El Paso Politics

Its pretty interesting that with a big primary coming up in March it looks like there really won't be much fireworks on the local scene and so races that no one gives a shit about will actually take center stage. So far there are only two incumbents with challengers, although the filing deadline is still a couple of weeks away. I haven't even heard any whispers of anyone thinking about taking on an incumbent either. And frankly, that doesn't even matter because unless you're taking on an incumbent judge its sorta already too late. I know there are some politicos that like to slide in at the last moment to surprise people and think its gonna make a splash and help propel them to victory but it doesn't. And they aren't going to catch an incumbent by surprise either. The only person that it worked out for was Oscar Leeser and Leeser was a unique situation. There had been talk about him running for mayor for a long time. Hell it was the worst kept secret in El Paso ...

Every year the Sun Bowl has a Thanksgiving Parade down Montana that features a couple area marching bands, some people dressed like cowboys shooting off guns that are blanks but much louder than the real thing, a couple floats etc. Its also the one time a year where El Paso does its best Soviet Union impression by rolling out a series of law enforcement agencies in this town as they drive down the street in all their tactical stuff. The other thing you see every year is a bunch of elected officials in the parade. That happens every year and its usually all the members of council and all the members of commissioner's court. Or at the very least, the vast majority of them. This year most of the county commissioner's where there. But interestingly only two members of city council showed up. Which is interesting when you consider there are so many more members of city council than there are commissioner's court. The Mayor was at the start of the parade and actually had a pretty...

Apparently the media went to Rep Romero's office to get comment about the El Paso Times calling for his resignation and yet again, he declined comment. But he ultimately sent in a statement to KVIA and they ran a story on it last night. Click here to check it out. By the way - we've seen this movie before people. More on that in the last segment of this post.  In his statement alleges that the Times is "jumping into the campaign business". He goes on to say that "enough is enough" and that he's going to have a conversation with the community about this etc. No he isn't. He is avoiding media. They are going to be at every public meeting he has in order to get comment from him on camera. What's he gonna do? Hide out forever? If he has a conversation with the community as he says, he will inevitably face news cameras. Then he will have to answer specific questions and if he wanted to deny the allegations laid out by the Times, he would have in his ...

When Ali Razavi, Martin Paredes, or David K write about me - which is pretty often - I normally just roll my eyes and laugh whenever I find out about it. Actually with David K I usually find out right away because I read his blog daily. The other two I really don't bother with but eventually someone tells me about it. But David K is straight up getting paid, or played, in his latest piece. Please read it so that you can be up to speed with his lunacy. Click here . Normally when these fools write shit about me I don't even bother trying to dispel whatever it is they wrote because honestly its usually pretty entertaining and I'd be lying if I told you I didn't get a kick out of all the magical powers they assign me. To hear them tell it, I am the all-powerful behind the curtains sentient being that runs this town. Which truth be told, if I was in charge around here the first thing I'd do is fix public transportation in the valley and then focus on UTEP football. Serio...

"Romero has breached the public trust, and must resign." In a bold and unprecedented move yesterday, the Editorial Board of the El Paso Times called for the resignation of a sitting elected official, City Rep Larry Romero. At first I thought it might have been the first time they called for the resignation of an elected official that wasn't under indictment. Hell I don't even think they called for the resignation of any of the Gandaras, which is saying a lot, especially considering former Socorro City Rep Jesse Gandara had been arrested multiple times in about a month time-span. So the fact that they called for Romero's resignation is certainly noteworthy. KVIA reported on the call for the resignation of City Rep Romero but they received no comment from Rep Romero. City Council's meeting for this week was canceled due to the holiday, so unless media call him or visit him at his home or office, its unlikely Romero will have to face the media on this issue until...

Earlier this week we learned of yet another costly screw up at the city - this time costing tax payers $22 million. There was a delay on the project that was made for obvious political purposes - to avoid then City Rep and Mayoral hopeful Steve Ortega from having to take another controversial vote on the issue. The delay ended up costing the tax payers millions.  This issue came up last week during the city council meeting but no one seemed interested in asking the very obvious question...who made the call to delay the vote? Thats a serious problem because it wasn't an issue that was acted upon by council. So it was someone who made the call administratively. That would either be the former city manager or the former CFO.  This should be making all kinds of alarms go off. First, the current members of council that were part of that administration should be answering questions about whether or not they had knowledge this was going on.  Second, if they did have knowledge, w...

Long-time Democratic Party activist Sissy Byrd is the new Chair of the Black El Paso Democrats after being elected to the post last night. Sissy Byrd succeeds long-tim Chair and Democratic Party personality Don Williams as the chair of the BEPD. BEPD has long been one of the more influential Democratic Party Auxiliaries despite it not having a lot of voting members. BEPD is also known for throwing the annual dinner that has always been the most well-attended event and typically had the best speakers, typically national-level leaders. Sissy Byrd becomes the first woman to chair BEPD.