El Paso Politics

Mayor Araujo, San Elizario San Elizario Mayor and challenger Isela Reyes withdrew from a scheduled debate at San Elizario High School.  The debate was being organized by the students at San Elizario High School and the two candidates withdrew from the debate without explanation, leaving only one candidate. Since it was only going to be one candidate in attendance, the decision was made to cancel the debate.  That was the only debate scheduled for San Elizario voters to hear from the candidates.  Again no reason was given as to why they didn't want to participate in the debate but both of the candidates that withdrew had some unflattering information come to light recently and likely don't want to address the issues publicly. I've done some more homework and there is even more information about the Mayor and Reyes that will likely be of interest to the voters.  The municipal elections in San Elizario are important to the community because they recently incorporated af...

I've been super busy so I haven't had a chance to keep up with blogging - but also its been pretty quiet but I'll get to a few things like what to watch out for on Charter Amendments, why the hell Shane Haggerty can have the audacity to take money as a sitting board member at YISD - for the second year in a row, and some rule changes the Democratic Party needs to make (which should've been made a long time ago). Oh, and I've gotta lil something to say about the Queen of Tacky herself, Irene "La Mentirosa" Armendariz - Ms Jackson in you're nasty. In due time y'all, in due time.  But let me get on my soapbox for a minute about local elections. Its a super boring election cycle because pretty much all the run-off elections are for judicial seats and there are no cartel candidates or Tik Tok twits in the run-offs. When the most interesting thing happening in a run-off is tracking the over-under of how many times Monica "Lupita" Perez is going...

It looks like there is a genuine effort to resurrect a terrible political practice that thankfully went away after the practice was exposed - the political pachanga.  Pachangas for those of you bilingually impaired, are in my opinion the epitome of everything that is wrong in Latino politics. Its akin to poverty pimping and its a cultural insult that it has been so widely adopted in the past.  Pachangas are an effort to give people - typically from humble backgrounds - free food, get them liquored up - and give away something they value - in a thinly-veiled effort to buy their vote.  If you recall, a lot of valley politicians partook of the political ploy like Chente Quintanilla, the Gandara clan, and Norma Chavez. Although in fairness to Chavez, I don't think she ever did giveaways - just food and booze.  Well it looks like the practice is rearing its ugly head down in Sal Elizario. It appears one of the mayoral candidates Isela Reyes - who has some pretty colorful...

El Paso County Commissioner's are paying Justice of the Peace John-John Chatman about 9% less than all of this colleagues.  Chatman has fought the fact that he gets paid $88,916.47 (not counting what he makes doing weddings when he keeps as personal income and does not disclose to tax payers) instead of $101, 247.38 like the rest of his colleagues. The decision was made by El Paso County Commissioners and is as a result of the Court's determination " that the judge engaged in poor employment management practices that unreasonably exposed the County to potential liability" according to a statement read by El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego at a Grievance Meeting - which is a public meeting. Click on this link to watch the hearing.  Long story short - the Commissioners determined (for the second year in a row) that they needed to hold the Judge accountable under county policy for putting county tax payers in a position to possibly face litigation for poor management...

I almost never comment on things that aren't political, but I'm making an exception because of the things on Facebook I've read about people's opinions about what went down at the Oscars.  First things first - there are consequences for the things you say. No one knows that better than a political blogger. Chris Rock got a lesson in that up-close and personal. Also, violence isn't the answer.  Both can be true at the same time.  I 100% understand why Will Smith did what he did.  Here's a link to a story about what happened if you somehow have managed to not know about this yet.  People have been all over the place about this "entanglement" as it were, so let me address some of the common themes I've been hearing. First is - Chris Rock is a comedian and Will Smith shouldn't take it personally. Well they are also both humans and in comedy, what makes a lot of things funny is the kernel of truth in the idea expressed. Comedians are one of the last...

The El Paso GOP are eating each other alive again.  The El Paso GOP has been quite the clown car for the last few year because well, in my opinion, one guy - Rick Seeberger. He was a subpar (which says a lot in El Paso GOP circles) as a candidate when he ran for congress because of his many, many, documented financial woes.  He blamed his loss on the El Paso GOP.  It wasn't the Party's fault.  He was a flawed candidate that had no chance of winning - even under the best of circumstances because El Paso is not a conservative city. His loss had so much more to do with the GOP brand, being a white guy, having positions (like all Republicans) that are out-of-step with El Pasoans, and of course, his terrible background.  You've seen this story before, Republicans don't take losing well. Its never their fault. There is always some conspiracy afoot in their minds.  So Seeberger (who probably has no idea that his name is now political shorthand for a shitty candida...

Nothing makes people hate politics more than politicians that say one thing and do another. Its almost a political caricature. Whether its some ultra conservative religious nut who advocates for anti LBGTQ legislation only to be outed as having paid male escorts for sex, or members of congress advocating against corruption only to find out they are on the take - its the hypocrisy that drives voters nuts, makes them hate politicians, and lose faith in our system.  Most elected officials are guilty of at least some low-level hypocrisy from time-to-time, but there was an editorial in El Paso Matters recently that was written by City Rep Cassandra Hernandez that represents some ninja-level mastery of hypocrisy.  The article was written about International Women's Day and Hernandez discusses some strong points about the under-representation of women in elective office in El Paso County is reversing.  As the prototypical "girl dad", this is something I am particularly excited ...