El Paso Politics

In case you haven't noticed, we are starting to see a bit of slate politics brewing in this election. Some of it is idealogical common ground, but some of it is simply a marriage of convenience. A few candidates have their signs strategically placed together and in the case of one state representative, she is even helping the opponent of her political rival. State Representative Marissa Marquez is playing a key role in the campaign of Naomi Gonzalez who has an uphill battle brewing in her bid to unseat State Representative Norma Chavez. Thats a pretty interesting turn of events when one considers that it was just two short years ago when it was Chavez helping an upstart candidate take on another long-time state legislator who was a political rival of Chavez, State Representative Paul Moreno. For some unknown reason, State Rep Marissa Marquez escaped this round of elections without an opponent. That leaves her free to help a challenger take on her rival, State Rep Norma Chavez. Marq...

Candidate for District Clerk, Connie Telles-Odom, was present at State Rep Norma Chavez's campaign headquarters on Saturday. Telles-Odom was in attendance to walk a precinct in support of Representative Chavez's re-election bid. I didn't see any of Telles-Odoms' materials with her so there was no indication as to whether she indented to kill two birds with one stone, but given Chavez's popularity in the valley, it wouldn't surprise me if Telles-Odom did a little double duty. Given the proximity of early voting, its very likely that Telles-Odom was also passing out her literature in addition to Chavez's. I know that's what I would do if I were in Telles-Odoms position.

Larry Medina has been making the rounds at the various campaign forums where he is usually warmly received by people in attendance. I've personally heard him asked more than ten times about why he dropped out of the race. Medina politely answers the question when it comes from regular people. He got in to a little spat with David Crowder last Saturday over another issue, but cooler heads prevailed and the two eventually sat next to each other over breakfast for a short while. As you can see here, Louis Irwin's campaign sign is being held by Larry Medina. No word from Medina as to whether one should consider it an endorsement, but it was a pretty light moment after an eventful form.

Last weekend I Tweeted about someone putting soap in the wishing well fountain at Cielo Vista Mall. I forgot to post the pic of the fountain. Here it is, sorry the pic isn't the greatest quality, all I had was my cell phone camera at the time.

I got some real good advice about my coverage of local politics today. I get a lot of criticism. Trust me, a lot. When its constructive, I really do appreciate it. The critique I got today was very well deserved and opened my eyes to something I was doing that I hadn't really noticed was happening at that time. As a result, I'll tighten up my shot group. People have come to read my blog because of my coverage of local politics and lately I have been a little focused on the race for County Attorney. I don't regret my coverage for one minute, and will continue to cover it. But I really should write a little more about some of the other races, especially during this campaign season. So lets examine the state senate race which is a race to determine the successor to Senator Eliot Shapleigh. The Republicans have Dan Chavez. The Democrats have Jose Rodriguez, Louis Irwin, and Liza Montelongo. Jose Rodriguez is the favorite in this race and the likely victor. Irwin and Montelongo ...

Larry Medina and his wife, Ruth Reyes-Medina welcomed a son in to the world yesterday evening. Kennedy Christian Medina and mom are both doing well and resting comfortably. No word from Kennedy as to whether he will be seeking a business, political, or legal career in the future. This is the first pic of father and son.

Since I am having a hard time getting an interview with Caballero these days, I thought I'd just throw some of my questions out there to see if perhaps she will address them at some point. TC has talked at great length about conflicts of interest. So lets examine the other side of the conflict issue. Its nice that she talks about conflicts for issues like Ethics Commission, but I'm curious about another scenario. I'm wondering what her position will be about pursuing corruption. She's talked about that pretty regularly, but what about some of the people she's been associated with. Will she pursue cases against them in the interest of seeking justice, or will she say there is a conflict. Case in point, the Catalina land deal. Some of the people she's been associated with are defendants in that case. If she is elected County Attorney, what happens to those cases? Does her office continue pursuing the issue or does the case come to a halt. If she does pursue the ca...