El Paso Politics

Well things just got a little awkward down on the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo! State Representative Mary Gonzalez, long rumored to be interested in the agricultural commissioner position, has drawn an opponent. And not just a school board member from Fabens or a former state representative well-passed his prime. She has a polished, qualified, and educated opponent from the Pueblo. I should explain for most of you reading this because you likely don't live in the valley, but its awkward because Gonzalez has her district office on the Ysleta Del Sur reservation in Socorro. And Gonzalez should be worried and taking this opponent seriously because there's a real chance that her opponent, Mary Sue Femath, can win. Aside from being a well-polished and well-packaged candidate from Forma, she's the real deal. Smart, young, energetic, and has a photogenic family. And the Pueblo is all-in for their candidate and tribal member. They have already put in $100,000 to get her campaign started. ...

Oh look, that nice Republican lady is pretending to be a Democrat for Halloween! How festive! Seriously, give her props. She can only pull this off twice a year. April Fool's Day and Halloween. #Didn'tVoteForObama #Didn'tVoteForBillEither

I've heard local leaders say some really dumb things to defend stupid, crooked, unwise, etc political or policy decisions. Seriously I have a notebook full of dumb quotes from people locally that I have been saving for later use when appropriate. And the dumb things I have heard from elected leaders in Socorro could be its own book. But If you watch this story, this is possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard an elected official say to justify a really, really, really stupid political move to score points with voters. First, here's a video of a news story done the other day about changing the name of a street in Socorro. Click this link to the story if it doesn't work. Here's the short of it - Socorro has major mobility problems and in an effort to fix those problems Commissioner Vince Perez and Former Mayor Jesus Ruiz and current Councilman At Large Rene Rodriguez worked together to push through some projects that will help alleviate those problems. That is why yo...

American Federation of Teachers boss Ross Moore is pretty upset over an alleged claim of an endorsement coming out of the Fenenbock camp. The incident is alleged to have happened at an event featuring the Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party when he made a recent trip to El Paso.  At issue is a claim alleged to have been made by Anna Dominguez that Fenenbock had received the endorsement of various locals of the American Federation of Teachers.  It is unclear if Dominguez works for the Fenenbock campaign in an official capacity or is just a strong supporter of the Fenenbock  campaign so its hard to say if this is a claim being made by the Fenenbock campaign or by someone who is just a supporter of the campaign. It is also unclear if the claim was, as Moore describes it, "intentionally or inadvertently disingenuous". In order to dispel the rumor, Moore fired off an email to a group of leaders and to members of his local to clarify that the endorsement process of the AFL-C...

This is gonna make some of you very uncomfortable, but I pride myself on discussing what others typically won't, even if it bothers some people. Pretty sure the comment section on this one is gonna be pretty active. Up until recently, race and religion were a subtext to the campaign for the 16th congressional district campaign between front-runners Veronica Escobar and Dori Fenenbock. It is very often whispered by supporters or non-supporters of either candidate and usually in the context of their candidate being unfairly criticized because she's Latina or she's Jewish, depending on who you are talking to. Hell, every time I mention Fenenbock I get someone call me antisemitic and a lot of racist things are said about Mexicans. So much so that I had to actually start following what was always a disclaimer in my comment section and now I require a handle for someone's comment to be posted. But lets look at the reality of the political landscape in El Paso. We are a commun...

Someone please explain to me what Juan Cabrera and EPISD are doing right now. I read this article in the El Paso Times and I almost lost it! So you have someone, Kristine Ferret, who was admittedly part of a wide-ranging cheating scandal that pretty much targeted poor brown kids... and you promote her? And there was a process in which other actual human beings, all of whom attended a university that conferred upon them degrees, that thought it made sense to not only keep her employed - but to give her a promotion? What am I missing here? Is this some kind of joke? Did MTV decide to make an epic comeback of Punk'd and Ashton Kutcher is gonna come out of some bushes with a camera crew and say, "Gotcha El Paso, you've been Punk'd". Because if he is, thats really cool. But if he isn't, then I have to question why the hell Juan Cabrera is still the Superintendent. And lets be very honest about this, she was actually REPRIMANDED by TEA for her role in this. So ther...

So I've been checking out something for the last couple of weeks and wanted to clarify for a few different groups regarding campaign signs. There is a little contradiction in the law, but here's what it looks like near as I can tell. If the road is maintained by TxDOT, you can't start putting signs along said road until 90 days before the election. So on Horizon Boulevard near Sparks there is a sign for a former JP candidate that is trying to get her seat back. That sign can't be up yet because Horizon is a TxDOT road. The same would technically also apply to all the freeways in town. But it would also apply to some other roads that you might not think about when you think about TxDOT. Alameda, McCrae, Mesa, Montana, North Loop, Socorro, Yarborough, and Zaragoza are all TxDOT maintained roads. Someone sent me an example of a Fenenbock sign in a median near Loretto. That particular example is never allowed. You cannot place a political sign in the center island or median...