El Paso Politics

Gacho. I hadn't realized until the other day just how really bad it is that a sitting District Court judge with the reputation that Judge Herrera has is pursuing another seat. Yeah, he has all that stuff hanging over his head about his own divorce sitting in his own court, which sucks because if his own spouse can't get justice in his court, in my opinion it undermines the public's confidence in the judiciary, but there's another layer. No, I don't mean the fact that all of this is really about lining his pockets on the public dime with another pension tax payers will pay for. I mean what it says about the lengths he will go to in order to actually get that tax-payer funded additional income. Jesus Rodriguez is also running for that seat and was one of the first candidates out of the gate for the seat. Why is that a big deal? Because Rodriguez is Herrera's associate judge. He's like Herrera's assistant judge. Sorta underneath him on a flow chart. So you ...

I wrote about something yesterday regarding an advantage Selena Solis has in her bid to unseat embattled judge Luis Aguilar. I mentioned it would write it as a separate piece because it was such an important factor in this election cycle. For years people have heralded the emergence of Latinas in politics and in El Paso, that time appears to have come. In nearly every single contested race there is a Latina running, and in some races, multiple Latinas, or the entire field of candidates are Latinas. And this is the year that most of them will win. In the Congressional race you have former County Judge Veronica Escobar and former State Rep Norma Chavez - both of whom are facing a candidate that brags about beating "Hispanic" candidates. Laura Enriquez is taking on two male opponents in the County Judge race. Enriquez, Escobar, and Chavez are proof we come in all colors too. HD 75 is a field of entirely Latina candidates feature incumbent State Rep Mary Gonzalez and challenger L...

Gotta love David K. I mean the guy's family has maxed out their contributions to Dori Fenenbock and he's always done Jim Tolbert's bidding and now he's directing Jim Tolbert's latest attempt at staying relevant. Seriously can't recall a more blatant example of a guy being on the take for a political class in El Paso than David K. So he posted a letter that Jim Tolbert wrote and it became a story in the Times. I'm writing about it today because I found it hilarious that Norma Chavez's announcement messed up David K and Tolbert's little movida. In the article Tolbert alleges something I think everyone had already assumed, that Susie Byrd helped him write the ethics complaint about Larry Romero and the City Manager. Apparently that was some sort of earth shattering revelation to David K because well, he's kinda obsessed with Byrd in a weird way. But it shouldn't have been. Jim should've been honest with his boy The Juice and told him the tru...

El Paso Community College Trustee and prominent attorney Selena Solis was literally a last-minute sign-up for the 243rd District Court to take on embattled Judge Luis Aguilar. Aguilar recently received a public reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that included more than 60 different points of discussion. That is the most wide-ranging reprimand that I can recall. The reprimand's conclusion, which can be found in its entirety here , included some pretty damning language about Judge Aguilar. "The Commission concludes from the totality of the facts and evidence presented that Judge Aguilar willfully and persistently failed to comply with applicable law...The Commission further concludes that Judge Aguilar engaged in a persistent pattern of treating those in which he deals with in an official capacity with a lack of patience, dignity, and courtesy...Finally, the Commission concludes that Judge Aguilar's willful and persistent conduct cast public discredit up...

County Clerk Delia Briones' challenger Ricardo Gonzalez was booted off the ballot because he was "declared ineligible". Interesting thing is the finance student who ran as a Republican last time was booted because he...wait for it...bounced a check for his filing fee to the Democratic Party.  Word around the Party is that there are a couple of candidates that may be facing an effort to have their names removed from the ballot as well. I don't have all the details but that appears to be the direction of things going. But I can confirm that there will be at least three, maybe more, candidates that will be receiving notice of ethics complaints filed against them at the Texas Ethics Commission.  ***************************************** Candidate Ballot Order Yesterday was the drawing of numbers for a place on the ballot. This determines the order a candidates' name will appear on the ballot. They did it a little different this time, they had 10 numbered balls in a bu...

When there is flooding in the Mission Valley and farmers and families are losing their homes and livelihoods, where is your state rep? The answer all too often is State Rep Mary Gonzalez is out partying while you nervously wait out the storms.  But that isn’t the issue that is the central focus on the HD 75 race. I’ll get back to that in a minute, walk with me… Forma has been gunning for Gonzalez since she took office. Most of the time they don’t have a decent candidate. Last time they had to dust-off Chente Quintanilla to run against Gonzalez.  Thats not really giving the voters much of a choice. I watched that whole campaign and waited to hear some compelling reason why they should send Chente back to Austin.  Not because I don’t think he’d be any better or worse, I mean lets be real…what the hell has Gonzalez actually done in Austin? I can’t think of a meaningful accomplishment for her district. I mean there’s some identity stuff, but with a district that has as much n...

One of the funnest (and sad) things about election season is how amazingly petty people can get. A lot of really dumb, immature, and annoying things happen during election season. For example, taking an opponent's signs down. I'm dealing with that right now, but I'll update everyone when I find out if it was John Chatman's doing or Lucy Najera's. Its especially egregious when it happens at a Democratic Party function though because it reflects as much on the hosting organization than it does the candidate. Check out those two photos. Monique Velarde, who is running for a judicial seat was a sponsor for the event. Her name shows up on the sponsor board right? And a little later, her name magically disappears! Gacho! Now does this affect anything? Absolutely not. But its just dumb and petty. And that is campaign life in El Paso. Come on Westside Dems, if you're gonna shake down candidates for "sponsorships" at least make sure no one can do some dumb shit...