El Paso Politics

Saucedo's campaign is the worst campaign I can recall in terms of communications - my only question is whether its intentional or strategic. He'd hardly be the first stereotypical politician to talk but never say anything. But he seems to have mastered that ability to master's level. But again, I don't know if that is because his communications consultants just really suck, or if its an effort to try to get media attention without actually taking a position. But if you read his statement, which I've provided in its entirety below, he doesn't actually articulate a stance. He never comes out and says whether he's for or against the wall and Trump's 20% mordida to pay for the wall. And yes kids, he even included another video. Frankly, I'm disappointed the lucha libre guy isn't in it, it would make more sense to be in this video. So since he never actually says what his actual position is, I'm gonna help you guys decipher it based on his previou...

Jaime Esparza declined to prosecute Father Time. Leeser shouldn't have called the cops because an old guy was disrespecting his wife. He knew they would respond because he's the freakin' mayor. He should have man'ed up and dealt with it like any other man would handle it when another man disrespects his wife. Seriously, if the mayor can't handle an old man, give me a break. Thats all I have to say about that.

In a pretty serious early blow to his campaign, District 3 candidate Jaime Barceleau will likely have to go before the city ethics commission and answer questions as to why he didn't file his campaign finance report on time. The complaint was filed by Cassandra Hernandez-Brown, a fellow candidate for District 3. The full statement follows (I drew attention to her quote by making it bold to make it easier to find). What makes this unique is that the ethics complaint was filed not only with the state, but with the El Paso Ethics Commission that is also hearing complaints against the Mayor and members of council for alleged violations of the Open Meetings Act and complaints against the City Attorney for not referring those complaints to outside council. Barceleau came in with the most amount of money by far. He's bank-rolled by the rich ruling class to a greater degree than any of the other candidates - to include the mayoral candidates. I think her quote summed up the situation n...

At this point, I don't care where they put the downtown arena. Its only a downtown arena because of an ordinance and that can be changed, so put it at Cohen stadium for all I care. But this is a post more for the activist community. There's an important lesson to be learned from this debacle. You can't have the moral high-ground and defend a corrupt process. The bottom line here is that the meeting in secret with the members of council, the mayor, and Grossman has poisoned the process. The big corruption scandal was called Poisoned Pawns, so this should be called Poisoned Process. The more that gets revealed about the events surrounding this meeting, and trust me there are more things that will come out, the more you can see just how shady it was. The Texas Rangers just don't investigate things for the hell of it, no matter what anyone else tells you. Obviously there needs to be a solution to the issue. No one wants little viejitas moved. So tell the landlords not to mo...

If Judd Burgess was paying attention to the meeting last night, then he knows all he has to do is slightly reword his ethics complaint to allege that there was an ethical violation or violation to the city's ethics ordinance and the Ethics Commission from the City of El Paso can hear his complaint that was dismissed by City Attorney Firth. If you want a good wrap-up of the meeting last night, KFOX did a good job of summarizing the meeting and you can see the report here . Basically, Firth was under fire for most of the meeting. The Commission was already deliberating some changes that they wanted to recommend to council and voted on those changes. What will be interesting to watch is how those recommendations are going to be treated at the council meeting in which they are to be formally adopted by city council. The very people that are going to be affected by the changes proposed by the ethics commission are the same people that will vote the changes up or down. You see what is go...

City Attorney Sylvia Firth's actions on the ethics complain make zero sense. Actually, before I go on let me make something clear if you haven't figured it out yet - Judd Burgess is taking a page from Jim Tolbert's playbook. He's using an ethics complaint to get in the public eye to launch his bid for Tolbert's council seat. Maybe that isn't is ONLY reason for doing it, but its certainly part of it. And that is how Tolbert got elected. Which I have to admit, is pretty ironic and kinda brilliant. So the whole, "arrest me" and ethics complaint stuff should be seen from the lens of a guy who is running for office and free press goes a long way for a political candidate. Kuddos to Burgess for doing more than just complain on social media, the guy went through the trouble of actually filing the ethics complaint. I questioned him as to why he didn't take it to the DA right away because he was alleging that council actually broke the law, but looks like i...

I'm just curious about something. A bunch of folks marched on Saturday to send a message to President Trump about how he treats women among other issues. Lots of female leaders from various sectors in town attended. Teachers and activists and union members and business leaders, lawyers, local celebrities, and yes, elected officials. I know my feed was full of pics and video of people from the march. So help me understand... If you were so motivated to march about those issues, then why aren't any of you pissed that Bernie Sargent, a member of a local government commission in El Paso, Texas, referred to two sitting members of council as "pussy's"? What am I missing here? Activism starts at home people you won't stand for Trump but you're apparently okay with it in El Paso...