El Paso Politics

There's an event tonight specifically geared at getting out the gay vote. This is probably the first real effort at mobilizing the LGBTQ community that I can recall in recent history locally. Here's the announcement from Facebook: Get Out The Gay Vote, Drags and Costumes to the Polls! Thursday, Oct 30th, EPIC Nightclub, with special guest Diamond, Puta Kahlo, Chandelier Kahlo, and Kiara Kahlo, among others. Rallying at 5pm, marching to vote at the courthouse at 5:30pm, and drink specials after at EPIC for voters with “I Voted” sticker. In other developments, there is a time change for the Wendy Davis event tomorrow. Davis is flying in and out of El Paso that day so the event time was moved to 5:00pm at the El Paso County Courthouse.

Its hard to watch television during this time of year and avoid political ads. They are everywhere these days. The other night I caught one featuring Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott's suegra. For some reason Republicans think that communicating with the Latino community involves a feeble attempt at Spanish or an obligatory brown face in front of a camera. George P. Bush is an example of both. So in an attempt show that they somehow understand the needs of our community they will give them a script that will pepper in a Spanish word here and there. They usually mispronounce the words and make everyone uncomfortable. Like when the Castro brothers do the same. But my favorite part is when they shovel their one Latino relative in front of a camera. Its pandering and it does nothing to convince Latinos that you understand our needs or even really care about earning our vote. But for some reason, white Republicans think putting brown faces in front of us will do the ...

Democratic candidate for governor Wendy Davis will be in El Paso on Friday. She will be in front of the El Paso County Courthouse at 3:30pm. Friday is the last day of early voting. For years El Paso has tried to position itself in statewide elections to a position of influence because we overwhelmingly vote Democratic and because we are in a different time zone. But as usual our turnout is abysmal. Her stop in El Paso on the last day is likely a last ditch effort to spike turnout.  If the TDP is really interested in spiking turnout by having a big shot show up on the last day of early voting they should've considered having a big star like fellow Texas Democrat Eva Longoria attend.  You'd attract more passive voter participants that don't normally have much of a motivation to come out and play. That's why they GOP brought in Chuck Norris, although he doesn't have the demographic appeal in El Pado tha Longoria does.  So the Davis appearance underscores the importance...

I didn't go see Leticia Van De Putte this weekend. I didn't see Chuck Norris either. Sorry, I don't have anything to share as a result. That being said, the Times reports yet again that rallies apparently don't matter because we still suck at voting. There's a County with half of our population that is out-voting us by a few hundred voters. There are a boatload of ways to vote. Early voting, mobile voting, vote-by-mail, and Election Day voting. I don't care how you do it, just do it. And don't feed me this crap about "Me not voting is actually a protest about who's on the ballot". It isn't you lazy hipster. Now get off your i-Pad at Starbucks where you're drinking your douchey over-priced latte and ride your beach cruiser to a polling location and vote. Oh, and one last thing. Its really hard to say what the impact of the low voter turn-out will be on local races. Without knowing what their outreach, GOTV, and accuracy is like, its real...

Sources in the EP GOP indicate that movie star and Walker, Texas Ranger Chuck Norris will be in town next week. The actor will be in town as part of a rally for Republican Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbot.  Stay tuned for details.

Democratic candidate for El Paso County Commissioner Precinct #4 Julio Diaz has again found himself out of compliance with reporting requirements relating to his campaign finances. Candidates that are on commissioner's court or a candidate for an office on commissioner's court are required to report donations over $2500 to Commissioner's Court within 30 days. This is a requirement laid out in the El Paso County Code of Ethics, Article XII: 13. Campaign Contributions If a member of commissioners court, or candidate for a seat on commissioners court, accepts political campaign contributions of Two Thousand, Five Hundred and No/100 Dollars ($2,500.00) or more, including in-kind contributions, from any one person or entity within a twelve month period, he shall report the amounts, the donor, and the dates of said contributions by an item on the agenda of the El Paso County Commissioners Court within 30 days of the date of said cumulative contribution. The report shall also be p...

Former First Lady Laura Bush was visiting the Mission Trail here in town yesterday.  I assume she hit all three but can only confirm that she was a La Purisima in Socorro and San Elizario. Here is a photo of Bush with Mayor Maya Sanchez if San Elizario as they made their way to the mission. Photo courtesy of Ryan Montes.