El Paso Politics

There have been several staffing moves of interest lately so I thought I'd bring people up to speed of the staffing changes that I know of. The first one is Audra Tellez. She is no longer with State Rep Mary Gonzalez's office. She got bent out of shape over a piece I wrote about the fact that she was asking for block walkers for a Republican candidate. If she thought that posting something like that wasn't going to put her ex-boss in a tight spot then she's pretty politically naive. No one twisted her arm to post it but she had the nerve to get upset about it. I'm not sure how she figured that people not knowing she wasn't with Gonzalez's office anymore but still posting about a Republican candidate wasn't going to get noticed by Mary fans was gonna happen, but several Wiles supporters from the valley weren't happy about it and thats how I found out. SIDEBAR: This really goes for anyone that takes issue with anything I write. Next time you take issue...

A few folks I know that are Jewish called me about an ad they saw yesterday on the bond opposition page. They know very well that I am opposed to the EPISD Bond but they wanted me to see the image. I hadn't seen it until it was sent to me but they feel that the image is anti-semitic - playing on a well known stereotype about Jews and money. As you can see the image is stacks of money with EPISD Board President Dori Fenenbock's face on them and a play on words calling them "Fenenbucks". Its not the first time the page has posted an image of Fenenbock on money. Here is one from a couple weeks ago: I have no idea if this was done intentionally with the thought of being anti-semitic. I don't think the average El Pasoan knows Dori Fenenbock is of Jewish heritage and I don't think a lot of us in El Paso are well-versed on recognizing a Jewish last name. But I will also be the first to admit that if someone had done something that was a play on a stereotype of my cul...

The boys from the Sheriff's Officer's Association love to tag me on Facebook with updates from the Buchino campaign. But I happened to see this sponsored ad last night and it crystalizes how incredibly unqualified Buchino really is for the office. "If our taxes keep going up, then there are no savings!" That would be a great line if it were true! But it's not. That is the Trump-style communication playbook of saying something so ridiculously stupid and simple and hoping people will buy it. Mr. Buchino demonstrates very clearly in this post that he doesn't understand the mechanics of the county budget, much less that of the Sheriff's Office. First lets talk about cost-avoidance. Mr. Buchino fancies himself a businessman and should understand that cost-avoidance is a savings. Not sure if he actually gets that, but just about any businessman on the planet knows this. But cost-avoidance aside, Buchino doesn't understand that the county budget is more than ...

Leave it to Socorro to be the epicenter of crazy during campaign season. Not that that is anything new. Apparently Lorenza Fraire, the former city manager is running a slate of candidates so that she can get her old job back as city manager in Socorro. Leave it to Lorenza to single-handedly get all the campaign workers kicked out of Las Ventanas. And it's for the usual campaign stuff that happens every election. People are pushy with voters, they electioneeer beyond the area they are supposed to and stuff like that. So apparently Fraire's behavior was so egregious that everyone was kicked out. That location is private property so they can give people the boot any time they want to. But seriously, how annoying do you have to be to get booted in Socorro? Well the cops were called on Day 1 of early voting. And that ladies and gentlemen is why it's called Soco-loco.

I knew this was gonna happen and I got wind of it yesterday but I had to wait until the county released voter data today to confirm it. Little Jessie Gandara voted in Socorro. They have a mayor's race, councilman at-large race, and a city council race going on in the county's second-largest municipality. Gandara has a felony conviction and as far as I know isn't even eligible to vote anymore because of the felony. That apparently didn't stop him. There is also the sheriff's race to consider. Gandara HATES Sheriff Wiles. Any bets on who Gandara supported for sheriff?

The biggest argument for the bond by supporters is actually one of the problems with the bond. The argument is that its behemoth size (2/3 of a ba-ba-ba-billion dollars) is that there is tremendous need in the district in terms of infrastructure improvements. The problem is this bond doesn't distribute the funds equally. An editorial cartoon broke it down nicely by showing that a huge chunk of the money is divided into two schools, one on the westside (shocker right?) and Burgess. The remaining amount of money is split among nearly 80 schools. As I've mentioned, the district is contracting. Next door in YISD, a bond was passed in which the lion's share of the bond money goest to Eastwood High School. In fact the bond had to be revamped to account for the extra students in Eastwood High School. Where are the students coming from? You guessed it, EPISD. Burgess is actually closer to Eastwood High School than it is to Jefferson High School which is the next closest EPISD schoo...

The railyard is a bad location for the stadium because it screws the valley. The stadium doesn't have to be downtown. The ordinance language says it does, but not the ballot language. An ordinance can be changed, therefore council could decide that downtown isn't the best place for it. Frankly, it is the best place for it. Now back to the railyard. Union Pacific is willing to sell the railyard spot to the city but there is some major horse trading involved. In traditional form, it's a deal that would screw the valley. And that's not hyperbole, it would be a major screw job to the valley. Thankfully the two valley reps drew a line in the said and protected their constituents. At stake is a master plan that Union Pacific has for closure of 31 crossings. That is their ultimate goal in order to maximize the use of their fancy new Santa Teresa railyard facility. UP is planning to double, perhaps triple the train traffic in and out of the hub. UP is sort of treated like a pol...