Moore or Wes?

Spoiler alert, the answer is Moore. 

Now let me explain what I'm talking about.  

No one would blame you if you didn't know there was an election coming up next Saturday, its a run-off election and its for one district area in a school board race. 

EPISD and SISD have massive public trust issues right now and both of them are in the wake of controversial resignations from their respective superintendents in which both supers were given big fat tax-payer funded golden parachutes. Which was nothing more than a money-grab on their parts. They knew controversy was following them but they still wanted to get a pay out at your expense, and the trustees (rightfully, at least in the case of EPISD) were willing to pay the price to get rid of them.

So the fact that both districts had school board elections this cycle was a big deal, even if it was pretty quiet. In fact, the fact that two union-backed incumbents were kicked out was probably at least partially the reason that Espinoza abruptly resigned, underscores how important the elections were. 

There were 4 seats up for grabs in EPISD and at least two of the races involved Wesley Lawrence as a consultant, which were the two races in the Northeast. 

Both of Lawrence's candidates were backed by the respective teacher's unions, but both of his candidates were obliterated. In the Irvin and Chapin area, Isabel Hernandez won convincingly even though she had a large field of candidates. But she's well known in the area, prominent in her church, and ran a local neighborhood association, so its not surprising she did so well. That wasn't the story. The story is how poorly Lawrence's candidates did. 

And according to AFT Union Boss Ross Moore, it may have been intentional. 

Moore flat-out says so in a Facebook exchange on AFT's Facebook page on Election Night. 

And Moore is rightfully upset at the outcome. Hard-earned union dollars were heavily invested in the two Northeast races and Wesley was calling the shots in both those races. 

Here's the exchange:

So it looks like Ross decided to not leave the run-off in the hands of Wesley Lawrence and made some changes. Wes appears to have been pushed aside in favor of Mike Apodaca. 

Now its unclear what exactly the ugly backstory about Lawrence is or what exactly Lawrence did to ensure there wasn't a run-off in District 4, but there have obviously been major red flags about Lawrence that people have somehow ignored.

I'll get to those in a minute. 

But the central point is, Moore and the teachers' unions have a lot at stake in the outcome of the run-off race that is remaining. There is no way that Moore was going to leave it to someone who's claim to fame is losing a city council race and switching between the Trump and the Democratic Party within a matter of weeks, and then back to Trump, and then back to the Democrats in a matter of days. There's no way he was going to leave it to someone who so clearly underperformed in races where his candidates should've performed so much better. 

I'm not going to pretend I know exactly what Ross Moore is talking about but he wouldn't just make a claim about a campaign his union endorsed without a reason. And trust me, whatever it is that Ross has that made him say that, he'll keep in his back pocket until necessary. 

Say what you want about Ross, but you can't ever call him indecisive and I think he'd rather lose with him calling the plays than relying on someone unproven like Lawrence. 

And frankly, with good reason. 

RED FLAGS

And when it comes to Wesley Lawrence, I'm talking about MAGA Red Flags! 

I wrote an entire piece about how Wesley Lawrence has been trying to play both sides of the political spectrum in El Paso. But don't take my word for it, I'll post HIS OWN WORDS and you can decide for yourself. 

Wesley Lawrence was a pro-Trump MAGA Republican - then ran to the other side be a Democrat and tied himself closely to then-Party Chair Iliana Holguin - even participated in a small backyard gathering at her home supporting Congresswoman Escobar.

Then he went back to the GOP a few months later and was at the Donald Trump rally when the then-President came to El Paso and lied about the state of our community. Ironically - even Dee Margo pushed back on Trump about the things he said about El Paso, and now Lawrence is often critical of Margo. 

Shortly there after, Wesley Lawrence was a Democrat again and back on Team Beto. 

Then he ran for city council and again was trying to play both sides of the fence. He was caught red-handed lauding the closure of a women's health facility, which is one of the few places in El Paso that a woman could get a safe and legal abortion, and sought out the support and endorsement of a pro-life organization - while simultaneously calling himself a pro-choice feminist. 

Don't believe me? No problem - I have screen shots. I've posted these before but right about now is a good refresher about the duality of Wesley Lawrence.

As you can clearly see, Wesley Lawrence liked this post. The very next day, I shit you not, the absolute next day, Lawrence posts this:

Now any candidate or elected official would be rightfully scrutinized if they made a switch like this over a couple of years. This duded literally posted the massive switch from one day to the next. 

But....

Was then later endorsed by this group:

Now lets make something very clear. This isn't ancient history. We are talking about just a few months back. The last municipal election cycle wasn't that long ago. 

So Ross Moore is right to be distrustful of Wesley Lawrence, because he has a history of going from one political extreme to another. Political parties are about your VALUES. Values can change over time to be sure. 

But they don't change from one day to the next. Not if its genuine and every single one of you reading this knows that. 

To hear Wesley now, you'd think he's some sort of far left radical Bernie-bro who is all about being a Democratic Socialist more than a Democrat. In fact he roasted a political candidate who has pretty much the exact same voting record as he does by saying he was a DINO. 

Which is ironic considering this was Wesley not even one election cycle ago...

So yeah, there's a reason so many people have a problem buying Wesley Lawrence's sudden and drastic conversion. 

To paraphrase Shakespeare, Me thinks he doth protest too much.

