the very rare occasions that they are actually charged with wrong-doing. They stand alone in the labor community because their conservative tendencies. Locally, they have even gone so far to have endorsed Republican candidates.

Iliana Holguin has received $15,400 from the El Paso County Sheriff Officers' Association, followed by the County Commissioner that appointed Holguin to the UMC Board, Carl Robinson, and City Representative Cassandra Hernandez who received $10,000 from the El Paso Municipal Police Officer's Association.

The red arrow points to the contributions to Holguin, the green shows Robinson's, and the blue shows City Rep Cassandra Hernandez' contributions.

As I mentioned the other day - Holguin, who is chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party, has been silent on the murder of George Floyd - despite using her social media to post about timely issues like Star Wars Day and Earth Day.

Yes, that was sarcasm. Floyd will be laid to rest today and after all this time, from the release of the video of his death, through the many days and nights of demonstrations locally and across the country, Holguin has been conspicuously silent on the matter.

Given the amount of contributions she's received, its pretty evident why.

However City Rep Hernandez - who is on the ballot in November - had a footnote to her contributions. It included the amount of money her fiancé Jeremy Jordan received for lobbying on behalf of the El Paso Municipal Police Officer's Association. That amount was over $57,000.

The publishing of the money wasn't just airing out the numbers, but there is now a move to get the elected officials and candidates that received funds from the law enforcement organizations - to donate the money to a fund for protesters that are arrested.

The El Paso Young Democrats retweeted the data in the from and called on each member in the report to donate the money they received from law enforcement organizations to "organizations that assist with bail funds and civil rights advocacy."

El Paso Young Democrats explained their position on twitter:

Let me take a moment to praise El Paso Young Democrats for their stance. They display what is in very short supply these days - this willingness to hold people accountable. El Paso Young Democrats have only endorsed a couple of candidates in the infancy of their rebirth under their current leadership.

Calling people out on principle is a rare thing and typically doesn't win you friends and leads to people having a political beef against you or your organization.

But judging by this tweet - they know they are going to get heat from their position and they are willing to stand by it. How the hell can you NOT admire that level of integrity?

Alas, there is more to it than just calling people out. They actually called out someone they ENDORSED. That takes political courage - especially because they person they are calling out is the chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party, Iliana Holguin. EPYD recently held a We Heart Iliana zoom meeting with Holguin just prior to this situation. They endorsed her, their chair contributed to her and I believe is also on her expense report.

And they still had the courage to stand by the values of the Party and call her out for her contributions. If that doesn't give you hope for the future in the El Paso County Democratic Party, I don't know what will.

And there's a reason why Holguin is being financially supported by law enforcement to the extent that she is - because there are only a couple of elected officials in El Paso County that have actually done anything in terms of policy reform with the justice system, and they are the two candidates that are targeted by the law enforcement associations - County Commissioner Vince Perez and Speaker Pro Team Joe Moody.

In addition to marijuana law reform, Moody has also proposed legislation to close the "dead suspect" in the public information act.

Commission Perez has proposed a ton of judicial reforms from bail reform, rescinding federal immigration contracts, and judicial reporting matrices that eventually lead to him being recognized for his work on judicial reform as County Leader of the Year by a national publication.

When you propose reform in judicial policy, you inherently end up being a target, as you can see with Moody and Perez.

As we go forward in the next few weeks, pay attention to votes for reform measures. Given the fact that Hernandez got the most donations from cop money on city council - an astronomical number when you consider the money Jeremy Jordan is raking in (how is that not a conflict?), it would not surprise me in the least to watch Hernandez either advocate for police or try to walk some tightrope calling for peace and unity while ignoring the problems with systemic institutional racism in America.

To my progressive activist friends....pay attention to who is advocating for communities of color, who is defending police, who is trying to have it both ways, and who is going to try to silently oppose any moves for reform.

But mostly pay attention to the obvious - Iliana Holguin is the chair of the El Paso Country Democratic Party...not just any ol' Democratic Party in Texas either. Its the stronghold of the Democratic Party in Texas - and if there was any community in Texas where it would be safe for a Democratic chair to call for criminal justice reform, it should be this community.

Iliana passing up on this opportunity to advocate for all communities of color, but especially the Black Community in El Paso - at this time in our nations history - is downright derelict in duty.

But mostly - its shameful. These are the times when leaders stand up for the marginalized and disenfranchised. Hell politically speaking, Iliana should be all over this one. But she won't - because her support from the Sheriff's union is more important to her than standing up for people of color or standing up in support of the platform of the Democratic Party.

I think Chairwoman Holguin should make herself familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King and what he said about silence. He spoke a lot about silence because it is the silence of allies that perpetuates injustices - whether that is the silence of men who witness women being harassed, the silence of cops who don't stop bad cops, the silence of supporters who don't protect the LGBTQI+ community when the are obviously being discriminated against.

"There comes a time when silence is betrayal."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." 

That is clearly not leadership we can trust and she should be held accountable for her silence.