El Paso Politics

I am so done with Republicans - the party of personal responsibility - and their epic level of hypocrisy with basically everything.  I'm also done with some Democrats that are total hypocrites as well.  So lets call some folks out now shall we? The El Paso Republican Party doesn't give a damn about El Pasoans' safety right now during he pandemic. We have record number of cases and they have record number of spreader events, in doors, with no masks on and absolutely no adherence to any safety protocols whatsoever.  They apparently haven't bothered at all to ask permission to hold all the super-spreader events they have been having lately, to include one they just had featuring the state chairman of the Texas Republican Party.   It obviously makes the Mayor and all his senior people look bad because well, they are all Republicans. So how seriously are people taking the mayor when he's the most prominent member of the GOP and they don't even tap the brakes to liste...

Showing just how crazy 2020 can get in terms of politics, District 4 candidate Shawn Nixon announced to interesting endorsements on his social media platforms recently. Shout out to my buddy for bringing this to my attention.  First, the endorsement of former District 4 city Representative and now County Commissioner Carl Robinson. Here is a screenshot of the endorsement that Mr. Nixon recently shared.  I did't know they were good friends like that but considering this comes after his arrest, I think its a pretty significant development from a campaign perspective. You'd figure his arrest would give anyone the reason they need to distance themselves from Nixon without any issue so the fact that Robinson is supporting Nixon even after the arrest is pretty big. Or it shows just how much he and Morgan still don't get along.  The endorsement is also surprising because Robinson's handlers Eddie Holguin and Lily Limón are usually pretty disciplined when it comes to anything R...

I don't know what it is about Republicans, but for whatever reason at the national, regional, and local levels, Republicans seem to just want to politicize the pandemic.  I don't know why they feel the need to make it a Democratic or Republican thing - but someone needs to tell them that the virus doesn't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. Don't believe me GOP? Ask Herman Cain.  Oh yeah, you can't.  Because he's dead.  From the virus.  Well the local yokels of the El Paso GOP seem to really be rallying around being anti-masker Branch Covidians - despite the fact that we are now a national hotspot for the virus.  Here's a picture of some lady named Iris Chavelas, who I never heard about before several pictures of her started popping up on Facebook because she's apparently supporting a Democrat and a Republican. She apparently has some show on KVIV (honestly never heard of that station because well, who listens to radio anymore other than the o...

The El Paso County Democratic Party has apparently had a cloud hanging over its head from the Internal Revenue Service for several years. The incident started under the late Chairman Butch Maya.  However it was never dealt with during the entire tenure of former Chairwoman Iliana Holguin and she apparently met with an agent from the IRS in February 2020 regarding the matter. The IRS had threaten to seize property or funds for the amount due to the IRS, which turned out to be a little under $3,000.  The El Paso County Democratic Party has had plenty of problems over the years, but very few of the party regulars knew the extent of the problems. Certainly not that the Party was in jeopardy of having funds and / or property seized.  Following the change of leadership from Iliana Holguin to newly elected Democratic Party Chair Dora Oaxaca, a whole host of people and elected officials have all taken turns kissing up to Holguin and telling her what a great job she did as Chairwo...

So a lot of you are probably wondering what is Jennifer Caballero's beef on Facebook lately.  What is all the hub-bub about? Well the answer is simple.  Divorce.  For those of you who are fortunate enough to have never been involved in one, divorce brings out the absolute worst in people. Its pretty terrible.  But do you know why divorces are so expensive? Because they are worth it.  Anywho, Caballero is throwing around allegations of checks being cashed and some other Info Wars-style conspiracy theories.  Well I came across an interesting document and it made it all clear to me as to why Jennifer Caballero was such a vocal hater about two candidates running for judicial seat in a county she doesn't live in. Yeah, she doesn't live here. She lives in Corpus Christi.  Turns out Jennifer Caballero didn't get the kids in the divorce. Any dad who has been through family court will tell you that no matter how good of a dad you are, the kids almost always go ...

The El Paso Young Democrats tweeted something the other day about the D7 race between incumbent City Representative Henry Rivera and Aaron Montes. The tweet mentioned the fact that Rivera received contributions from local Republicans.   Actually the quote is "REPUBLICAN, TRUMP SUPPORTING DONORS".  They felt so strongly about it, they put it in all-caps.  Thats a fair critique - if leveled fairly. So lets talk about it.  EPYD came up with that criticism after a mailer from Montes highlighting the same message landed over the weekend. Coincidence or coordinated? Who knows? I'll circle back to this later.  But lets actually examine the critique that they are making against Rivera, who is running in a non-partisan race.  El Paso is a town where the electorate and leaders are overwhelmingly Democratic. The wealthy business class - who donate to Trump - have been donating to local Democratic candidates in El Paso since before most of the EPYD were born.  So ...

I know, its annoying. I started with District 4 instead of District 2. But honestly, for many folks Nixon is such a train wreck - and the fact that he was connected to Mayte Gonzalez and what I view as the absolute dirtiest and anti-Mexican campaign I've ever seen in a judicial race, they were just the easiest starting point.  Speaking of Mayte and Marlene Gonzalez, I've got something important to share soon, just been a little busy, but I'll get to it.  As a result I will just finish off the rest of the financials of the remaining District 4 candidates. And by remaining, I mean the ones that actually have a chance to make a run-off.  I'll go in the order that they are listed on the city website.  Before I go any further - there are a whole lot of candidates whose math skills are questionable. Because very few of them actually add up. But hey, its city council...so of course it doesn't add up.... This could be called the Nickname Race. Sissy is Dorothy Byrd's ni...

Well Republican sacrificial lamb candidate for Senator, Bethany Hatch, had her middle-of-a-global-pandemic wine tasting fundraiser last Saturday night.  This is shortly following the hospitalization of the Trump who caught the coronavirus because he wasn't following the guidelines of his own administration's CDC. The Trump cluster is growing every day with newly discovered infected GOPers that attended events with him in recent days were there were no masks and people were in close proximity to one another for prolonged periods of time.  Those events led to the Trump Cluster.  Well predictably Hatch's fundraiser wasn't any different. Here's a picture of her with most of the attendees at her fundraiser and as you can see - no masks.  The Democratic Party hasn't had an in-person event since the start of the pandemic in order to keep everyone safe. You'd think the Republican Party, who's base is just a couple years short of being fossilized, would be more p...

So not surprising that someone tied to the dirtiest judicial race I have ever seen turns out to be one of the largest contributors to controversial City Rep candidate Shawn Nixon - who was arrested last week for writing a bunch of hot checks.  Nixon's finance report has a lot of stuff that just doesn't jive - like the fact that the is in jail for bouncing checks related to his campaign that total over $300k, yet his finance report only shows $7,308 raised and $5,340 spent.   Nixon raised mostly small-dollar contributions, so this entry from Mayte Gonzalez, sister of Marelene Gonzalez, stood out. The contribution isn't surprising, Nixon was introduced to me by Mayte Gonzalez at a candidate forum as Marlene's campaign manager.  It is interesting that under address she lists an address downtown which is presumably the address of her sister's law firm rather than her home address.  Mayte has made it a point to be more active in the El Paso Democratic Party but is drawi...