SISD & The Gandara Gambit

As you may know by now, the last Gandara in local politics was ousted in this weekends election in Socorro ISD. Gary Gandara, younger brother to El Padrino, former Precinct 3 County Commissioner Willie Gandara who went to prison for running drugs, and son of former SISD Trustee Willie Gandara Sr who went to prison for corruption, was defeated in his reelection bid on Saturday.

He was one of two incumbents ousted on the board, which has some serious implications for controversial Superintendent Jose Espinoza. Espinoza no longer has a majority on the board and this race was largely a referendum on holding Espinoza accountable. 

But - as anything with the word "Socorro" in it, there appears to be a movida afoot. 

Paul Garcia abruptly resigned his position with SISD during the late stages of the election, citing "personal reasons". People have speculated all sorts of things about his resignation, from him being a whistleblower to the FBI, to him being the target of some kind of investigation, to just his wife wanting him out of politics. No one knows the real reason, he resigned but Paul Garcia. 

The point is, it created a vacancy on the board - apart from the seats that were up for election. Because of the timing of Garcia's resignation, the board decided to take applications and appoint someone to fill the remainder of the time in the at-large seat. 

SISD has a mix of single-member districts in addition to a couple of at-large seats, which is why there is always more representation north of I-10 than south of I-10.

Apparently there is a movida to have Gary Gandara appointed to fill that vacancy. 

The name Gandara has become synonymous with corruption, you know that if you have been reading this blog or followed politics in El Paso for more than 10 minutes. 

Gandara was just rejected by the voters. It would be a slap in the face to the community if the board decided to appoint Gandara to fill the remainder of Garcia's term as a trustee after just being . It is just a very obvious way to side-step the will of the voters and put in someone they want when the voters just made it clear that they didn't want Gandara. 

Its the epitome of the term Gandara politics. 

There are qualified community members who have applied to fill the seat. They should be appointed to the seat, not someone who the voters have already had their say about. There is absolutely no reason, other than corruption and cronyism, for the board to appoint someone who was just ousted by voters. 

The SISD School Board owes fidelity to the voters. 

Democracy should win the day, not movidas.