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...

Okay, so I made an app for Droid users for my blog. Its nothing fancy, just an RSS feed of my blog, but its handy if you don't want to go through your mobile browser to get to the blog, the Lion Star Blog app will take you directly to the feed. The app is free, I wasn't doing it to make any money off of it. I just wanted to see if I could do it and I thought some folks might find it useful. I actually got the idea from my friend Danny Baca. Baca had a shortcut to my blog on his homescreen on his I-Phone and he showed it to me one day at a campaign fundraiser. Ever since that day, I wanted to make an app for my blog. If you have a barcode reader, just read this image and it will take you to the app download: You can also click on the download link to the right and you can download it from there. I'm still tinkering, so hopefully it'll get better. But since its free, it comes with ads. Just in case anyone is wondering, I don't have control over the ads and so the pres...

State Rep Dee Margo has been pretty clear over the last month or so that he was not going to be filing many bills. Again, a page from the George Bush playbook, when in doubt, lower the expectations . Makes sense, that way you can basically get away with not doing very much. But if you recall in an earlier piece about Margo, I mentioned that I found it interesting that Margo was so critical of Joe Moody on the campaign trail and then changed his tune as soon as he got in to office. I went back and dug up the quote from an article in the El Paso Inc. It was actually from October, so just right before the election. And his quote doesn't really give him any wiggle room either. In an October Issue of El Paso Inc., Margo had the following criticism: “My point is not one legislative bill filed by Joe had anything to do with the third building,” Margo said. “If you say it’s that important, I don’t care if you’re a rookie or whatever, go fulfill what you say is important. What changed?” Don...

Here is the entirety of the canidate forum hosted by the Greater El Paso Republican Women last Saturday. This was one of the best organized and well-run candidate forums I've seen, and I've been to many of them. The head of the GEPRW, Becky Hermosillo and her membership did a good job of running the forum. This had a chance of being a real trainwreck and it turned out to be very well run.

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...

Wednesday night's forum would've had all the candidates in attendance but Abe Peinado did not attend the forum. According to Ken Sutherland of the West El Paso Democrats, Peinado had confirmed his attendance to the event twice. Sutherland said that he had received no indication or notice from Peinado that he would not be in attendance at this election season's first candidate forum. As you can see in this video Sutherland explains Peinado didn't call to cancel and also goes over the voting record of the candidates. There has also been talk amongst some west side politicos that Peinado might drop out of the race. I sent a text message to Peinado to inquire about his absence and if he was going to drop out of the race. His response, "I had issues with a client. Back out? Never."

This is the audio of the candidate forum held on Wednesday evening of this week, hosted by the Westside Democrats. The forum involved candidates for City Representative for District 1. Candidates in attendance, in order of appearance were Tim Besco, Manny Hinojosa, and Representative Ann Lily. Analysis and video to follow.

Last Saturday State Rep Chente Quintanilla spoke at the Press Club Meeting and took questions from the audience. From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia Quintanilla fielded questions on a range of issues dealing with education, voter identification, the budget, and gambling from members of the audience. I took the opportunity to ask a couple questions myself and another person's question about UTEP reminded me to ask his position on the elimination of Cesar Chavez Day as a holiday at UTEP. As you will hear in the recording, I was critical of the fact that not a single elected Latino leader issued any comment on the move by UTEP. Frankly I was expecting him to against their move. I was shocked to hear what I heard next. Before any of you say that his answer was taken out of context or anything like that, I posted the entire question and his entire answer on the matter. Here is the audio: In another surprising move on the part of the long time Democratic State Representative, Quin...

I'm not joking here... Tim Besco is running for office ..again. This time he's running for City Council District 1 against the incumbent Ann Morgan Lily and Manny Hinojosa. There was a typo on a previous post in which I posted the Cortney Niland was running for District 1, but I meant 8.  Beco is coming off a defeat from Congressman Reyes in the general election, but nothing equals the beat down he took from the College Republicans. Haven't hears what his campaign motto will be this time, but its guaranteed to be interesting. After burning a MAJOR bridge in the Republican Party, it will be interesting to see what kind of reception Besco receives. He will be running in a district that is basically a Republican stronghold. No word on whether he is going to have the same campaign manager as he previously had. District 1 looks like it might be the fun race to watch this election season because District 3 is pretty much down to one candidate and District 8 is also in the same bo...

Brooks Vandivort, who is a member of the City Planning Commission, has said that he was going to take the weekend to decide if he was going to make a run for city council. Vandivort lives in District 1 and if he made the decision to run, it would be against City Rep Ann Lily who is the incumbent and Manny Hinojosa. So whats the big rumor? Well its been going around in Republican circles that my co-host Greg Freyermuth would be running for city council. Here's what I know in terms of facts. Freyermuth has made no announcement to run for anything. But I do know that he has received invitations from people in the business community to discuss issues important to them. Let's face facts people, business people tend to be conservative and Greg is El Paso's arch-conservative, so naturally he would be someone that they would like to have conversations with. Stay tuned.

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...

Omar Macias has dropped out of the District 5 race citing the fact that he is not living in the District at this time. He is currently in District 6 because he is house-sitting for a friend. Macias says he's lived in the district for over 10 years but due to the fact that he is currently house-sitting, he didn't want it to be a distraction. This is now the second candidate who originally wanted to run in District 5 but actually lives in District 6. Macias is not planning a run for District 6. The other candidate that didn't live in the district she wanted to run in, Zulema Lazarin , has announced that she will be taking on Holguin. She may not be in the position to quit at this point. Sources at city hall indicate that she made an interesting revelation when she was on the 10th floor. Apparently she revealed that she had to run because she had already recieved contributions. At the time she allegedly made this comment, she hadn't filed for a treasurer for her campaign ...

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...

Cortney Niland, candidate for the seat that will be vacated by Beto O'rourke and who is celebrating a birthday today, seems to be doing all the right things so far, despite being “too busy” to answer a few questions about her platform and candidacy. But like I said, I'm sure I'll get a chance to ask some questions of substance along the campaign trail, perhaps at a forum. She tossed her hat in the ring early. Right move. She apparently has associated herself with two skilled political operatives in Mark Smith and Rick Armendariz. Right move. It now appears that she will have the financial backing of two big Republican donors, Woody Hunt and Bob Hoy. Let me clarify what I mean by Republican donors. They are donors who are Republicans but they frequently donate to Democratic candidates and don't exclusively fund Republicans. Sources close to the two have indicated that they intend to contribute to Niland's campaign. Its early, but Niland appears to be ready to hit the...

Its been a while since I've given these awards but I think its time to start again. This weeks Homegirl of the Week goes to Ouisa Davis. She wrote a great column in today's edition of the El Paso Times about Cesar Chavez. This weeks A-hole of the Week Award is a tie between City Rep Carl Robinson for having the worst voting record on social justice of any rep on council while having the nerve to talk about being discriminated against, and every Latino elected official in town that has been silent on the exclusion of Cesar Chavez Day as a holiday at UTEP. Not only did many of you go there, teach there, etc, but as Latinos they benefited from the trails blazed by Cesar Chavez. They have a unique responsibility to be a voice for our community. But then again, it should come as no surprise becuase they don't even attend the Cesar Chavez march! I'd name them all by name, but that would take too long. Its every single one at every single levels of government in El Paso. You p...