El Paso Politics

Whenever relevant I discuss precinct chairs and highlight races for precinct chairs that are of interest. Okay, nobody cares about precinct chairs most of the time, but when you consider so many precincts have a vacant chair position, its pretty interesting. So there are a few races that are actually contested. I would start with numerical order of precinct but I'll start with the race that has the most notable candidates running. That race is on the Eastside over in Precinct 92. It actually features three candidates but two of them are pretty well known and that is why I start with them. That contest is between the current chair Isela Castañon-Williams, Jaime Barceleau, and James Newson. I don't know Mr. Newson and couldn't find a photo. But Castañon-Williams and Barceleau are both fairly well known. Castoñon-Williams has been around the Democratic Party for years and is currently the treasurer for a candidate that was removed from the ballot. Previously she was a member o...

In an effort to game some credibility the Paso Del Norte Tea-jano Democrats invited two members of the media from local television stations to moderate their fancy-shmancy form tonight at the Camino Real. Everyone else has their forums at a community center or something, but nothing but the best for the Tea-janos. After a week of several revelations that have really done a number on their credibility, there were a couple of developments tonight that even surprised Yours Truly. And that is saying something because I usually expect the worst coming from them. As I previously wrote the Tea-janos have had controversies about their endorsement process several times in recent history and tonight was just as interesting. The Tea-janos had not one, but TWO candidates that are not on the ballot speak and at least one of them was actually endorsed by the organization. I guess they haven't figured out that when they pull stuff like that it hurts the credibility of their endorsement as a whole...

I'll be posting a quick summary and thoughts on last night's Westside Democrats forum a little later but since Demo Party Drama is the latest thing of interest lately I thought I'd remind folks that the Tea-jano Democrats have their forum tonight. Most of the players in all the drama from the other night will be there tonight too, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was even more drama. Should I go ahead and post the names of the people that are going to get tonight's endorsements now, or should I let them go through the motions?

Despite the ruling of the 8th Court of Appeals, and I don't see that he's filed an appeal anywhere yet, Tony Quintanilla appears to be going forward with plans for a fundraiser tonight at Casa del Puro downtown. Interestingly Quintanilla has been unavailable for comment in every media story done on the issue so far. Last night Quintanilla posted a reminder about his event today on social media. He was immediately asked about being removed from the ballot but that comment was deleted, as you can see in these two screen shots. So if media is interesting in getting him on the record about the proceedings etc, this seems like a good place to start.

With all apologies to the late Paul Harvey, let me give you all the rest of the story regarding Tony Quintanilla, the El Paso Democratic Party, and the Paso Del Norte Tejano Democrats. First, if you think Chairman Maya saying "don't fuck with me" makes the El Paso County Democratic Party look bad, then you don't know the local party. The party has been a total mess for years and it is on the fast-track towards regression back to the dark times. Butch hasn't been running the party for the last year and a half following his health issue. Iliana Holguin, George Ybarra and Michael Apodaca have been running the show.  Here's a link to video I took of Chairman Maya before the health issues. He's obviously not the same guy and it bothers me that he's been dragged into all of this.  Last night's meeting was like the second-coming of a Blanche Darley Tejano meeting and its only going to get worse. More on that in a minute. ********************************...

At tonight's meeting of the El Paso Democratic Party Executive Committee there was a punitive effort spearheaded by Dr. Anna Perez to remove El Paso County Democratic Party Treasurer Michael Apodaca. Apodaca is a prominent member of the El Paso Democratic Party and has long been the workhorse of the party taking on the task of ensuring that the Party adheres to established laws, rules and procedures. He was assailed tonight by a minority in the El Paso Democratic Party who were upset at the fact that their candidate of choice, Tony Quintanilla, lost in court. The majority of the El Paso Democratic Party confirmed their faith in Apodaca and the effort spearheaded by Dr. Anna Perez, lost. The reality is that all of this was one big transa by certain members of the Party. I'll outline all the details of who and what was done but the short of it is that Mike Apodaca was targeted by some people in the Party with an agenda because he did the right thing. Its a terrible message but it...

The 8th Court of Appeals ruled that Precinct 3 would-be challenger Tony Quintanilla is ineligible to run for for the seat and directs to "..remove Quintanilla's name from the ballot as a candidate for County Commissioner Precinct 3 in the March 1, 2016 Democratic primary election..." The ruling follows a petition by County Commissioner Vince Perez for a Writ of Mandamus filed with the 8th Court of Appeals in December 2015 in which Perez challenged the eligibility of Tony Quintanilla to be placed on the ballot because he was not a registered voter in the precinct for which he was seeking office. Quintanilla changed his voter registration from an address on Yandell in Precinct 2 to an address in the city of Socorro in Precinct 3 shortly before the filing deadline. However, his registration was not effective until January, several weeks after the filing deadline expired. State law says you have to be a registered voter within the district for which you are seeking office. Co...