El Paso Politics

Art Fierro made a last ditch effort to remove Claudia Ordaz Perez from the ballot by suing the local El Paso County Democratic Party. That meant that the local party - already cash strapped from the fact that we've basically had no fundraisers other than some enchilada sales and a car show, had to pony up the money to hire an attorney.  Art Fierro either knew this was just a political Hail Mary and did it anyway, or he's the least informed state rep on planet earth. The guy actually sits on the ELECTIONS COMMITTEE in the state house. You'd think he'd know the rules!!! The 8th Court of Appeals ruled against Art Fierro's frivolous lawsuit on Friday night. You likely won't hear an update from Martin Paredes about this lawsuit - and I'll explain why later.  Here's another fun little nugget for ya - there is a pretty high likelihood that YOU the tax payer are ultimately going to have to foot the bill for Fierro's folly. You see when the complainant loses ...

The very day that District 76 candidate Elisa Tamayo, the hand-picked choice of the local delegation, was designated a "certified progressive" by Progress Texas , she showed up at an all-Republican event for an extremist Trump supporter that was just elected to city council in El Paso. The Trump supporter, Claudia Rodriguez, won a seat to represent some of the bluest precincts in El Paso County on El Paso's city council. Tamayo showed up to her election night celebration to show her support for the Republican. Here's a picture she took, literally in the arms of some of El Paso's most extremist Republicans and Trump supporters. The guy in the middle who is a grown man that still likes to play dress up and in this picture is cosplaying as Inspector Gadget is Max Grossman. Big time Democrat hater. I'll get to him in a minute. The woman off to the right is Representative-elect Claudia Rodriguez who ironically was elected largely on the name ID of Tamayo's oppo...

County Commissioner Vince Perez announced his re-election campaign Sunday morning after mass in San Elizario, Texas. As you may know, San Elizario exists as its own independent community because Commissioner Perez led the charge against a City Council in Socorro, led by the infamous Gandara family, that had unlawfully extended their terms in office and tried to orchestrate an annexation of San Elizario. And the contrasts between the candidates couldn't be more clear. The Holguin family are going to try to appeal to the establishment and anyone with an office or title. Perez made it a point to announce his reelection in San Elizario, the place were he married his wife, El Paso Mayor Pro-Temp Claudia Ordaz Perez and the place where he chose to be sworn in as County Commissioner - among a crowd of supporters that don't have fancy titles, don't have staff, and were from every sector of Precinct 3. Former City Rep Eddie Holguin, spouse of challenger Iliana Holguin made it a poin...

It could be a concern about fielding questions about his political affiliation, but in a bit of a surprising development Dr. Michiel Noe was a "no-show" last night at the Eastside Democrats meeting. The organization unanimously endorsed El Paso Community College Trustee Art Fierro for the position. Being the only auxiliary of the Democratic Party on the Eastside, the endorsement is the most important endorsement of this brief election season. Interestingly, the Chair of the Eastside Democrats is former City Representative Emma Acosta. She was not in attendance at the meeting. She and Dr. Noe served as colleagues on the El Paso City Council. Her former staffer Dora Oaxaca is also a former staffer of Dr. Noe and is working on his campaign, so Acosta's absence was likely strategic. But it wasn't unnoticed. Noe Democrat? For his entire political career Dr. Noe has been under a cloud of suspicion about his political affiliation. At one point at a political function Noe men...

The Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo had a major leadership shake-up last week and it couldn't have come at a more precarious time for the Tiguas. The tribe has important legislation at the federal level - which is why they backed Republican Will Hurd over Democrat Gina Ortiz-Jones. Hurd is the one carrying the ball for the Pueblo on that legislation and the YDSP was the margin of victory for Hurd. Had they not voted for him, he would have lost. They also have important economic development issues with the City of El Paso in the works right now as well. All of that is up in the air now given the change in leadership. Not necessarily a sign that any of that is going away, but with an entirely new group of leaders, what exactly will happen with these important issues is certainly in question. Tribal Tradition Let me take a quick moment to bring you up to speed on how tribal government works with the YSDP. I've written about it before but it has been a while and some of you may not remember ...

