El Paso Politics

Al and Peter have reported their 8 day finance reports to the city and the headline is the fact that Peter pretty much had a 2-1 fundraising advantage over Al.  The total numbers won't show that - they will show Peter raised $22,414.65 and Al raised $21,118.20 - but $10,000, or roughly half, of Al's funds came in the form of a loan to himself.  So it was more along the lines of $11,118.20 of financial support that came from donors for Al. Most of which came from the Foster and Hunt families and most of which, looks like about $19,675.90 went to Forma Group.  Apparently Forma now offers poll sitters as part of their service too. Thats a new one. I don't think I've ever heard of them offering poll sitters before.  The notable contributions for Svarzbein were former District 1 candidate (and former Forma client), Dan Longoria who contributed a couple thousand as well as the Franks and Rubins. According to the reports most of Svarzbein's money went to block walkers and ...

Occasionally social media conversations inspire me to write a blog post and today was such a day. The conversation was about the District 1 run-off race and someone made a comment about neither candidate having a Spanish last name. Well it got me to thinking about the fact that the westside really doesn't have any Latino elected officials and hasn't for some time. The ones they have had like State Rep Joe Moody and the late Constable Robert White, didn't have Latino last names even though they both identify as Latino. Before I go any further I would like all the westside gringos reading this to relax. This isn't a criticism that you guys are white and hold all the offices, just a statement of fact so calma la... All the school board members are white. The Justices of the Peace are white. The elected constable on the westside is white. Both city reps are white. The commissioner is white. Unless I'm missing it, there are no Latinos holding elected office in west El Pa...

So who do you think is going to win the run-off election this Saturday between Al Weisenberger and Peter Svarzbein?  I posted a new poll so you can weigh-in. (Bottom of the left column).

It's already starting to gear up toward campaign season for the next election cycle so whenever I see a fundraiser announcement I'll be sure to post the details. On that note here are a few fundraisers coming up:

(EDITORS NOTE: This piece is in response to a blog entry written by Jim Tolbert on his blog El Paso Naturally) With all due respect to my friend Jim Tolbert, I would like to comment on several unfair accusations made about Peter Svarzbein, the candidate I am supporting in this runoff election. There is absolutely nothing inherently nefarious or suspicious about a Special Purpose Committee. I was secretary of an SPAC that supported the stormwater utility ordinance almost 10 years ago. Contributions to SPACs are reported to the City Clerk just like other campaign reports and are easily viewed by the public at  http://legacy.elpasotexas.gov/muni_clerk/2015_05_09_general_election_campaign_records.asp.  Peter has assured me that the process of closing his SPAC will begin the first working day after the June 13 election. It will not be a vehicle to receive money while elected. Peter Svarzbein’s top contributors are his family, his good friend (who donated IT services), and Miguel Fe...

Veronika Placencia, long-time assignments editor and assistant news director at KINT will be taking over as the new News Director at KTSM. She will join Chris Babcock who left KVIA a while back. Placencia is a Bel Air grad and went to college at Marymount Manhattan College.  Placencia started her first gig in news as a news producer at KDBC in 1996. She then worked a few years as a news producer at KTSM before moving over to KINT. David Candelaria is the head honcho over at KTSM now and was previously the head honcho over at KINT for many years. Also Pilar Arias has left KVIA for a position in San Antonio. 

Jim Tolbert is a good guy and anyone who knows him knows that to be true. He just got led along the wrong path by my buddy David K. DK has really tried to fan the flames of something that is in no way, shape, or form illegal. And he's devoted a good deal of posts to try to make it sound like it is but the bottom line his that how Peter filed is total legit. So give Jim a pass for mentioning the finance thing because he was led astray by David K. David K for all his talk about me being some mastermind and influencer of Peter, only bothers me because well if you lined up all of us bloggers and said something like "All the bloggers with no financial interest in the result of city elections take one step forward", someone would have to say "not so fast David K". He conveniently leaves that part out. Anywho - I was very confused about Jim saying that Peter isn't a greenie and citing developer money as his logic when Al's top contributors are Foster and Hunt a...