El Paso Politics

I've been watching every election since I moved here and it doesn't take long to realize something about El Paso. We seem to have a knack for having sub-par candidates in city elections. Sure, we have some eccentric candidates run for other offices, but for some reason, city elections seem to be particularly fruitful ground for particularly bad candidates. I think its because they are races that are non-partisan. In non-partisan races, there is no party structure to try to somewhat weed out the weaker candidates. City elections are basically a free-for-all for anyone who's ever wanted a little attention, their picture in the newspaper, or their name on a campaign sign. I know, I know, some nuts still make it through the party system. Some really, really, really, bad candidates have run for other offices. That's true, and with the recent candidacies of Dion “El” Dorado and Tim Besco, its hard to argue that the party system does a good job of weeding out the weak candidat...

Just wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you to all of you my loyal readers. I recognize that a lot of you read my blog because you hate my guts, either because you hate my politics or hate me personally, but I still appreciate your patronage. I know I've bounced around from url to url because I was trying to find a platform I really liked, made my own, and then came to blogger for the final permanent home of The LionStar Blog, but I am humbled that so many of you have followed me around. Last year I had a little over 70,000 visits to my website, which really isn't the total of the year because I have only been on this blogger site for about 9 months or so, but its still a good number. When I started blogging, I did it for a way to vent and it was sort of therapeutic for me. Eventually though, people started expecting coverage of local political events and I felt the pressure to deliver, whatever that means. My blog eventually let to a career on the radio and doing morn...

I didn't see this until just a few minutes ago, but here's the link . The Texas Tribune made a video highlight of the Best Texas Political Moments of 2010 and one of my video's made this list. As you might guess, it was former State Rep Norma Chavez's "lesbian gay woman" comment at a forum during the Democratic Party Primary in 2010. Some of my video has ended up in attack ads over the last year, not something I'm proud of, but the fact that its Republicans using it against other Republicans somewhat softens the blow. Honestly I work hard at what I do and I take a lot of heat from people who never do anything of any value what so ever, so a little recognition is nice. I should be clear though, it was the "moment" that made the list, not anything I did, though most of the other video's look like they are professional productions from legitimate news sources. I was just there to capture the moment. Dumb luck, thats all.

Check out these events that are coming up:

I almost fell out of my chair when I heard Theresa Caballero on the air during Chris Bailey's show. From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia I have been working on a blog post about her showing up on the air with Hector H. Lopez the other day. She basically led him around by his nose for a couple of hours and he never challenged a single one of her allegations. I'm going through the audio to make sure I get her many, many interesting quotes correctly as I write my opinion in the blog post. I will try to have it up later today or tonight. Sit tight, its going to be very interesting considering what she said. Until then, go over to David K's blog and read what he wrote today. He linked to a post back when Caballero liked him. She was very complimentary of him...we'll see if that piece stays up or is taken down.

Here is a little sample of the back and forth from the domestic partner benefits debate before city council. This video shows two people against equality, Pastors Tom & Sonia Brown, and two for equality, Yours Trunly and Lisa D.

What better way to start your Tuesday with a nice long BJ. Check out the newest column on The Border Journal !