DINO DEMOCRATIC DESTRUCTION

I don't mean to imply that Wesley Lawrence is completely out of the picture when it comes to the school board race either. He's still very much a part of the campaign, he's just minimized quite a bit. That is probably why he engineered a little movida that is likely going to take the El Paso County Democratic Party back to the bad ol' days.

If you have read this blog for any period of time you know that the local Democratic Party was plagued by division. It is something we as a party have struggled with for many years. It got real bad at one point and we were the laughing stock of the state. 

So the elder statesman were forced to make some changes in the local party. We got away from taking sides (as a party) in primaries and non-partisan races because it was so divisive. That division led to people not voting for our nominee in November, or flat-out switching sides and voting for Republicans. 

The divisions were bad. They were deep. They lasted a long time and to some extent, still exist. 

Wesley Lawrence- who didn't disclose to anyone that he was tied to the campaign or financially benefits from the campaign - moved to change the rules and have the Party endorse in a non-partisan race. What was worse about it - aside from not letting anyone know that he gains from the endorsement, is that the Party went back to picking between two Democrats. 

Both candidates voted Democratic in the last two elections. One has voting history that is Republican. There's no getting around that. 

But EXACTLY like Wesley Lawrence, his voting history has been Democratic following the Trump win. So imagine what level of douchebaggery you have to posses to point the finger at someone and call them a DINO when you have the history Lawrence has.

But you knew he was a douchebag from the start - I mean who loses an election and then thinks their "endorsement" (complete with logo) in the area they lost is somehow influential? That takes a lot of ego. 

To be clear, the Party had a policy of endorsing in non-partisan races if there was an obvious Democrat running against an obvious Republican. But by TDP rules, this was a case of the Democratic Party picking between two candidates that meet the Party's definition as a member of the El Paso County Democratic Party. 

And before he denies it or tries to spin it, Wesley Lawrence absolutely has something to gain by this movida. Either through direct payments as a consultant from his candidates, or by potentially marketing being able to secure the endorsement of the El Paso County Democratic Party - something that several political consultants have started marketing to prospective candidates - which is very dangerous for the Party. 

ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU'RE ANTI CHARTER AND PRO-UNION

The hypocrisy didn't stop there - in fact its pretty embarrassing how far it goes. You see, I have been one of the loudest anti-charter voices in the County - for years. And you all know I'm a literally product of a union and am very involved in labor locally. Have been for years. 

You know who I have never seen involved in either movement, ever, not even once?

Wesley Lawrence. But all of a sudden he's a pro-union, anti-charter guy. 

Why? Because it benefits his candidate to be. 

He's the ultimate political chameleon. He is what he needs to be in front of the crowd he is around in order to gain acceptance. Very similarly to Conservative Anthony now that I think about it, they just went in opposite directions but both to extremes. 

But Lawrence wasn't alone. Javier Aaron Paz was also part of the movida. Although for Paz, it really doesn't have to do with values. I mean Paz is all of a sudden anti-charter but famously supported Iliana Holguin in her run for County Commissioner and she was sitting on a charter school board at the time. Where was Lawrence and Paz's passionate anti-charter beliefs then? Well they had their hands full holding up signs for a charter school board member they were supporting. 

Talk about hypocrisy. 

Paz's support is more about being against the Party Chairwoman. Paz has been upset for a long time now because he was all set to be coronated Chair of the Party when Holguin decided to run for Commissioner. And then one day, Dora Oaxaca decided to run for office and Paz was almost in tears at the meeting where she announced her candidacy. 

Ironically, Paz was already getting criticism because people felt he wouldn't be impartial in primaries and that was a sticking point in the local party. Now I know what its like to be an outspoken political figure and then work for an elected official. You have to shut your big mouth. 

And honestly, its hard. You are used to saying this or that about basically anything - but when you work for an elected official, for better or worse, your words are a reflection of that elected official. So when you spend a lot of time in the lower valley bad mouthing current and former elected officials, you're hurting your boss' relationship with that elected because they think your boss feels the same way you do, or they are mad that your boss is allowing you to attack them. 

But if Iliana wants to let him ruin relationships for her, I ain't gonna say shit. Let him for all I care, its her mess to clean up. 

Its just funny to me that since he didn't get the office he wanted so badly, he's been on this weird confrontational slide downhill into the party's most bitter Karen. 

BOTTOM LINE

Ross Moore did what he had to do in order to try to salvage a win from the trash heap desmadre Lawrence created. And there was no way Ross is going to be told how to run a race by someone who has never actually won any campaign. 

Which again - why do you people hire people as "consultants" that have never actually won a race? That shit makes no sense. 

Hell, Lawrence actually had the audacity to work for one campaign in District 4, but then endorse multiple candidates in that race! I'm sure if I were the candidate I would've had some questions for my consultant about that.  

Is it enough for Ross to pull it out? Hell I don't know. But it was seriously the only way to save that campaign for the union. Ross knows that if they don't win this race, its because Lawrence was running the show for the two NE races instead of the union. 

The bottom line for the Democratic Party is that you all let a guy who is very likely an operative for the GOP revive a policy that pulled the Party apart. And most of the people who voted for it, weren't around the Democratic Party long enough to remember those days and why we went away from taking sides in some of those races. 

And you were led back down this path by a wolf in sheep's clothing. Just kidding, he's not a wolf, but you get my point.