El Paso Politics

If you ever need to recalibrate your political compass - just find Norma Chavez, see who she supports and execute an about-face. The disgraced former State Rep for House District 76 that ruined her political career by going on an anti-LGBTQ rant against her then-challenger Naomi Gonzalez had a notorious reputation throughout El Paso and Austin as a result of the controversial outburst. Well she's endorsed Elisa Tamayo for her old seat. The funny thing about Norma endorsing Tamayo is how much it must hurt her that Tamayo doesn't advertise the fact that she's endorsed by Norma. Tamayo never met an endorsement she didn't like. She rolls out every "Endorsement alert!" she can. But the one she never talks about is the endorsement of former State Representative Norma Chavez who famously held the same seat until her career self-destructed on the aforementioned attack on an LGBTQ opponent. If you all have forgotten about that, lets walk down memory lane shall we? Its ...

This ain't a dis track. I'm just gonna tell it like it is. Former State Rep Norma Chavez is running for congress, which you undoubtedly know by now. So lets talk about the implications of a Chavez candidacy. She suffered the worst self-inflicted political wound in history and it led to her ouster from local politics. No one should feel sorry for her about that either. No one forced her to make bigoted comments about her opponent. The fact that she still has the audacity to compare someone's sexuality with being a biker shows that she really hasn't learned anything. A person's sexuality is how they are oriented and should never be equated with a leisure activity like being a biker. Thats just flat-out ignorant. I knew she would say that it was taken out of context. Well there is no context in the world that would justify that kind of blatant attack. Its also not the only time she raise her opponent's sexuality. But in that video, I showed all the context of what ...

The Congressional race has set the tone for other political races in El Paso and its getting really ugly out there. More than usual. Even by El Paso standards. Hell, even by Lower Valley standards, this year has a sharper-than-normal edge to it. Cops have been called on one campaign, signs defaced (which always happens), name calling, and then the juvenile Facebook crap that has been going on, which by the way, members of the Congressman's congressional staff actually participated in. Politicos have been edgy, cranky, and defensive. Hell, I went to a campaign event within the last week and the candidate was rude the minute I walked through the door. Comes with the territory though. Last night I saw a judicial candidate hand a document over to a County Commissioner that was trashing the judicial candidates' opponent. Happened right in front of me. The point is, it seems to be contentious everywhere. In a lot of races. But its more than just that. Somewhere along the line, we hav...

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...