El Paso Politics

This Homeboy of the Week Award goes to Liz Gonzalez. There is a special place in heaven for people who die while trying to help others. The Asshole of the Week Award goes to anyone who is eligibile to vote and who either hasn't voted in early voting, or doesn't vote this Tuesday.

I've talked about this publically on more than one occassion about how many of my family members are Republican, but the unauthorized use of some of my video footage from an interview in a Republican PAC's attack ad got me to thinking. Essentially the ad goes after Jay Kleberg, a Republican in HD 78 primary squaring off against Dee Margo and Rene Diaz, for voting for Barack Obama in the last election. Kleberg said his vote for Obama was a protest vote because he didn't like what the Republican Party had become over the last eight years. He's certainly not alone. Hell, REPUBLICANS are even reluctant to identify with their own party name. I was covering a Republican Party event last week and Bobby Ortiz, a former Congressional candidate for Congress, said he doesn't consider himself a Republican but rather a Conservative. That remark drew applause from everyone in the room (okay, except me). But some have put forth the idea that if Kleberg voted for Obama over McCain ...

I'm serious about this comment thing. I encourage comments, even the ones that disagree with me. Hell, I don't even care what haters say about me online anymore because the more they talk about me, the more controversial they make me, the more people tune in. But I've been pretty relaxed about comments lately, but I'm putting my foot down. Any comment without a name at the top, or within the body of the comment, will not be approved, no matter how harmless it is. Sorry, but I need to be consistent and put a stop to some people's crap. If you are gonna say it, you are gonna at least own it.

Holy crap! I can't believe this happened. Someone sent me a link to this video that is an anti-Kleberg ad. I'm pretty pissed about it because they used my footage without my permission. At least they credited me for it though, which is more than I can say for most mainstream media in town. I should point out that when I had Dee Margo on my show he told me that he didn't think the vote was a big deal and that he didn't plan to raise the issue. Interesting. But a Republican PAC using my stuff? I gotta go, I need to shower!

The heat is really being turned up in the race for District 76 which pits the incumbent State Representative Norma Chavez against Republican-backed Naomi Gonzalez and totally un-backed Tony San Roman. This was a mailer sent out recently by the Naomi Gonzalez campaign. As I have said from the beginning, there is nothing wrong with a rigorous debate and spirited competition. But somethings are just trash. Here is an example of something I look at as trash. Based on the text of the piece, the person with their back to the reader is supposed to be a representation of State Representative Norma Chavez. If you look closely though, the person in the photo appears to be an African-American. Draw your own conclusion was to why, but personally I'm a little torn. I don't know if the image is meant to poke fun at the fact that Representative Chavez is dark complected and her opponent isn't, or if its a sublte jab about the fact that Representative Chavez was an outspoken advocate for t...

Some people out in the field working for a candidate in another race came across some fellow campaigners this afternoon. Apparently the group they came across were rookies because they made a classic rookie mistake. Most campaigns stress to their walkers that you CAN NOT leave camapaign material in a mail boxes. Sometimes they forget.

El Paso County Commissioner Dan Haggerty made these controversial remarks while addressing the GLBT community of El Paso. Apparently Commissioner Haggerty thought he was being funny. No one laughed.