El Paso Politics

The pending retirement of longtime District Attorney Jaime Esparza is going to open up a seat that hasn't been open in decades. As a result there are a lot of attorneys and judges that are considering a run for the seat. The most obvious candidate is current State Rep Joe Moody. Moody has been rumored to be considering a run for DA for years, but now that Esparza is making it clear that he's gonna call it a career, the talk of Moody running is becoming louder and louder. However, Moody is now in the most influential position in the Texas legislature that any El Pasoan has been in since Yarborough. Other names that have been floating around the courthouse as potential candidates for DA are current council of judges head Alma Trejo and former judge Gonzalo Garcia, also known as GG. If Moody doesn't run for DA, expect a lot more candidates to start aligning themselves of a DA run - everyone to former candidates for DA to current assistant DA's. There will no doubt be more ...

If you watched the ABC7 Xtra debate on KVIA Sunday night that featured the candidates for Texas House District 79, you might have noticed a portion of the debate in which former City Rep Mike Noe was asked about his attendance record. The question comes from Art Fierro, chair of the El Paso Community College Board of Trustees. Not exactly a household name when it comes to elected bodies, but Fierro makes the point that he's never missed a meeting while in that elected position. Fierro has been on that board for 12 years. He hasn't missed a meeting in 12 freaking years. So he rightfully challenged Noe on his attendance record. The contrast in the two candidates is pretty clear - Fierro has had zero absences in 12 years and Noe has had 27 absences in 8 years. Here's a clip of the debate, along with his his answer, that you should watch before going forward, because his answer to the critique of missing meetings is pretty important. The truth is very different from how Noe fra...

I've gotten away from community-based posts, which is a shame and something I will remedy. The government shutdown is now over (for now) and government employee families will start receiving pay again. But I wanted to shed a little light on a local business that stepped up to help out during this tough time in our community. Its certainly not the only community, but its the one I found out about and they opened up their doors to talk about it. They are offering basic staples at a discounted rate for government employees. They are socially responsible and I dig that. Also, they have a really cool bakery section where they use a brick oven, which I'm told is the only one in town and the tortillas are his nana's recipe!

The finance reports in the race to replace State Rep Joe Pickett had some interesting developments. Democratic candidate Art Fierro raised pretty much the same amount as his opponent Michiel Noe. What was interesting is where Noe got his money and where the money went. Thus my chingón hip-hop reference in the title that most of you probably didn't get. First, lets talk about where his money came from. Most of his money came from two PACS, the Texans for Lawsuit Reform and a medical PAC. This revenue is a bid deal for a few reasons. First, it represents 60% of all revenue he raised, or $30,000. TLR is a very Republican organization. Sure they will occasionally support a DINO here and there, but the overwhelming number of candidates that they back are Republicans. And Noe has made no secret of the fact that the supports tort reform. He explained it years ago when he was trying to run for city council and I raised the question about his contributions to a Republican PAC at a candidate...

So there is a segment on KTSM's news broadcast that features something called "The EPISD Minute". Here's a link to the latest one . There are often little segments that are really just a commercial disguised as a news segment that stations sell to whoever wants to purchase the airtime. EPISD is closing down schools because they don't have the money to keep them open but there is a frivolous vanity segment that the district is spending how much money on? Its seriously the most tone-deaf thing in the world for a district with financial problems to be blowing money on a vanity segment on TV when barrio kids are going to be shoved into classes together because you know that shit ain't gonna happen on the westside. I don't recall when it started, but an open records request for how much money the district spent on the segment and for how long should provide some answers. David Candelaria is the general manager at KTSM and sources indicate that he's good pal...

Beto is going to run for President. Biden isn't the front-runner. We are going to have a big field of presidential candidates, we are going to have a rigorous debate in our primary. No one has ever gone end zone-to-endzone as the front-runner in a contested field of Democratic candidates. Don't confuse the most well-known Democrat in the field with being a front-runner. As soon as people get a good whiff of Beto, Kamala, and whichever Castro brother it is that is running - along with two sitting senators that have already thrown their hats in the ring, Ol' Uncle Joe is going to run out of steam and won't be there at the finish line. There is too much youth and vigor in this race. And quite frankly, young and hopeful candidates that inspire support is the exact contrast we need to present to voters as the antidote to Trump. Don't get me wrong - there is a very juvenile part of my brain that would love to see the scrappy guy from Scranton in a debate with Trump where ...

The week before last, the city council voted unanimously to have an outside investigation conducted to look into matters relating to Mayor Elia Garcia. Again showing the level of transparency synonymous of the City with a Mission, there were almost no details released as to specifics of the investigation. Apparently their city council hasn't learned from the last time there was an investigation of their mayor about being transparent with the community. But aside for making the same blunder again, the fact that it was a unanimous vote to conduct the investigation is a pretty big development. Mayor Garcia has a very close ally on council in Ralph Duran, and even he voted in favor of the investigation. However sources within the city of Socorro indicate that word around the water cooler is that the investigation is related to the court case I've written about in which Garcia (an attorney) took on one of her own constituents as a client and against her own police department. Many p...