Irrobali Solidly Wins Run-off

Israel Irrobali soundly defeated his opponent Vanessa Betts in the run-off election to gain a seat on the El Paso Independent School District Board of Trustees representing the far northeast area.

And thanks to Vanessa Betts' political operatives, the El Paso County Democratic Party looks weak, if not completely irrelevant - especially when you consider she had more resources available to her in terms of funding and they replaced Wesley Lawrence with Mike Apodoca for the run-off. 

Irrobali ended up winning by 25% (62% to 37%), which is sound thumping in an election. More than a thumping - its a humiliating defeat when you lose by that wide of a margin. 

There's no way to formulate some sort of moral victory out of losing by that margin in a run-off. What that kind of defeat when the campaign expenditures are virtually even does mean is that it was a failure in basically every part of the campaign from field to volunteer recruitment to messaging. 

I don't know what it was about this election cycle that had everyone so wound up, but I am glad its finally over.

Wesley Lawrence and a few allies hijacked the last Precinct Chair Meeting to ram through an endorsement process in favor of Lawrence's client. 

And let me tell you all the ways it was a shady movida, even for the Democratic Party. 

First, lets talk about party affiliation in Texas. You don't register with a party. I kind of grin and roll my eyes when people tell me they're a registered fill-in-the-blank in Texas. No you're not. You've never registered for a party in Texas. You're affiliated with a party based on you voting record. 

Nothing prevents someone from voting Republican in a primary cycle and then switching to vote in the Democratic primary the following election cycle. 

By Democratic Party rules, you're a Democrat based on your most recent voting history. If you voted Democratic in the last election - you're a Democrat, no matter how many times you voted Republican. Thats the Texas Democratic Party's rules - not a local thing. And its not new either. 

The policy of endorsements has been if its a non-partisan race and there are two candidates that are both Democrats (by TPD's definition), the party stays out of it. Thats a good policy because it encourages the maximum amount of voter participation by Democrats. When you take sides between Democrats, you effectively suppress turnout. 

Wesley Lawrence and his allies pushed though a change in policy to endorse Betts. His argument was that Irrobali wasn't really a Democrat. I mean the irony of that statement coming from Wesley Lawrence goes without saying - but it raises an important point. 

Does our party make room for - in the case of Wesley Lawrence allegedly former,  Republicans who have seen the error of their ways, or became disillusioned with the direction of the GOP?

I mean if we made room for an extremist right-winger like Wesley Lawrence, why wouldn't we make room for Irrobali? Thats a post for another day.

Lets get back to how shady this movida was. 

So after the meeting was hijacked, the Lawrence pushed the endorsement effort. This is how you know it was shady. There was no endorsement process. There was only one candidate in attendance, Betts, because she was in on the effort to secure the endorsement. They didn't even provide for both candidates to submit their credentials, make a statement, or event answer a couple of questions. 

They just ramrodded a candidate to be endorsed. She has no history with the local Democratic Party. Several times people make comments like, "well who is she?" or "I've never heard of her", etc. 

Why? 

Because she's never been around the Party. She just showed up to collect an endorsement. We were pushed to endorse someone who has never done anything for the local Party and never participated in anything prior to running for office because several people had a financial interest in the candidate's election. No matter how anyone tries to clean that up, thats a fact. 

Several members of the Party warned that the effort was ill-advised and that it would create division. And it did. Thats what happens when you push shady movidas without any process or methodology. 

And now the Democratic Party looks weak as a result. Our Party's endorsement wasn't even a factor in a small run-off election for a school board race. Thats pretty embarrassing. 

And when a person or group endorses some one - and then they lose - the endorsing group or person looks week - like their endorsement means nothing. 

But what makes it even more embarrassing is that the endorsement meant nothing - even in a small run-off election for school board. That is really humiliating. 

Less than 2,000 people voted in that area and we had no influence. So was all that controversy and division that was created by Wesley Lawrence worth it in the end?

Hell no. And this is a major set-back for the local Democratic Party and there should be some accountability for it.