El Paso Politics

Its becoming a "D'oh" factory around here. For what I believe is the first time, State Rep Mary Gonzalez and former State Rep Chente Quintanilla squared off at a debate at the Eastside Civic Association. And it was amateur night at the Apollo. Rep Gonzalez had a plant in the audience ask a question to Chente. Seriously she wasn't really even making a concerted effort to make it NOT look like a plant. I mean the guy was sitting directly in front of her campaign staff. That in and of itself would've been silly enough, but what made it worse was Chente's epic fail at the question posed to him. The question was about what a particular house bill actually does. (Sidebar - whenever you hear someone start a question with a specific bill number, they are 100% of the time a plant. Especially when they are reading a script, like you can hear in this video.) The bill in question was the bill that Chente had the commercial and mailer about. The fact that Mary tried to hav...

I ran into Ben Mendoza at a couple of candidate forums recently and he was introduced as a candidate. Earlier this year I had written that he had withdrawn his candidacy, which I believe was a result of some issues raised about the validity of signatures on his petition. That is an issue worthy of its own blog post, but I'll get to that later. So I asked him about why he was showing up and he said, "Well, I'm still on the ballot." So I further inquired and asked for clarification because he had withdrawn his candidacy. His response was "Well, I recanted my withdrawal." I haven't even checked to see if he really is on the ballot because, well, it just doesn't matter. He's going to get almost no votes. But for those of you wondering, that is the deal.

I write this post every cycle where I predict in advance that some candidate will make some bonehead move and its almost always about the word "for" on a sign.  Campaign laws in Texas say you have to include the word "for" so that you don't mislead the voter into thinking you're the incumbent. Its misleading and so the legislature took steps to make sure candidates wouldn't do that.  It happens every election cycle. Someone always screws it up. But when its screwed up on a billboard, its an expensive D'oh!  Maria Ramirez is running for the 8th Court of Appeals and has a billboard sign as you are approaching downtown coming in from the Eastside of the El Paso on the I-10. As you can see in this picture, this is her D'oh! There is no "for" in sign, which would give people the impression that she's the incumbent. Well aside from being pretty funny, there are actually some pretty stiff penalties from the Ethics Commission if there is a ...

There have been rumors for about a week or two that Chente Quintanilla was going to do some television spots to help his bid to regain the HD 75 seat currently occupied by State Rep Mary Gonzalez. Chente appears to have rolled the dice and instead of spending his money on a ground war like Mary has, he spent it on an air war. The ad and lit would be more effective if it were in Spanish - Chente still hasn't learned that you need to have a bilingual communication strategy in the valley even though he himself is Spanish dominant - and if the farmer depicted were Latino or a female instead of a white guy. But Forma should know better, especially now that Marquez is there, but thats not Chente's fault. Thats why he has consultants in the first place. But still its a pretty effective message. Especially if this isn't the only commercial. Here's the commercial (I had to record it with my phone from Chente's website because it doesn't have an embed code) The literature...

Its probably the most negative ad I've ever seen in a local race. Its also probably the most effective ad I've ever seen in a local race. Senator Uresti of San Antonio is featured in this ad. As I have said in the past, Austin is Babylon. It is the biggest hot bed of debauchery this side of Washington. Actually many say its even worse, which is hilarious when you consider its dominated by conservative leadership. Since we've been talking about TV ads lately, and I'll be talking about Chente's ad against Mary Gonzalez tomorrow, I thought I'd share this ad with you all. In the day and age that we live in those that are stepping out on their significant others should be very careful. You never know where a camera is lurking. Or better yet, how about not screwing around? They play hardball in San Antonio.

Jim Tolbert (Left) - Michael Apodaca (Right) Following the resignation of Rep Romero, now council has to look forward to determining his replacement. After watching ABC 7 Xtra the other night City Rep Noe is apparently in no big hurry to get a replacement for District 2 which blows my mind considering District 2 hasn't been satisfied with the voice they had for several months now. Why anyone would want to prolong their lack of representation is beyond me. For some reason Rep Acosta and Rep Noe made the conversation about something as basic as constituent issues. Sure you can get a staffer to handle that shit, and District 2's staffer is one of the best. She's been there since Texas was in the confederacy. That isn't the point. Its the lack of a voice and the lack of a vote. The election to replace Romero should be an imperative for members of council if for no other reason that to ensure they have a voice and to take steps to regain the confidence of the public. Any who...

Well it looks like young Mr. Gonzalez's crew decided to use a new vehicle for their signage project at the courthouse. Props to the courthouse employee that sent this to me this morning.