El Paso Politics

El Paso Democratic candidate for the 16th Congressional District Deliris Montanez-Berrios voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election.  She volunteered that information in a conversation I had with her at the Tejano Democrats of El Paso meeting last month. When I asked her why she voted for Trump she replied, "Come on. If I voted for Hillary I'd be wearing a hijab right now." Seriously, she said that. I recently asked her in an exchange on messenger what she meant by that because obviously that is a really provocative thing to say, and she said it was a figure of speech related to the Clintons' relationship with the Saudis and don't take it literally.  Montañez-Berrios is taking issue with voting history as of late. Recently on the Democratic Party auxiliaries had a candidate forum. As is customary for most auxiliary organizations in partisan races, the voting records of the candidates are compiled. The information shows what prim...

KTSM has found itself in the center of controversy again in just a matter of weeks. As you may recall I wrote a short while ago about how a story was taken off the air allegedly at the behest of one of the subjects of the story, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser.  Leeser is a large purchaser of airtime at local stations because of his car dealership.  The story was about his sudden divorce and the documents surrounding his multi-million dollar divorce settlement.   The station has received criticism lately due to their controversial anchor Christina Aguayo. She is apparently El Paso's answer to Alex Jones. She came over to the station from a now-defunct ultra extremist conservative network called America's voice.  According to multiple sources at KTSM, long-time El Paso newsman Darren Hunt was let go from KTSM a day after a confrontation took place in the newsroom involving Hunt and Aguayo. I'll lay it all out for you, but first - some context. You'd think that Nexstar loca...

Did y'all forget I cover both sides of local elections? Well I wouldn't want the GOP to feel left out of the ol' LSB during election time.... A local charity that provides funds for healthcare of sick children says that El Paso Republican candidate for Precinct 4 County Commissioner, David Adams, stole $80,000. An internal document dated October of 2021 indicates that the The El Paso El Maida Shriners charged David Adams with "theft of $80,000.00 from Shriners fund". The Shriners is a charity associated with Freemasons with the goal of providing healthcare to neuromusculoskeletal conditions, burn victims, and kids with other sever medical issues regardless of a family's ability to pay.  The matter was handled internally within the Masonic Temple in a proceeding similar to a trial. Master Masons from other parts of the country came to El Paso to see the evidence and hear the charges leveled against Mr. Adams. This document indicates that they found the allegati...

Lisa Soto is running for the Democratic nomination for the 8th Court of Appeals. When you run for office under the banner of a particular political party, the presumption is that you espouse the values of the party you are running under. I'm clearly biased here because I'm a union man - like my father before me.  My dad was a union organizer and I am a union organizer.  But it doesn't make what I'm explaining less true - it just means I know what I'm talking about.  This is where we need to talk about some important core values to the Democratic Party. Two major progressive values that are long-time planks of the Democratic Party platform are protecting workers rights and advancing labor rights like livable wage for all workers. No matter how Lisa Soto will want to spin this, her experience as a contract negotiator for management (which she touts), runs contrary to the values of the Democratic Party.  This needs to be addressed by Democratic organizations issuing e...

Whatever will be, will be.  More like whatever was, was.  Alexandria Serra is a candidate for the 327th District Court. Remember the other day when I wrote about Cori Harbour-Vasquez and her social media problem. And by problem, I mean a picture of her and Chapo Guzman's wife - at the federal courthouse - during his trial.  If you recall in that post I mentioned that there are 4 candidates in that race and half the candidates in the 327th were sitting judges and half of them had big problems with their social media? Well it turns out I was wrong.  Well, kinda wrong.  Turns out that 3 out of the 4 candidates in the race have judicial experience. Alexandria Serra apparently was also a judge. If you didn't know that, I don't blame you.  Serra never talks about it.  You'd thinking having experience on a bench would be something you'd want to highlight, like the other two judges in the race have done.  Right? Yes. Unless you have something to hide....

Come on, it was always a punch line.  A PAC that has the word "honest" run by Carlos Sierra is a joke that writes itself.  For those of y'all that don't remember Carlos Sierra is the political operative most often associated with El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and former City Rep Lily Limón - who is now a political consultant for Sun Circle, that found himself at the center of controversy pretty regularly.  Sierra is a Republican - which apparently doesn't bother Limón or her business partner Eddie Holguin because they have always been real chummy with Republicans. Limón and Max Grossman, Holguin and the late Jaime O. Perez.  Sierra had a string of legal troubles stemming mostly from a drinking problem. The vato had more DUI's than an infantry unit on a 4 day pass. It eventually led to him getting his ass beat at a Journey concert at the Haskins Center.  I know what you're thinking - who the hell tries to get gangsta at a Journey concert?  That guy does.  ...

Candidates think social media is their friend. Typically the younger the candidate, the more they think that. But social media as a campaign tool, especially in local races, is just a place were mistakes are made.  Don't get me wrong - as a blogger I absolutely love it because it gives me stuff to write about.  But from a campaign perspective the campaign teams should tell their candidates to stay off social media, delete their accounts, or at a minimum, go back a few years and clean them up.  I'd ban them from using their cell phones until after 7pm on Election Night.  In no race is that more clear than in the race for the 327th District Court. On paper, you'd look at that race and think that its of the more talent-rich races because all four candidates are experienced lawyers. Half of the candidates are sitting judges.  But also, half the candidates' social media posts demonstrate a complete lack of sound judgement. And the public has the right to know about t...