El Paso Politics

Rick Melendrez makes me laugh. He talks a lot of shit about bloggers but reads us every day and can quote us chapter and verse. He made a post on Facebook on Monday asking people what their predictions for the election were and asked that no campaign staff or bloggers weigh-in. Basically he was saying he didn't want Chris Hernandez and I on his little conversation. A buddy of mine saw the most and screenshot it to me. Funny thing is, if campaign staff are banned, then he must not mean for that rule to apply to himself. See what Rick doesn't tell anyone is that he does campaign work. So by his rule, he wouldn't be able to comment on his own post. If you saw the paper recently, there was a sticker for embattled Judge Mike Herrera. If you look closely, you'll see that he did the piece. He's likely being paid by Norma Chavez too. Which, I don't fault the vato for doing. Just stop acting like you're not a campaign operative when you are. Also, seriously ... the g...

In a statement released late last evening, El Paso County Democratic Party Chairwoman Iliana Holguin called out Carlos Sierra's GOP PAC that is supporting Dori Fenenbock and called on Republican Chairman Adolfo Telles to do the same. The statement comes on the heels of a mailer sent to Republicans urging them to cross-over and vote for a Democrat. This further complicates things for Dori Fenenbock who has had difficulty shaking the label of closet Republican since she first started campaigning for the position early last year. As expected, Fenenbock has not disavowed the mailer or the undermining of the Democratic process. Back in February during the Tejano Democrats endorsement process, the PAC also sent out emails to the Tejano Democrats in a thinly veiled racial undertone of pitting prominent African-American Democrat Don Williams against Latino members of the organization during the endorsement forum. Leadership was attempting to ascertain what member of the organization leaked...

Emails obtained recently show that Dori Fenenbock included EPISD Superintendent Juan Cabrera in correspondence that was directly related to campaign matters back in October of last year after Fenenbock resigned from EPISD.  The emails were regarding questions that had surfaced around that time about the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the unions that represents teachers in EPISD. AFT is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.  Fenenbock started campaigning back in May of 2017. While Fenenbock frames it as an exploration of a campaign, once you reach a monetary threshold of $5,000 you become a candidate by FEC regulations.  In June of 2017 she advocated for, and voted on, a controversial contract to Gafcon, which has come under scrutiny because of the $1,500-per-day consultant and allegations of bid rigging. That $1,500-per-day consultant is now a paid consultant for Dori Fenenbock’s campaign.  The email was sent from a private email account of Fenenbo...

More fun with alliteration. Dori Fenenbock quickly deleted a social media post touting an endorsement from El Paso boxer David Rodriguez. I guess she hadn't done her homework on the guy, so blame the staff for this one, but Rodriguez is a pro-Trump right-winger. Fenenbock has been trying to shake the label of a Republican in Democratic clothing for a long time now due to her voting record, contributions to Republican candidates and her husband's financial support for extremist Republican candidates. Rodriguez and I obviously don't have the same political views, which is fine. We live in America and everyone is entitled to their beliefs. No one is saying Rodriguez isn't entitled to his beliefs, but the political reality is that it is a problem for Fenenbock. Bigly. The problem for Fenenbock is when she's touting the endorsement, she ends up having to answer for the beliefs of the endorser, and in this case they are diametrically opposed to the platform of the Democra...

You can't imply you're endorsed by a school or school district. Its a government entity. I know for a fact that the Superintendent is not going to be happy when he sees this. You can't use the Eastwood High School logo for campaign purposes. Spanky is gonna get in trouble for this. Also, since I'm talking about Spanky, he should stop talking about referring kids to the JP courts. Not one single student was referred to the County Attorney (that is where it goes, not the JP) in YISD last year. Spanky outta know that considering he's a Vice Principle at Eastwood. Also, there was a change in the law and JP's almost never deal with truancy anymore.

Okay, I know its kinda been serious around here lately. So lets lighten things up, shall we. I saw this ad on Facebook the other day and when I heard it, I'll be honest - I rolled my eyes and thought it was the dumbest thing I've seen in politics in El Paso. And that is saying a lot because, well El Paso does dumb politics pretty damn well. I guess Samaniego felt like he didn't want Cook to corner the music market for candidates. After a couple of hours, something weird happened. I started humming the damn thing. Then I went to polling place and I heard a candidate for a different office humming it. Its cheesy as hell. But it gets stuck in your head. I was all set to make fun of Forma for the song, but it turns out, its kinda brilliant. My favorite part is that it starts off rhyming, but at the end they just sorta give up on rhyming and it sounds like the responsorial psalm in mass where they sing the lines but they don't rhyme. Any who, enjoy. And I apologize for putti...

Alyssa Perez sent out a pretty ugly mailer against her opponent Monique Velarde that landed in mail boxes earlier this week. It was ugly. And you can't help but read the mailer and think that it clearly came from an emotional place from Perez. There's not nice way to say it so I won't bother tip-toeing around it - she pulled a mean girls and body shamed her opponent. Yeah, the mailer was essentially just a vehicle for her to send out an unflattering picture of her opponent. In the era of "me too" it makes you scratch your head to see a woman body-shame another woman, especially when vying for a seat on the bench. And that shows you really the only thing we non-lawyers have to go on besides a basic sense of fairness, her temperament. Perez was pissed about a mailer that Velarde sent out. The Velarde piece featured news clips of the controversy surrounding Perez working as a the attorney for CLEAT and taking judicial appointments and serving as a part-time, fill-in ...