El Paso Politics

City Rep Eddie Holguin has an opponent that has confirmed she will be running against him. So I wondered what the incumbent had to say about having a challenger. I called Holguin and started the interview by asking him what he felt about having an opponent in his upcoming re-election bid. “I think its great. I think anyone who wants to run should run.” I asked Holguin what he thought about running against a Republican and he replied, “I think its great to have a Republican like Lazarin and a Democrat like myself run. The voters get to decide whether they want a Republican or a fiscally conservative Democrat.” When asked about the fact that his opponent originally though she lived in another district and whether he thought it would be an issue to voters, Holguin's answer was “That's something the voters will have to decide on.” Holguin reminded me that the official filing window hasn't even opened yet which is why he hasn't had an official announcement yet, but it appea...

Zulema Lazarin, former Secretary of the El Paso Latino National Republican Coalition has decided to take on City Representative Eddie Holguin for his positon in District 6, which is made up mostly of the Lower Valley and does have a portion of El Paso's Eastside. That's a decision that has several people, some in her own party in fact, questioning the decision. Lazarin lives near the very upper boundary of the district. I ran in to Lazarin at a fundraiser for a Democrat, Isela Castanon-Williams who is running for re-election to the El Paso ISD Board. Lazarin with sitting with her spouse and Manny Hinojosa, who is a Republican precinct chair and candidate running for District 1 against Ann Morgan Lily. I wasn't expecting to see the Republicans there but since they are running in non-partisan races it makes sense that they would make the rounds at as many events as they possibly can. In light of the fact that Lazarin was going to file to run for the seat in District 5 until s...

I usually agree with City Rep Eddie Holguin, and I probably hold him to a higher standard than the other city reps because he represents the barrio. Yes, I know, Rep O'rourke and Rep Acosta have barrios in their districts, but Holguin's district is basically entirely barrio. If you don't understand why that's important to me, there's no way I can explain it to you, so go ahead and stop reading now. But Rep Holguin is wrong this time...dead wrong. He was wrong for flip-flopping. I give him credit for standing up and engaging in a debate over his flip-flop, but no matter how you slice it, Rep Holguin flip-flopped like a fish in a boat. One week he's going to propose the reversal of the controversial city ordinance that took away health benefits from domestic partners and retirees, the next week he's echoing his mentor, Jaime O. Perez who not-so-coincidentally released a statement with similar language to Rep Holguin's own “respect the will of the people” l...