Holguin & Limón Candidates Trounced

I know this post is like a week late but Eddie Holguin is dressing like Pee Wee Herman these days and it takes time for a vato to process that shit.

You know we do winners and losers every post-election. Lets start with the losers first. 

Anyone remember the funk jam called, "The Midas Touch"? 

It was a pretty big song in the 80's. 

Well what ever the opposite of that is, Sun Circle Consulting appears to have it because their candidates and their stable of electeds they roll out to endorse their candidates, took a beating last night. 

All of you showed up on lit of candidates that belong to the Holguin - Limón stable that all got their asses handed to them. 

That should tell you something. 

Your brand is tarnished and diminished by being associated with them. And the proof is in the election results. Sheriff Wiles - Mayor Leeser, Judge Samaniego....I'm talking to you...be smart. Don't let them drag your career down. 

The most noteworthy of their losses was Carl Robinson. They clearly ran a poll that told them Robinson was losing which is why he ran ads attacking Sergio Coronado. 

Only someone like Eddie Holguin and Lily Limón would commit political brown-on-brown crime and try to prevent the first Latino to represent Precinct 4 on Commissioner's Court. That is some next-level pocho-vendido Martin Paredes shit right there. 

Sergio Coronado ended up being victorious. 

But the candidates that are associated with Holguin and Limón that were asked by Limón and Holguin to endorse their candidates all lost. That basically means that they devalued the political clout of those leaders. 

The idea is that they endorse a candidate because they have influence. If your influence doesn't lead to a win, then you have to question whether or not the political brand actually has influence. 

Speaking of Precinct 4 - lets talk about the Republican side of that race. David Adams got embarrassed in his primary battle against a candidate who tried to switch parties to run as a Democrat but couldn't even manage to do that right, and then ran as a Republican. 

And he still lost.

It looks like the nut-ball Seeberger faction of the GOP appears to finally have been driven out with this loss and the adults have taken over the party operations again.

And speaking of County Commissioner's Court - The El Paso County Sheriff's Officer's Association makes another appearance on this list. Seriously - stop wasting member's political contributions. The EPCSOA's biggest problem is the membership keeps electing guys to run the union that are basically Republicans. PD has this problem too. When you elect guys that don't reflect the values of the community, they are going to support the wrong candidates. Its bound to happen. 

They need to hire a political director. Someone who a) knows how to win elections and b) isn't a Republican. Then you'll have someone who can make better decisions about where the money goes come election time and your union can be relevant again. 

Monica Lupita Perez also has to be included on this list. She name-dropped so much that I made a forum bingo card of stuff she would say (hit me up if you want a copy of it for funsies - Enrique Moreno was a free spot because it was a given she'd mention him) and her run-off strategy was essentially mailers that name dropped. She got blown out by Melissa Baeza. 

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So now that we've talked about losers - lets talk about winners. 

Hands down, Chris Hernandez is on a roll. The Chatman / Najera race is a good news / bad news scenario. The community is ultimately the loser in this election because well, one of them had to win. 

But you have to give Hernandez credit. He could never win the big one because he always had a knack for choosing to work for shitty candidates. In his first big win, he had the better candidate. But I'd argue this is his biggest win because even with Chatman in the race, he still had the shittiest candidate and found a way to win. 

And I can't underscore enough of how terrible his candidate was. I've been doing this a long time and have seen and heard from all the weirdo characters this community has seen run for office and Lucilla Najera is in the top three worst, most uninformed, ill-prepared, and ill-suited to ever run for office. She doesn't even really understand the function of her office and has difficulty putting coherent sentences together. 

Christ Hernandez, having her a severe handicap, was able to overcome her flaws and not only elect her - but he engineered a trouncing of an incumbent. He's got the win of the cycle, without question. 

Commissioner David Stout won a decisive run-off election. Incumbents in a run-off election are usually in trouble. But Stout had union support in the run-off while the EPCSOA blew their money trying to make sure he didn't get elected...again. Which is really stupid because he's never voted against any item that they would benefit from. They just targeted him because he's liberal and their leadership are Republican. What makes Stout's win significant is the fact that he was most vulnerable in this election cycle. He had new lines. Some of his old support base was drawn into another commissioner's precinct and he had to introduce himself to new constituents essentially in the middle of a run-off. 

Lets close out with the exciting race. Every race in town was pretty much over when the early voting numbers came in. Except for the 327th District Court - which is kind of fitting considering the evolution of that race. That race was the one full of drama from the start. It was originally set-up for an incumbent judge to bequeath it to a candidate. The other three candidates all filed on the day of the filing deadline, with the ultimate winner being the last candidate to file, with less than an hour before the filing deadline. One candidate was connected to the Chapo Guzman case and posted selfies with his wifey. Another candidate either quit her job as a jail magistrate - or was asked to resign based on who's story you believe - hers, or several sitting judges on the Council of Judges. 

Normally no one gives a SHIT about judicial races but that one had attention from the start. So it was fitting that the race came down to the only two serious candidates in the field and pretty much the only two races where the candidates didn't take shots at each other, Chris Anchondo and Monique Velarde-Reyes. When the Early Voting numbers were released Socorro Judge Monique Velarde-Reyes was down by 300 votes. Once the Election Day numbers came in, Judge Velarde-Reys started closing the gap. With every update she sliced into Anchondo's lead, finally over taking him by a little more than a couple dozen votes on the second-to last update.

When the final numbers were tallied she extended her lead, with about a 500 vote swing from Early Voting to Election Day. I don't remember the last time a countywide race was that close. So those of you that don't think every vote counts - look at the margin and look at the undervotes. They could've swung the election in either direction and made it a decisive victory for either candidate.  

So shout out to Team Velarde-Reyes for pulling out the GOTV win and keeping everyone entertained. For a boring race, it was a nail-biter finish.