El Paso Politics

From The Lion Star Blog I’m betting the spin cycle goes in to full gear regarding the resignations from Camino Real Mexican American Democrats starting at around 4:00 this afternoon. I’ve seen a bit of what is being sold to the public as far as spin goes already and I gotta tell ya, they aren’t doing a very good job! So let me lay out some important things that really can’t be disputed (from what I can see so far). I apologize in advance for a lot of direct quotes here, but I wanted to be very specific). On page 2 of the Campaign Finance Guide for Political Committees , “a political committee that meets any one of the descriptions set out below is a general purpose committee.” Several scenarios are laid out but the one that fits Camino Real MAD is actually used as an example. “A political committee that supports candidates who are members of a particular political party is a general-purpose political committee…” Which would then lead to the section on page 4 titled Filing an Appointmen...

There is more to what I posted but I am in the process of digging around and getting some background from attorneys in terms of process before I write the rest, so stay tuned. A quick search of county records does show that the organization is registered as a proprietorship. This link shows that the group was first organized under Ricardo Armendariz. More commonly known as Rick Armendariz. He's a political consultant here in El Paso and is known for working on campaigns regardless of political affiliation. He recently ran Gus Haddad's bid for Mayor and has done some political work for State Representative Norma Chavez in the past. I wrote about a mailer that was done by Armendariz for Chavez a couple years back and a similar design was done for her opponent, State Representative-Elect Naomi Gonzalez, who recently defeated Chavez. This link shows an active registration under the name ANIBAL HIDALGO OLAGUE and lists an eastside address. This link shows an active registration un...

From The Lion Star Blog A member of the Executive Committee of the newly-elected Camino Real Mexican American Democrats confirms that most of the officers and all of the Executive Committee with the exception of State Representative Norma Chavez, have resigned from MAD. Alfredo Longoria, the Secretary of the Camino Real Mexican American Democrats says he turned in his resignation in writing last week to the newly-elected Chairman (and Mayor of Socorro) Willie Gandara Sr. Longoria also confirmed that the Chair and Vice-Chair Dora Oaxaca (senior staffer of County Commissioner Willie Gandara Jr.)also resigned. Though not specific as to why he resigned, Longoria did state that he felt the organization had "...been mismanaged over the last 8 years..." Longoria also said something that may shed some light on his reasons for leaving the organization. He said, "...I felt defrauded. I gave MAD my money and it was spent on other purposes..." Longoria has been active in the El...