El Paso Politics

Emails obtained from the Lyda Ness-Garcia open records request were released to the media and were pretty revealing. The emails contain correspondence between the Office of Representative Lilly and several individuals allegedly talking about campaign activities. Here are the documents: (I know, its a lot and looks like a wikileaks document dump, but I wanted you all to see how interesting the correspondence is. She mentions my friend Walt Phillips asking about naming a bus terminal about someone, there is also confirmation of attendance to a forum in this election, along with an interesting note from Joyce Wilson ) Lilly Emails Though it might seem innocuous there has been a complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission and the El Paso Police Department. Featured in the emails is a former staffer for Ms. Lilly, Mr. Tony Pearson. Mr. Pearson replies to emails, from the city email system to correspondence that is campaign related at the expectation of Representative Lilly. I conducted...

David K, again with his un-dying support of Ann Morgan Lilly has decided to pretend he knows what he’s talking about…again. So he apparently has challenged the veracity of the documents I previously posted that state that Representative Lilly had to pay up in a judgement. Well, here is the SIGNED document. I was right, he was wrong. I know that he probably won’t ever admit it, but you people are smart enough to read and can see what you have in front of you. Lilly Payment Orders

District Attorney Jaime Esparza has long been rumored to be next in line for the congressional seat in El Paso. Well, that was then, and this is now. After the year he’s had, he can forget about it. Theresa Caballero has been wearing the vato down with a constant barrage about a rumored love child, without ever having proof by the way, and he’s suffered several defeats in court that will have long-lingering affects. First he loses the Marmolejo case, which was a huge loss. That was a very high profile case that he had personal capital invested in. Its a case that had people in this town on the edge of their seat. Then he was able to get a win on the second go around, but he had to have the case in San Antonio to do it. Then along comes the Arditti case and his nemesis Theresa Caballero. Esparza should’ve sent in his varsity team to try the case. Arditti was found not guilty on all the charges and Esparza ended up with another high-profile loss. The really bad thing for Esparza is that ...

Several lawyers have told me something that I’m not to happy about. Turns out there is a judge that apparently thinks so little of the bench, that the judge doesn’t even come in to the office for proceedings on certain days. The attorneys tell me the judge will hold hearings / proceedings OVER THE TELEPHONE! I don’t know if there is anything legally wrong with that, but to speak frankly its bullshit. That kind of conduct should never be the practice of a judge in the state of Texas. That judge owes the tax payers a full day’s work for a full day’s pay. That is a basic concept. All I know is that if I hear it happens again, I’m going to make sure people know about it.

Let’s keep things in perspective. Despite being able to get her client off, let’s take note of the fact that the judge had some choice words for the conduct of Caballero and Leeds. From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia And before people start saying it was the judge, I’d like to remind folks about how many judges this case has gone through in the process. We have a judicial process and we have to respect that process, which means we have to respect the verdict that was handed down. And quite frankly, Arditti herself has been pretty dignified throughout the process and now has the job of going back to work today. I don’t care who you are, that has to be tough. But following the verdict, the judge said some things that as an El Pasoan, I find embarrassing. When speaking of the conduct of the attorneys, Judge Steven Smith said, “…During this trial I’ve had the truly sad experience of observing the most egregious and disrespectful conduct by members of the bar that I have ever seen in m...

I'm not sure why, but I find this funny. Okay, not funny, more like a pathetic plea for attention. Oops, did I say that out loud? Why would Dee Margo's campaign care about this or think it was important enough to send out as an email for a State Representative. Desire for affection? Search for redemption? I don't know. But it's funny. Especially considering his voting record because most of his votes don't seem like they are consistent with the beliefs of most El Pasoans. Dee Margo Best of Plea

Wow, today is a pretty interesting day in the blogosphere. So much to talk about. David K has had some really weird obsession with Lyda Ness-Garcia lately and while he’s totally flip-flopping on someone he used to spend a lot of time making fun of, I think it’s interesting to point out something I saw on the news this morning. If you look at this video on KVIA.com of the story about Ness-Garcia’s item on city council yesterday, you will notice that Lily is asked a direct question about judgments against her, along with a specific dollar amount. (For future reference, if a reporter asks you a question that is that specific, you should assume they have done their homework. It’s almost like they are daring you to lie to them.) Watch the video around the 1:50 mark for the specific question and notice Lilly’s answer. She was asked if she was ever ordered to pay $117,000 and Lilly said "No." She then changed her answer to "I don't know...I can't explain...you'll h...