El Paso Politics

It’s been awhile since I have given out the Home Boy/Girl of the Week Award and the Asshole of the Week Award, so here goes. Home Boy of the Session is Trey Martinez Fischer. As bad as things have been in this session, TMF did a great job of holding back as much as the Republican nonsense through points of order as is humanly possible. TMF used every parliamentary point-of-order under the sun to stop bad legislation. Bravo to him. He wasn’t the only one doing so, but he’s the one I noticed the most. He will not likely ever even know about this piece, but I still think his actions are noteworthy. From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia Honorable Mention for Home Girl of the Week – Marissa Marquez. This is a little overdue, but she authored a bill that would mandate that school board candidates campaign contributions are made available to the public for review. This puts them in-line with the other elected offices and makes sense. Given the fact that so many people in the public corrupt...

Check out this video, it’s under 3 ½ minutes, but it’s a great synopsis of economic arguments AGAINST Arizona-style immigration law. It doesn’t work. Governor Perry, Senator Cornyn, and Rep Margo all publicly stated they didn’t think Arizona-style immigration law was right for Texas. And then they support this type of legislation. Latinos should remember this in November 2012.

Long over-due, but the El Paso Democratic Party finally has a Facebook Page. You can "like" it by following this link . I'm told that the Facebook page is the first step in a roll-out of new digital platforms that will connect the party to more El Pasoans in a more efficient way. The Republican Party appears to have one page that is administered by someone in Austin and there is a Facebook group for one of the auxillery clubs of the GOP but it only has 7 members. This is a good development for the Democratic Party in El Paso and a step in the right direction. Now, if they could only fix and update their website...

Perhaps Pastor Brown doesn't know just how empty of a threat a recall is, but I thought I would pass on this info to you all. According to the City Charter, you cannot recall a member of council if they are under 6 months left in their term or if they are only in their term for less than 6 months. Meaning that Representatives Holguin and Lilly cannot be recalled because they just won their respective elections, and Representatives O'rourke and Quintana are almost out of office. That only leaves Ortega, Byrd, Acosta, and Robinson who are eligible to be recalled, two of which are probably going to vote Pastor Brown's way. That basically leaves two. If the two are Ortega and Byrd it would be interesting because they each won their last election with around 65% of the vote.

Governor Perry resurrected SB 9 and put it on the agenda for the special session, you know the one that is supposed to deal with really important issues like redistricting and the budget… So Perry inserts it in to the agenda. Here is video of State Rep Dee Margo stating that he and Governor Perry don’t agree with Arizona-style legislation. If you want to ensure that Representative Margo remembers that, here is his phone number, along with the numbers of the rest of the delegation. Yes, you should call the members of the delegation even if they are opposed to the legislation because they need the documented support of their NO-votes. Dee Margo – (512) 463-0129 Joe Pickett – (512) 463-0596 Naomi Gonzalez – (512) 463-0622 Marissa Marquez – (512) 463-0638 Chente Quintanilla – (512) 463-0613

I’ve been critical of the Mayor in the past, but I think unlike the Freeze-Gate earlier this year in which the Mayor did not look much like a leader, he is looking like one now. Due to the Judge’s ruling on the Domestic Partnership issue, the city is now faced with a major dilemma. The judge ruled that based on the way the ordinance was written, that not just homosexuals couples were prevented from receiving Domestic Partner Benefits. So now the city has a big problem on its hands and someone has to resolve it. So the Mayor is stepping up to resolve the issue. Some people will be upset about that, but let’s put the blame where it truly belongs…on Pastor Tom Brown. Perhaps in an effort to not sound like an anti-gay bigot (which was a failure in and of itself), Brown wrote the language in such a way that it broadly affected other city employees. You got a beef with what’s going on, then blame Tom Brown. Tom Brown says he will recall the Mayor and members of council that back the Mayor’s ...

The long-time District Attorney, Jaime Esparza, held a campaign fundraiser and kick-off event on Wednesday of this week. The event was held at La Hacienda and was pretty crowded. Esparza was introduced by Enrique Moreno and the room was filled with various members of El Paso’s legal community. Esparza is getting an early start, which is probably a good idea considering he damn sure hasn’t had the best 12-month performance of his tenure has District Attorney. Again, its early and he doesn’t have an opponent yet, but there is already talk. People working at the El Paso County Courthouse indicate that Theresa Caballero-ally Mario Gonzalez has been telling people he’s going to run. Gonzalez previously wanted to be considered for appointment as County Attorney. Many assumed Theresa Caballero would challenge Esparza again, which would be a bit awkward if Gonzalez runs as well, but there are indications that she might be considering a run for one of the judicial positions.