El Paso Politics

Moving the elections for city council to November is an experiment that has run its course. It has turned out to be a bad deal for El Paso voters.  I'll circle back to this point in a bit, so lets not open that 12 pack just yet.  As basically everyone predicted, Oscar Leeser won convincingly over Dee Margo for the Mayoral seat. To his credit, Margo did what no other Republican on the ballot in El Paso did - he conceded.  Not that he really had a choice. He took a beat down.  Gacho, too. He changed is social media page today to reflect the loss.  I'm not going to kick the guy while he's down but I do want to point out the ridiculousness of something he said on election night in an interview. Margo blamed the loss on marketing from Leeser.  He didn't lose because of marketing. Well not in the traditional sense. The reality is Leeser has been investing in his name for years - long before this election. That is likely how he made it into the run-off - but after...

I've been sitting on this for a very long time, but its time I let y'all in on a little secret. I'm the longest running political blog in El Paso. There's others, but they aren't based here in El Paso. I've been doing this for a long time and over the years, I've pissed off a lot of people. Powerful people.  Judges. City reps. State reps. Commissioners. Members of congress, water board members, school board members and at least one union boss. And don't even get me started on all the Republican snowflakes who I've made cry over the years.  A lot of people hate me because of the positions I've taken.  And my philosophy is - fuck'em, they don't scare me. Least of all Marlene Gonzalez, her sister Mayte, or their tag team partners, the Caballero Coven.  Over the years, a lot of those folks have tried to inflict some level of pain on me. A lot of tried to push me around, trash me, scare me, intimidate me, etc.  Anyone who knows me knows that t...

Saturday is Election Day for the municipal election run-off. The only thing on the ballot is the mayoral election, City Rep elections in the Northeast and Central, and the municipal judge races. Oscar Leeser is going to be elected mayor again.  I'm not voting for Margo, and I didn't vote for him last time. But before you vote for the Leeser of two evils, there are some things to think about.  No one is going to vote in the run-off election because of the municipal court races, most folks don't even know they are elected positions and most people don't know who is running for them.  Until now. Lilian Blancas is on the ballot and as many of you know by now, she has passed from the coronavirus. I've known about her struggles with the virus since late October but out of respect for her family I didn't comment on it publicly. There's a very good chance that despite not having campaigned at all during the entire run-off election because she was fighting the virus,...

There was an article in the El Paso Inc regarding the District 2 race between Alexsandra Annello and lifelong El Pasoan Judy Gutierrez. The two are in a run-off election and early voting has already started.  In the article, Annello asserts that she fired Gutierrez, someone who has worked for the city for 24 years - 15 years working in District 2 - which is about twice as long as Annello has actually lived in El Paso.  I realize that things get heated between candidates, especially in a run-off, but the implication of firing someone is either meant to put it in the mind of a voter that there was a good reason to fire Gutierrez, or that Gutierrez is disgruntled. The former is more devious because it implies misconduct or ineptitude.  Thats pretty gacho on the part of Annello because she attributes being able to get through a very difficult time in her life to Gutierrez.  Whether or not someone was fired can be definitively proven. Either she was - or wasn't - fired. S...

Chris Yost & Pube Braids  Its universally understood that most El Pasoans that aren't certi-fucking-fiably nuts want a safe El Paso. But there are some that think politicizing the virus is some sort of political hill they need to climb and die on.  You know, all the Republitarians that bitch about "muh rats" ("my rights" for all of us familiar with the English language). Republicans across the country have decided that protecting the community from COVID and supporting local businesses are somehow mutually exclusive. They have tried to sell the public a lemon by saying that you are either on the side of protecting El Pasoans or protecting businesses.  Wanting what is best for businesses and the community are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you really can't have one without the other.  --------------------------------- Chris Yost Yost is clearly the kinda guy that probably pees in the pool. I'll get to Mayor Margo in a second, but lets talk about wha...

I can't recall a local elected official that is more casual about saying racist remarks than Dee Margo - which makes the fact that he's actually in a run-off for another 4 year term as Mayor of El Paso. Recently Margo made a comment about "gestapo tactics" toward the only Jewish elected official on City Council. He altered followed that remark up with another towards that same Jewish member of council stating that he came from "a unique environment" and that was "unfortunate".  Well in this interview yesterday, Dee Margo makes a comment that I just can not believe he made and I had to watch it a couple of times just to make sure I wasn't imagining he said it. Mind you, this is the same guy who four years ago when he was running for Mayor he called Trump's proposed border wall a "freedom fence" .   Follow this link to see video of Dee Margo's interview on Good Morning America , where he looks like a proper villain. He is clearl...

Okay aside from the fact that El Paso is bluer now that it has really ever been and all the local Republicans got trounced, there were some other elections that happened that we need to talk about.  So first of all, whenever you stand on local government's action inaction, if you are upset about stay-at-home orders, or upset that El Paso leaders aren't doing enough about the pandemic, you should now at least understand that elections are important.  At this point you're going to vote for or against local leaders based on the pandemic, because city and county leaders made dueling decisions recently. And if you're not wanting to vote at this point, Jesus Christ you're stupid.  Lets start with the judicial races because an important decision was just made by an appellate court. Those are partisan races and one of the biggest things Democrats do wrong is not pay enough attention to those races. Appellate court is one of those races I told you was important but you blew...