El Paso Politics

"The unmeasured menace of the enemy." That is a line from a speech Winston Churchill gave to his alma mater, Harrow School in England. Whats a vato loco from the barrio doing quoting Churchill? Well a doctor friend of mine shared it with me and it relates to the two year battle that was waged down here in the Mission Valley to stop a proposed medical waste facility that has been trying to locate in our community. I know a lot of you reading this might not grasp why its such a big deal - and you should be grateful for that. Because you probably live in a neighborhood where that kind of thing would never happen. But for those of us who live in working-class Latino neighborhoods, environmental racism is a real thing. I know a lot of you hate how much I bash the westside but lets be real for a minute - no one ever tries putting this kind of thing on your side of town. Its the Valley that ends up having to deal with facilities like this. Commissioner Vince Perez and City Rep Claud...

So the District 3 race is already heating up regardless of whether or not former City Rep Cassandra Hernandez has come to grips with it yet. I guess she just really wants to keep wearing that hard hat. I'm sure she could work something out with Mayor Margo to keep it. Game of Thrones had the Iron Throne, I guess D3 has the construction helmet - which is pretty ironic considering how bad the roads are in that district. But hey, since we are playing dress-up, why not make the rest of council dress up like the rest of the Village People? What do you think? Mayor Margo as the Leather Chaps guy, or the Navy guy? I'm leaning toward the Leather Chaps guy, if for no other reason than the Fu Manchu facial hair. Anywho, I know of at least two women and 3 men ready to throw their hat in the ring for the seat. Most of the people vying for the position are new faces and one of them has held office before, so its mostly a crop of new people looking to represent District 3. A couple of them s...

Cassandra Hernandez sent out a press release in which she is terca that she didn't resign from office. Except she very clearly did. So lets clear up the narrative, shall we? She made public notification that she was resigning. You know who else says she made public notification? Her lawyer, Daniel Marquez. “It was an inadvertent public notification that went out when they changed the name of that Facebook account.” Click this link to an article in the El Paso Times to read it for yourself. If you caught yesterday's special meeting you would've got a kick out of it. First, she was wearing the same white suite that she's wearing in the images where she changed her page name to reflect her candidacy for Mayor. I'm sure it was because Monday was Women's Equality Day and she's trying to do the whole AOC and the rest of congress wearing white thing. I just thought it was funny that its the same outfit. You know what else was funny? Her lawyer. Oh man I got a kick...

County Commissioner Vince Perez announced his re-election campaign Sunday morning after mass in San Elizario, Texas. As you may know, San Elizario exists as its own independent community because Commissioner Perez led the charge against a City Council in Socorro, led by the infamous Gandara family, that had unlawfully extended their terms in office and tried to orchestrate an annexation of San Elizario. And the contrasts between the candidates couldn't be more clear. The Holguin family are going to try to appeal to the establishment and anyone with an office or title. Perez made it a point to announce his reelection in San Elizario, the place were he married his wife, El Paso Mayor Pro-Temp Claudia Ordaz Perez and the place where he chose to be sworn in as County Commissioner - among a crowd of supporters that don't have fancy titles, don't have staff, and were from every sector of Precinct 3. Former City Rep Eddie Holguin, spouse of challenger Iliana Holguin made it a poin...

Okay so there's a fair amount of confusion going on from my conversations with folks about City Rep Cassandra Hernandez and Monday's meeting to set a special election to replace her on council. First - I'll be the last to defend Dee Margo, but the Mayor really doesn't have a say in this. Once Cassandra made her intentions of running for mayor public through social media - which its sole purpose is to make things public - the mayor and council pretty much have their hands tied. The law kicks in and its clear - that is an automatic resignation. Obviously someone screwed up. Knowing Hernandez, the last thing she'll do is take personal responsibility for the screw up. I'm sure she'll blame it on someone else. You know, the Shaggy Defense. "It wasn't me." But it doesn't matter - that facebook posting sealed her fate. Obviously she wanted to be able to keep her salary and her position on council so that she could rail against the meeting and poli...

Betrayal has been a part of politics since the days of Julius Caesar being stabbed in the streets of Rome by the person closest to him, Brutus. "Et tu Brute?", as Shakespear once wrote... In politics, loyalty is the coin of the realm. Without it, you have nothing. Sometimes staff leave an office and go on to other things. Sometimes its under good terms, sometimes its under bad terms. Sometimes a staffer goes to work with another elected official. Sometimes, not often, they go to work for a rival elected official. But one thing you never do, is what Josh Carter has done to his former boss. Its a level of betrayal that defines you forever after you do it. Its straight up weasel-level stuff and is why no one will ever trust the guy again. Y'all remember Josh Carter right? He was Mary's staffer that was always running for something and could never win. His last effort was in Socorro ISD for the Montwood area trustee position. He had every single advantage possible and sti...

Word around the campfire at city hall is that City Rep Cassandra Hernandez was furious yesterday because she was running from a cameraman and reporter that was asking about her announcement for a mayoral bid on Facebook the other day. I didn't see the coverage on the news last night, but maybe they will air it in another news package.  My sources at City Hall are saying that there will be a special meeting on Monday of city council to set a special election to replace City Rep Hernandez on council.  Hernandez may be hoping that she can somehow keep her office since she pulled down her mayoral page and changed it back to her District 3 page. Unfortunately the AG and the law are pretty clear - there are no take-backsies. If there is a meeting on Monday, that means council wants to get an election set soon and if its in November, I don't think there's an additional cost to voters. But if they have to do it another day, then its a REAL problem for Hernandez because it will mean...