Gotta love David K. I mean the guy's family has maxed out their contributions to Dori Fenenbock and he's always done Jim Tolbert's bidding and now he's directing Jim Tolbert's latest attempt at staying relevant. Seriously can't recall a more blatant example of a guy being on the take for a political class in El Paso than David K. So he posted a letter that Jim Tolbert wrote and it became a story in the Times. I'm writing about it today because I found it hilarious that Norma Chavez's announcement messed up David K and Tolbert's little movida. In the article Tolbert alleges something I think everyone had already assumed, that Susie Byrd helped him write the ethics complaint about Larry Romero and the City Manager. Apparently that was some sort of earth shattering revelation to David K because well, he's kinda obsessed with Byrd in a weird way. But it shouldn't have been. Jim should've been honest with his boy The Juice and told him the tru...

When there is flooding in the Mission Valley and farmers and families are losing their homes and livelihoods, where is your state rep? The answer all too often is State Rep Mary Gonzalez is out partying while you nervously wait out the storms.  But that isn’t the issue that is the central focus on the HD 75 race. I’ll get back to that in a minute, walk with me… Forma has been gunning for Gonzalez since she took office. Most of the time they don’t have a decent candidate. Last time they had to dust-off Chente Quintanilla to run against Gonzalez.  Thats not really giving the voters much of a choice. I watched that whole campaign and waited to hear some compelling reason why they should send Chente back to Austin.  Not because I don’t think he’d be any better or worse, I mean lets be real…what the hell has Gonzalez actually done in Austin? I can’t think of a meaningful accomplishment for her district. I mean there’s some identity stuff, but with a district that has as much n...

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...

A few different blog items that I am just throwing in to one post. In probably the most egregious example of a candidates side-stepping campaign laws I have ever seen, current Justice of the Peace for Precinct 4 (the Eastside) Jesus Urenda put a campaign sign for his reelection on a Constable's vehicle and had them drive him in the Sun Bowl Parade. Here is a pic of the signs (they were on multiple vehicles) affixed to constable patrol vehicles. Judge Urenda is in the far vehicle waving to the crowd. Here's a closer look at the signs. As you can see, all he did was tape some blue painter's masking tape to the parts of his sign that said "re-elect" and cover up the disclaimers at the bottom. It is against campaign laws to use public property like a law enforcement vehicle for campaign purposes. Covering up a couple of parts of your campaign sign doesn't alleviate him of the problems. I'm sure someone will likely file an ethics complaint over this little stun...

I don't recall ever seeing an alleged Democratic candidate attack a labor union and a labor leaders, but it apparently has happened. In a statement released on her campaign Facebook account Monday night, congressional candidate Dori Fenenbock attacked Ross Moore and the American Federation of Teachers following an email to AFT membership today from Moore indicating that Fenenbock was not competing for the endorsement of the labor union that represents teachers in EPISD. This is more than just an attack on one union boss or one union. When a candidate attacks one union, they are attacking all of labor. I'll get to the specifics in just a minute, but first I want to talk about two other things - people who should be embarrassed for supporting her and her hypocrisy. First, lets talk about the support. If you're a member of a labor union and you're supporting Fenenbock, you need to be asking yourself why at this point. Basically, I'm talking to the boys in blue that are...

The editorial in today's edition of the El Paso Times underscores a point I have been making about Republican candidate for Sheriff, Tom Buchino. The editorial was about Crime Stats Again Puncture Border Myths and outlined the fact that while crime was up slightly nationwide, the areas that were consistently bucking that trend were urban areas along the border that have consistently seen drops in the rate of crime. But you already knew that because you live in El Paso. And that is really the point that I have been making about Buchino. Take a look at any of his social media, look him up on YouTube, etc and you will see that he clearly has an agenda of further militarizing the Sheriff's Department if elected. In the words of Levar Burton, "But you don't have to take my word for it..." forget the dress-up or the time he actually fired a weapon in his video and just check out what Buchino says in his own words in any number of his campaign videos. Here's one go...