El Paso Politics

The buzz around the courthouse lately is about who Judge-Elect Samaniego is going to hire for his staff. Word around the courthouse is that is going to be Chris Acosta. As I mentioned yesterday, Acosta appears to be Carlos Sierra's "in" to local campaigns. She was Carlos Sierra's "in" to the Samaniego campaign. There are many in the courthouse that are concerned that her hire could signal Carlos Sierra's "in" into County government. Sierra famously declared war on three politicos following an arrest a few years ago in an article in the El Paso Times. Two of the three politicos he declared war on were at the County. One still is, which would likely have an impact on the working rapport at the County. Samaniego has faced several stumbles on his way into office. Sierra working on his campaign, taking credit for his victory, came to light shortly after Samaniego won a very tight election against John Cook. That was a major controversy and Samaniego...

Once again Carlos Sierra finds himself in controversy. Sierra's ironically named PAC known as Keep El Paso Honest has had yet ANOTHER complaint filed against them. Another entity has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission by another non-profit organization. The story was in the El Paso Times the other day. Sierra famously bragged about working with the Samaniego campaign and putting them over the top in a facebook post following the election. Yet again he was disavowed by a campaign. Samaniego tried to distance himself rom the campaign but had difficulty doing that because of Chris Acosta. Acosta was his campaign staffer and is Carlos Sierra's "in" to campaigns locally. The heart of the complaint against Sierra's PAC is that they didn't disclose the names of the contributors to the PAC in ordnance with election rules. Some have long speculated that the reason Sierra hasn't disclosed that information is because its possible that the only pe...

You're not allowed to campaign on County time if you're an employee. Its considered the public's time. You're also not allowed to campaign using a public resource. In this case, it appears to have been county email. And according to the email, it sounds like the sender of the email was doing so at the direction of their boss - who is a judge. This seems to be a pretty blatant violation, although I don't know what specific repercussions a county employee is subject to for violation of these rules, nor do I know if there is any mitigation if the employee was doing so under the direction of their boss. As you can see in the screenshot of the email, it very clearly shows the sent time. That was obviously during a regular business day. I blurred out the employees name but left the last part of the email address so that you can see the email came from a county email address. The email was sent at 1:42 yesterday afternoon. I'm on Don Williams' email list and was fo...

There are a few of my social media friends that are total Beto haters. They are progressive liberals, but they are major Beto haters and man...do they look freakin' stupid. They look stupid because they kick and stomp and hold their breath about Beto, but the alternative is Ted Cruz, who's policies they don't support, but they still hate on Beto for what looks like one, and only one, very stupid reason. His name. Disgraced former State Rep Norma Chavez used to be famous for making fun of his name. But the Beto haters seriously look really stupid about this name thing. Normally I would be saying who the hell cares what his name is or what he goes by. But when you have people hating on Beto because he's a rich white guy using a Latino nickname, but you don't say anything about Latino who uses a white nickname, well then you're just a massive hypocrite. Seriously that is some next-level dumbfuckery. Beto isn't trying to fool anyone into thinking he's raza. ...

The City of El Paso should be telling you this, but quite frankly, the City has always sucked at telling their own story. Its like they go out of their way to find the worst communications people possible, and then make sure they hire them. There's something you should know about the TIRZ that you aren't being told. There's a reason no on is telling you either, its because the westside still has a strangle hold on the power base in this town. So allow me for a minute, to talk to all the people who DON'T live on the westside for a minute. What no on is telling you is that if there is no TIRZ in place (the one with all the controversy about some Lost Dog), WE will have to pay the bill for the westside's stormwater infrastructure. With the TIRZ in place, the westside pays for its own stormwater infrastructure, from the taxes collected from the TIRZ in that area. It goes right back into funding their own infrastructure. If the TIRZ is not in place, what changes is that ...

El Paso GOP Chair Adolfo Telles sent out a press release yesterday afternoon that was allegedly responding to a press release from the El Paso Democratic Party Chair Iliana Holguin's press release back in June criticizing County Commissioner Andrew Haggerty for voting against a resolution condemning the Trump administration for their kiddie concentration camp in Tornillo. I say allegedly because the press release was really the GOP's excuse to go on the offensive against Carl Robinson, who just so happen to be having a fundraiser two hours after there press release was sent out. Strategically it was a major mistake on the part of Chairman Telles. It gave the El Paso Democratic Party and Robinson's campaign the opportunity to comment once again on Commissioner Haggerty's vote in support of the Trump administration. With friends like that, who needs enemies? The GOP was trying to get the media to stick a mic in front of Robinson's face at his event last night and ask ...

Editor's Note: As a courtesy to all candidates I post any campaign announcements sent to me, regardless of party affiliation. I missed a couple, but had some family stuff going on so I apologize to those candidates. Former City Representative Carl Robinson is a candidate for County Commissioner Precinct 4. He is having a fundraiser tonight in El Paso at the Brass Monkey, located at 3233 N. Mesa. The fundraiser starts at 6pm. The details are on the flier below. Robinson is taking on the ONLY Republican member of the El Paso County Commissioner's Court, Andre Haggerty.