Dark Money Ads Trolling Incumbents

I don't think there's an El Pasoan that thinks the City of El Paso has been handling the pandemic very well at all. I caught part of last night's marathon session of city council and it was very enlightening and I'm going to keep a closer eye on it because how people voted on a range of issues relating to the pandemic was very interesting. 

What is clear to me is that Mayor Margo really is a jerk in these meetings and comes across as someone who wants to do the bare minimum and nothing more when it comes to the pandemic. His campaign team must freak out when they watch him manage a city council meeting because he talks over people, is condescending, and breaks decorum on the regular. Quite frankly, its embarrassing that in the midst of a pandemic and crisis situation, Margo can't be the calm, rational, adult in the room. Instead he's overly-aggressive, confrontational, is anything but a steady hand. 

City Rep Claudia Rodriguez is an absolute joke of a member of council. She wanders around during the meeting because she's obviously bored/annoyed of having to be in a meeting so late at night and then inserts the most asinine and insultingly irrelevant comments into the conversation. 

You should go watch the meeting and you will see right away who cares more about PEOPLE and who cares more about PROFIT. Trust me, its not hard to tell who is on the side of the people and who is on the side of money. 

So when I see these dark money ads that are running I sort of chuckle to myself because all the incumbents are being trolled and they don't even know it. The ads touting how great things are in El Paso - which normally would be awesome - are happening right when El Paso is national news because of the fact that the virus is torching the city right now. 

Seriously the commercials are so damn tone deaf to what is going on in the city right now. Almost delightfully so. 

It reminds me of "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego Movie. If you don't memmur that song, he's a little refresher. 

The point is, everything is NOT awesome right now. 

The dark money ads are a bid deal and the fact that they aren't a bigger news story is pretty disturbing. The ads are clearly meant to support the incumbents on the ballot. There is no information about who is paying for the ads and the ads are clearly political in nature. They are without question, political ads. My question is, are they getting political rates. 

This is where the local media is failing us. And by local media, I mean local television stations. You see they sell those spots that air during their various broadcasts. The salespeople KNOW who is ordering the spots from them. All that needs to happen is the newsroom needs to walk over to the sales department and ask them who is paying for the spots. What will be even more controversial is if the ads are - or are not - paying the political rate which is different and has to be reported. 

So if there was the will to find out WHO is behind the ads, it is NOT a difficult thing to track down. Its a matter of having the political will to do so. 

Enter, Aaron Montes. 

You'd think Aaron Montes would be the perfect guy to launch a crusade against this effort. You'd be right. If only he wasn't such a cuck for two incumbents that are currently benefiting from the ads, Cassandra Hernandez and Alexsandra Annello. 

Not pronounced Uh-nay-yo. 

Montes threw together a virtual press conference to address the issue of the dark money ads that benefit the incumbents. Incredibly Montes made sure he included his incumbent pals that are benefitting from the ads in the press conference. Basically Montes wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to be able to use the dark money ads to attack his incumbent opponent, but he wants to give his incumbent pals a break and some air cover. 

Everything about Montes has been a hypocritical joke. And he essentially exists for the sake of providing Cassandra Hernandez with air cover. Essentially electing Montes would be giving Hernandez two votes on council - provided she even holds on to her own seat. 

The dark money ads should be story number one in El Paso politics right now but for whatever reason, and I think its the loss of reporters with institutional knowledge, it isn't. 

Dark expenditures have happened before. Carlos Sierra, former campaign consultant to Lily Limón and Oscar Leeser has allegedly been involved in a range of dark money schemes. He apparently still can't get reporting right, if getting it right was ever his goal in the first place. He all but admitted to me that he was behind the attack on Dora Oaxaca a while back that was a robocall that attacked Oaxaca's disability. 

Lily Limón lost that race to Henry Rivera. 

Now Lily Limón is behind Aaron Montes' campaign - along with Jeremy Jordan, Cassandra Hernandez's fiancé's. 

And that ladies and gentlemen, is El Paso politics in 360 degrees.