El Paso Politics

Trust me when I tell you this isn't something trivial despite the award given.  Rep Svarzbein has been targeted by some dumbass anti-Semite out there. Svarzbein's galley was targeted for graffiti and there was some hateful language used.  If the assailant knew he was a Jew, then he knew he was a city rep too. This isn't something that should be taken lightly and is an attack on a public official.  It's a hate crime plain and simple. I hope it's not political. Because there is no room for that in political discourse. I have my disagreements with Rep Svarzbein and many elected officials in town but this kind of hatefulness has no place in politics. This is something that should offend us all. Elected officials all have their haters. It's part of the job. I have several of my own. It's hard enough to try to do your job without some hateful assholes out there with nothing better to do that fuck with you. I know, I have a couple of them myself right now like Mart...

By now you have likely seen this latest cartoon in the El Paso Times and its pure genius. It captures city council pretty well right now although conspicuously absent from the cartoon are Reps Svarzbein, Romero, & Acosta. And it shows the Mayor as the exhausted guy who has no ability to control the action. Pretty accurate if you ask me. Not sure why Ordaz is coming off the top rope but maybe she's gonna pull a Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka. It would be really awesome if Mayor Cook come running down the ramp, slid into the ring, started dropping Stone Cold Stunners, flipped off the crowd and left a ring full of city council members knocked out while he climbs the ropes and drinks a beer. Just sayin'. My greater point is that I have to give Svarzbein credit. I watched Sicario. I can't believe he managed to get people to engage in a conversation about how the movie makes El Paso look when the movie has basically nothing to do with El Paso. Seriously, like nothing. No v...

Oh those zany kids that are doing marketing at the city have been busy marketing city services and projects lately. As you've seen previously city council has been participating. Well so has City Manager Tommy Gonzalez.  Word around the water-cooler at city hall is that this ad was 100% his idea.  So adopt a pet instead of buying one. You're not only gaining a pet but you're saving a life. Also, this ad could double as Mr. Gonzalez's Halloween costume.  I asked him if I could be Goose to his Maverick.  His response was "Negative Ghost Rider" Not really.

I've been pretty critical of City Reps Nikand and Svarzbein lately, although the critiques are fair and issue-based. I don't do personal.  But, I wanted to pass on some funny stuff from the last week that I thought you'd get a kick out of and shows that the two have a sense of humor. First let's start with City Rep Niland. She posted this Back to the Future meme on her Instagram account and I found it hilarious. Good for her. I've seen it ther places but the first time I saw it was on her account.  The next this I want to share is from Rep Svarzbein. I ran into him last week at a political event and he had a gift for me. It was an attempt at humor and probably a bit of a "fuck you" to me.  Gotta respect the moxie. If you recall I posted a video of him acting pretty silly as part of an effort by the city to promote their intranet to their staff.  Now I can't stop playing with the damn thing. Well played Svarzbein, well played.

Former State Board of Education member Charlie Garza is running for the state legislature again according to a recent tweet. Garza has run for state rep in the El Paso are previously against then-State Rep Chente Quintanilla.  He didn't fare well in the election running in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. He then ran for SBOE a couple of years later and won.  As you can see in the tweet he would be taking on State Rep Chris Turner. It will be difficult for Garza because he hasn't lived in the area very long but the Republican Party in the area is more rubato and better-financed than in El Paso.

She didn't have to do it because she wasn't wrong in the first place. But she did it anyway. City Rep Limón's public apology for her reaction to an outburst accusation from Rep Niland was the classiest thing to come out of city hall in a really long time. What I thought was great about the apology is that she was very specific about apologizing for how she reacted to the accusation from Niland that she was recording her, but held her ground on other issues. Limón was unfairly blamed for the altercation at a recent city council meeting and trying to expect City Rep Noe to play umpire and expect him to be a fair arbiter was unrealistic and he predictably took the side of his council ally. But, that didn't mean Limón had to respond the way she did, although one could certainly understand her frustration after having to deal with an adversarial relationship for so long. Limón lost her cool and she admitted it. She's a career administrator and educator, so she should be ...

The recall attempt of City Rep Larry Romero has ended abruptly. Here is the withdrawal of the recall effort. For those of you keeping score there was talk of the recall. Then Rep Romero allegedly started asking around about Gurrola (the person doing the recall). Then Tuesday Gurrola files the paperwork for the recall. Now on Wednesday he inexplicably withdraws the intent to recall. Many recall efforts have started and stopped in the past, but none has ever ended this quickly and without explanation. Never. You do the math.