El Paso Politics

Here's an interesting little conversation. In the Northeast Democrats candidate forum, candidate Enrique Garcia raised the issue of Dori Fenenbock correcting him when he said he was the only attorney running for the congressional seat. Personally, I don't think that is an asset, but thats just me.  Anywho, Fenenbock corrected him and said she was an attorney. It caught my attention because Garcia made a comment that she hadn't passed the bar in Texas or Oklahoma. It was obviously a touchy subject for Fenenbock because as he's talking about it, she physically puts her hands on him, which I found as odd body language.  Here's the video of the exchange. So I checked with ALL 50 freaking states to see what the facts are. I didn't check with the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, etc because well damn it, you people don't pay me for the time I put into this stuff, so 50 states is enough! After checking with all 50 states, there wasn't one single sta...

Every once in awhile something or someone gets under my skin. I'll admit, its a bit of a weakness of mine, and it may someday be my undoing, but I love a good fight. But this is beyond the rush of a good exchange. I'm pissed. Don Kirkpatrick,precinct chair, longtime Democratic Party activist and member of the Democratic Party Hall of Fame, sends out emails to party activists. Next to Don Williams' email list, its the largest in the party.  Today, following the announcement of the endorsements of the El Paso Young Democrats, Mr. Kirkpatrick sent out the following email: It is difficult to understand the Young Democrats' endorsement of a candidate who is backed solidly -- with significant financial support -- by a coterie of wealthy Republicans.  Their purposes, obviously, are diametrically opposed to the goals of all Democrats. It seems to me, in view of the fact that City Council elections are non-partisan, that endorsements by political parties are inappropriate. I...

There was one notable no-show at Saturdays forum for the Candidates in District 1 held by the Greater El Paso Republican Women...Tim Besco. From Burges Candidate Forum Becky Hermosillo, who heads the organization, announced that Besco had declined their invitation. If you want some insight as to why, I have conveniently posted his now-infamous email at the end of this post, ya know...in case you forgot or missed it the first time. I'm betting the College Republicans were expecting Besco to show up, refuse to pay for a meal, and bring in his own breakfast. I know some of you might think that I am just looking for an excuse to repost the email Besco sent out as a reminder to Republicans in the district just exactly what he thinks of them. To those people I say...oh hell, who am I kidding, of course I was just looking for a an excuse to repost the letter! Just in case you forgot, here it is again in all its glory: THANKS FOR NOTHING All of you who are getting this email should know wh...

If you’re expecting something witty, snarky, or humorous, in this letter you will be disappointed. David K does that much better than I. There is a reason I am not the most popular guy in the party; its because of letters like this one. But then again, I’m not going anywhere, have no intention of leaving the party, and am not really concerned with being popular. Someone has to speak truth to power. I guess I always have to be the asshole. Dear Danny Anchondo, Don Williams, and Yolanda Clay: Recently at the Black El Paso Democrats annual dinner, the key note speaker, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr, gave a moving speech that was partially a warning. It was a warning for the Democratic Party to not sleep through a revolution. Two of the three of you were in attendance. Actually, more accurately put, two of the three of you sat at the head table during that speech. Simply put, we are in the middle of a long, deep sleep. There is a revolution happening in our town and its happening right unde...

You aren't going to believe this email, so take your time reading it, it's certainly worth the read. I'll let you know one thing that will make you want to keep reading, it ends with FUCK YOU! I HOPE YOU'LL ROT IN HELL! From Burges Candidate Forum The following is an email sent out via an mass email communications program. I obtained this email just a few moments ago and checked with one source in the Republican Party to verify its authenticity. To the best of their knowledge, this came from Tim Besco's Campaign: THANKS FOR NOTHING All of you who are getting this email should know why. From the very start of my campaign - I have had nothing but criticism from many of you. All I'd hear was, "You don't speak well." or "You can't do this or that." I'd even ask for your help at different events, but I'd get very little or no help. Then when I hired someone who is a professional consultant - I would get nothing but even more hatred...

From The Lion Star Blog The El Paso chapter of the Latino National Republican Coalition issued a statement to the media today calling for Senator Harry Reid's (D-NV) resignation as Majority Leader in the Senate because of comments he made questioning why Latinos would be members of the Republican Party. "The El Paso Latino National Republican Coalition finds the comments made by Harry Reid on a campaign stop in Nevada to be racialist and demeaning to the Hispanic Community. For many years Hispanics have been a part of the Republican Party not only in El Paso but nationally as well and the numbers have been steadily growing as more and more Hispanics find themselves being over taxed, don't want big government and are tired of working hard so others can live off of social programs. For Harry Reid to even think that all Hispanics should think a certain way only feeds into the stereotype that all Hispanics should also all look a certain way and should all talk a certain way. H...

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...

I could go on and on about this topic for days, but I'll restrict my current critiques to just a couple of areas. At some point I am going to write about the fact that we are the "Democratic stronghold of the state of Texas" but people don't "need" the party to win elections in this town. In fact, most of the people in town that have won elections lately aren't party regulars, so its pretty sad that the party is largely irrelevant in elections when we are the "Democratic stronghold of the state of Texas". But here are two problems with our local Democratic Party. #1-The website. What the hell? The site is fugly and many parts are not updated or functional. Click here to see what I mean. By comparison, check out the Republicans' website . They kick our ass. A good website should be clean, easy to navigate, intuitive, and updated regularly. I will volunteer myself and a team to help with this if necessary. #2-El Paso's answer to Vladimir ...