El Paso Politics

"If public schools weren't failing, charters schools would fail." Its a common refrain from Republicans that are trying to push "school choice", which is nothing more than privatization of public education - their ultimate goal.  But charter schools in Texas are essentially government subsidized private businesses that take money away from public schools and divert it to charter schools.  And they really, really, really want Omar Yanar on the State Board of Education. I wrote a piece about him because his commercials were wall-to-wall and I figured he was making it rain at local TV stations to play that dollar store version of the Dora the Explorer commercial of his.  Turns out the Charter School industry are the ones that are bankrolling his commercials. And its an obscene amount of money. I mean, even NASCAR would blush at how much sponsorship there is of Yanar's campaign.  No other campaign has been pimped out to special interests more than Yanar's ca...

Its been a while since I've seen this level of hypocrisy but a week ago Art Fierro was hammering away on contributions from Republicans that were going to his opponent, State Representative Claudia Ordaz Perez in their inter-party battle for the HD 79 seat. Seriously, he was downright angry about it. Just watch their debate on ABC 7 Xtra and you'll see what I mean.  In the debate, COP called him out on the fact that Fierro has received contributions from the same Republican donors, and she pretty much said he's just mad they aren't giving to him anymore.  In fact, Fierro said that COP was receiving money from the same "Republicans that supported Abbott." Which is an interesting take considering Fierro sold out to the Republican Party in order to get a safe seat. But Fierro said some other interesting things in that debate that I want to draw your attention to in light of today's campaign finance report.  "I have not got huge support from Republican Do...

Shame on me for not drawing more attention to this guy, because I think its very important to clarify some inconvenient facts I'm guessing he'd rather you voters not know.  Omar Yanar is a candidate for the State Board of Education and he's a huge advocate for Charter Schools. He has apparently decided to make it rain at local television stations with ad buys.  Suddenly there are voices in the El Paso County Democratic Party that all of sudden care about the advancement of Charter Schools. They didn't have a single problem with them when former El Paso County Democratic Party Chair, and now County Commissioner Iliana Holguin was on the Board of Directors for a local charter school.  Not. a. single. word. And, quite frankly - they haven't said a word about Omar Yanar either.  But I will.  In my opinion, his campaign is one of the most shady movidas that is happening right under this community's nose.  Yanar has this annoying commercial with the absolute wors...

A delegation of progressive Democrats in the Texas Legislature made their way to El Paso over the weekend to campaign for State Representative Claudia Ordaz Perez. COP is a founding member and treasurer of the Progressive Caucus in the Texas House of Representatives.  She is facing State Rep Art Fierro who is facing harsh criticism from Democrats in the legislature representing communities across Texas for his role in enabling Texas Republicans to pass draconian voter suppression bills.  If you're following the elections in El Paso, voter turnout in this election is extremely low and a record number of mail-in ballot request have been rejected. Fierro, who sat on the Elections Committee where most of the controversial legislation was birthed, was one of the first Democrats from the Texas legislature to return and assist Texas Republicans in achieving a quorum, allowing Republicans to pass their extremist agenda.  Fierro apparently hasn't pointed to anything for his consti...

If I had a nickel for every time someone complained about what I write, I'd be in a different tax bracket. I continue to be take aback by how many people decide to run for office that still don't consider the fact that they will inherently under go some scrutiny once they become a candidate.  If you don't think about that before you run, I'm not obligated to protect your little feelings. We live in an age where information is more accessible than ever. I mean, its called the Information Age for a reason.  So I still scratch my head when someone runs for an office and I find out compromising information pretty easily because I ask myself, did they not think this was going to be an issue? Did they not think about this before they ran? Are they even aware that this information is available? All of those questions cross my mind - especially in this election and especially in the 327th Dumpster Fire.  But I especially get a kick out of this when a candidate is running and t...

Nothing is more annoying than listening to politicians twist themselves into a pretzel about an issue, being hypocritical about an issue, or misrepresenting facts.  What is particularly annoying about that from politicians is that they have a knack for implying something without saying it, or frame something in a way that only maintains a kernel of truth, but just enough to create doubt.  I saw Art Fierro speak a couple of times recently and that particular affinity towards framing things in a particular way that tries to optimize Art.  But as much as the Trump Administration would have their sheep believe, there are no such things as alternative facts. At the end of the day there are two constants in politics - facts and bullshit.  Let me break down a couple of things before we go to video, because my favorite things in local politics is catching people say things that are demonstrably untrue.  Art Fierro's lit is straight-up divorced from reality. I mean polit...

As you know 327th District Court candidate Cori Harbour-Valdez and fellow candidate Alexandria Serra have taken some heat for their social media missteps as of late.   Serra basically never mentioned to anyone at any time that she was a former jail magistrate judge, probably because she didn't want people asking why she was a former jail magistrate. Turns out she was allegedly asked to resign by the El Paso County Council of Judges - because of her social media.  Cori Harbour-Valdez was under heat for posting a picture of her smiling next to Chapo Guzman's wife on her Facebook page. She was asked about the photo at a recent candidate forum and in her answer she mentioned something I just took as a throw-away line but I now know what she meant by it.  Her response was - and I'm paraphrasing here - words to the effect of defending the constitution and ensuring that the government meets their burden, even in cases involving unsavory clients.  I remembered it because of...