El Paso Politics

The two remaining candidates should debate soon. The viable candidate, Beto O'Rourke should unleash on the Republican and get it over with. Lets start with some political realities. The Republican nominee is not a moderate. If you examine the public record of the positions the Republican challenger has taken on the issues you will see that she is not a moderate. No matter how hard she, or Sore Loser Democrats (SLD's) that are upset that Congressman Reyes was beaten, want to try to re-invent her as some middle-of-the-roader that can appeal to Democrats, its just not consistent with the facts. SLD's want to portray the Republican nominee in a light that will help her appeal to Democrats. That's pretty hard to do with your Party Platform for the GOP is against unions (I'm looking at you Municipal Police Officer's Association), is against a woman's right to choose, is against Universal Health Care, is against Comprehensive Immigration Reform, is against the DREA...

Precinct 3 Commissioner Tania Chozet made it very clear she is not running for the District 7 City Council seat being vacated by City Rep Steve Ortega. She made the point clear to me during a break in budget talks yesterday and she appears dead-set on not running. But, as I pointed out in the previous post I wrote on the subject, it was only water-cooler chat anyway. So that appears to leave Ray Mendoza as the only likely candidate at this point. But remember people, its very early in the game so don't be surprised if you don't see at least 5 candidates in every race. On a side note, you should watch the budget meetings. Yes, its mostly numbers and can be a bit dry (okay, really dry) but its extremely enlightening to see numbers and expenditures.

As I previously mentioned, candidates for the municipal elections are going to start to slowly come out of the woodwork for the May election. The latest buzz around a candidate in District 2, the seat currently held by City Rep Susie Byrd is for Jim Tolbert. Sources indicate Toldbert is contemplating a bid for the seat. Tolbert is a prominent environmentalist in El Paso and serves on the Open Space and Parks and Rec Advisory Boards were he serves as Co-Chair for both boards. He's a fellow blogger and writes the El Paso Naturally Blog. Tolbert was also a previous President of the Newman Park Neighborhood Association and is President-elect of the West Texas Urban Forestry Council. Tolbert's candidacy is particularly interesting because he is the person who led the charge with the petition drive to save the Transmountain Scenic corridor. More updates about possible candidates as they become available.

Julian Castro is the real deal and tonight, America is going to be introduced to the young Texas sensation. The Force is strong with him. Watch him deliver tonight's keynote address at the Democratic National Convention tonight and you'll see what I mean. The Obama Campaign will host a speech watch event at campaign headquarters starting at 6:00pm. The address is 2226 Montana. Be there.

So things are starting to heat up in the race for the El Paso city elections. As you know there are several seats up for grabs and there may be even more open seats depending on whether or not any of the sitting members of Council decide to run for Mayor. As I've mentioned in District 2, City Rep Susie Byrd is termed out and her seat will be open. Getsemani Yanez already has a treasurer and is almost certainly a candidate. But some of the El Paso for Liberty folks might consider jumping in as municipal candidates since they are non-partisan races and I'm betting at least one will end up in District 2 as a candidate, through it wouldn't surprise me if they jumped in the westside races if one of those seats opens up. District 7 is also becoming pretty interesting. The rumors of City Rep Ortega taking a stab at running for Mayor of El Paso are starting to reach critical mass and Ortega is going to have to address the issue pretty soon. At any rate, his seat is open in this ele...

I was speaking to some folks at the Labor Day Breakfast yesterday, by the way for you Conservatives that hate labor but still took the day off yesterday-you're welcome, and the topic of Moody-Margo III came up. While I know that there are some really important issues that are going to the deciding factor in that race, I really think there is a huge vulnerability for Margo in the Sunland Park corruption scandal because of his former employee being one of the central figures. I really think that is something Margo will have to be looking over his shoulder about, and rightfully so. But the more I chatted with people the more I felt it was necessary to point something out. I think one of Representative Margo's big selling points to voters his how well he got along with the delegation. In fact, I think thats a big reason a few of the delegation aren't going to the mat against Margo. I'm sure that they all enjoy riding an elevator with one another or having Texas barbecue at ...

The Annual Labor Day Breakfast was held this morning and it was much more lightly attended than in previous years, although I contribute a big part of that to the fact that the Democratic Primary is over and the flood of candidates that are usually in attendance clearly played a factor. Another big factor was the fact that the Democratic National Convention starts this week so many people that would normally be in attendance were not there. But most of the major elected officials were in attendance including County Judge Veronica Escobar, Mayor John Cook, County Commissioner Sergio Lewis, City Reps Emma Acosta, Susie Byrd, and Carl Robinson, Sheriff Richard Wiles, County Commissioners-Elect Vince Perez and Carlos Leon and Congressman-Elect Beto O'Rourke. Yes, I know, they both have a Republican opponent, but lets be honest, they are going to stomp a mudhole in them. And not because of straight ticket voting but because the Republicans just don't field strong candidates. Also ...