The Power of Your Vote

I've been super busy so I haven't had a chance to keep up with blogging - but also its been pretty quiet but I'll get to a few things like what to watch out for on Charter Amendments, why the hell Shane Haggerty can have the audacity to take money as a sitting board member at YISD - for the second year in a row, and some rule changes the Democratic Party needs to make (which should've been made a long time ago).

Oh, and I've gotta lil something to say about the Queen of Tacky herself, Irene "La Mentirosa" Armendariz - Ms Jackson in you're nasty. In due time y'all, in due time. 

But let me get on my soapbox for a minute about local elections. Its a super boring election cycle because pretty much all the run-off elections are for judicial seats and there are no cartel candidates or Tik Tok twits in the run-offs. When the most interesting thing happening in a run-off is tracking the over-under of how many times Monica "Lupita" Perez is going to invoke the name of Enrique Moreno or hear her talk about all the organizations she's a somebody in while demonstrating that she doesn't appear to have the zoom aptitude to correct the fact that her logo she uses as a background is always backward, then you know its a boring cycle. 

Though these elections aren't sexy - elections are super important because you are stuck with the outcome of the election. There are a whole lot of people who realize they made a mistake in voting for Yvonne Rosales as the DA because its become painfully obvious to many that she wasn't up to the job. Insert Rosales' excuse of the week here:_____________.

Who you put on a bench matters. It matters way more than you think too. People's lives will be impacted by their decisions every single day, whether its a civil or criminal court. So who we elect really matters. 

I say that because I have lost track of how many people are disappointed in the fact that the only choices for JP in the lower valley are John-John Chatman and Lucilla Najera. 

Chatman has been the judge for a few years now and the court is a desmadre, and I'm being super generous with that description. It will take years for that court to recover from where it is now - assuming someone qualified and hard working would take over today. 

Unfortunately that is not likely to happen. Best case scenario Chatman gets his stuff together and doesn't make it any worse than it is now - but he's not likely to win re-eelection. So that leaves Najera - who I can't even begin to tell you how clueless she is about the office. It is scary how thoroughly bad she would be as the judge of that court. Seriously, ask her questions and make her answer them. She will duck and dodge, but if you back her into a corner to answer a question she's completely lost. 

Why does that matter to anyone outside of the jurisdiction of the court? Because the financial liabilities that may or may not come out of that court - or may or may not already have - is on the backs of all County tax payers. 

Everyone gets how important the municipal elections are. Well most voters still think the mayor is more important than they are, but you get my point. The management team (the elected leaders) whether it be city, county, or school board, leverage a lot of money. Their decisions are important and have a big impact on the local community. 

The impact of decisions is even bigger the smaller the political subdivision because its usually a bigger portion of your tax bill. So even though its a glorified sit-com in the smaller municipalities, the face of the community can drastically change depending on who is in charge. Look no further than places like Socorro and Clint. Sometimes the leadership in these small towns is something out of a bad movie script. Sometimes, a few good people can make a huge difference for the better. 

San Elizario has an important election that has a very big possibility of changing the direction of the community for the worse, not the better unless something changes. 

More about that tomorrow. 

Stay tuned.