The controversy about voting via mail that is intensifying as the pandemic continues to interfere with the upcoming elections. Donald Trump has made his position clear, mail-in ballots are “fraudulent” without providing proof. Republicans seem to generally oppose mail-in ballots while some Democrats are actively pushing for them. The central issue seems to be that… Read More Why Are Americans So Afraid Of Mail-In Ballots
Since the moment Donald Trump decided to label Mexicans, like myself, as rapists I have been on a mission to prove how damaging Donald Trump is to the U.S. voters, especially the ones that voted for him. Each day I think this is it, people will finally understand what I understood when he derided immigrants… Read More Donald Trump Is A Clear and Present Danger
Once again, the controversy of the Electoral College is part of the national dialog with some the Democratic Party presidential nominee candidates arguing for abolishing it. The issue is whether the Electoral College is the fairest way of electing the president of the United States. Those who support the Electoral College argue that it makes… Read More The Stupidity of the Electoral College
Last week, Donald Trump, while in Europe, stated that Europe immigration is “changing the culture” of the European countries. Therein lies Trump’s animosity about immigrants, especially Mexicans. Most will gloss over the comments noting that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to keep American “values” intact or that immigrants should “assimilate.” But the “changing culture” comments… Read More Trump Proves It Is About A Culture War
México is holding national elections on July 1. It is a significant event because México recently combined several national elections into the upcoming election to synchronize all future elections to every six years, with midterms every three years. Additionally, one populist candidate is leading in the polls. The Date: July 1, 2018 National elections are… Read More July Mexican National Election Primer
Yesterday I teased you about how big data, social media and psychographic profiles can be used to change the outcome of an election. Before we get into what the future holds, we first need to understand how things are done now and where we stand. As a reminder, I’m using the Norma Chavez, Veronica Escobar… Read More The Analog Way of Get Out the Vote Strategies
One of the cool things about having access to a sophisticated big data platform is the ability to analyze information trends and compare analytics. Nationally, political campaigns leveraged data points from different sources to pinpoint the voters that are likely to vote for a specific candidate. As many of you know, it is difficult to… Read More El Paso Voter Demographics and the Voter APP
Late last month I posted that party politics is killing America. (link) I used the Veronica Escobar versus Dori Fenenbock race as the example of how party politics has supplanted public policy as the determining factor in an election. I argued that the El Paso race was about who was “more Democrat” then the other,… Read More Party Politics is Killing American Democracy
The House Republicans released the Homeland Security funding bill on Tuesday. In it there are $1.6 Billion to fund the U.S.-México border wall. This is only the initial amount requested by the Trump administration. The total appropriations bill is for $44.3 billion. The wall portion accounts for less than one percent. However, the proposed amount… Read More The Trump Wall Paid for by America
What many do not seem to understand about Donald Trump’s nativist politics is that he mainstreamed the war on culture against minorities – specifically Mexican-Americans – that started in the late 1970’s. The issue is not about skin color, but rather it is about culture. The conflict being played out in the background is about… Read More The War on Culture
Today is the day that many questions will be answered including the most important one – who will be next president of the United States. As you know, it is my sincere hope that Donald Trump is humiliated on Election Day. Not only that, I am hoping that it is the Latino vote that sends… Read More Today is the Day – 2016
As I posted yesterday, many readers are concerned about two specific topics. The first is that I have been blogging about Donald Trump. The second is that some readers feel like I have been ignoring the arena issue. Yesterday I addressed the Donald Trump controversy. Today, I’d like to address the proposed arena. Yes, I… Read More The El Paso Arena and Why Have Waited So Long to Write About It
Since Jim Tolbert took office on May 17, 2016, I have noticed a few constituency requests being made of him through Facebook. These requests got me thinking about government transparency and social media channels. Do not get me wrong, at this point, Facebook requests and most other social media channel requests seem to me to… Read More Jim Tolbert Open Records Requests and Social Media Channels
Let’s face it, what happened in Dallas last week is rebellion against the government. Rebellion happens when the population loses trust in its government. Rebellion comes in many forms – from simple civil disobedience to an actual attack against governmental bodies. Hold your anger in check for a moment and read on. I realize that… Read More Rebellion in the United States
As you all know, I like to connect the political and corrupt dots for you. In today’s edition I am going to show you how engrained the political system is in El Paso. It involves a family that is well-connected politically and how the local political system enables the many problems the community faces. There… Read More Connecting the Cortinas Dots
In leadership class I was taught that effective leadership is driven by example. If you want underlings to follow you, you lead by example. That was driven into our heads from the very first day. Culturally I had been raised in a family and a social edict that is best described as paternalistic. Mexico, like… Read More The El Paso Paternalism Example
From the news media reports, the blogosphere, social media and my post about David Nevarez, you know that there are eight candidates looking to fill the unexpired term of Larry Romero. As has become my tradition, I will be compiling a complete dossier on each of the candidates. In addition, and as usual, I will… Read More 2016 District Two Candidates Coverage Calendar
I am used to all sorts of idiocy emanating from politicians as they pander to their political base. It is expected in politics as elections begin to heat up. As with everything there are the normal well-centered politicians and the extreme ideological extremists that pander to the worst in all of us. Donald Trump has… Read More The Coward That Is Donald Trump
As you know, the citywide elections are tomorrow. I believe it is important to follow the money; where it comes from and where it goes to. Therefore, I took the 30-Day and 8-Day Campaign Contributions Reports and plugged them into my database. From there I analyzed the money flows. Rather then bore you with wordy… Read More May 2015 Campaign Contributions Infographic
Those that have followed El Paso elections for any amount of time knows that the results for Saturday’s election has already been determined. No, it is not because someone manipulated the election results but rather because El Paso elections are generally determined during the early voting period. At about 7:00 pm on Saturday, when the… Read More The F Factor
Author’s note: Those that have being following recent political commentary at the national level know that the issue of campaign financing has been a subject of much discussion. As you likely know, El Paso has had its share of political campaign contribution scandals most recently with various individuals being sentenced to incarceration for “bribes disguised… Read More May 2015 30-day Report Analysis District 1
Earlier this month, Ali Razavi posted two blog posts on his blog that seemed to me to be a desperate attempt to put some distance between himself and the Forma Group. As you all know, I have been tracking the Forma Group’s political activities for some time now. I have conclusively showed you how they… Read More The Forma Group: David Karlsuher and Ali Razavi
[Post updated at 12:00ET on April 17, 2015 in regards to amounts of contributions and Paypal] Peter Svarzbein Campaign Treasurer: Noel R. Rosenbaum Website: http://www.peterfordistrict1.com Email: info@peterfordistrict1.com Telephone: +1 915 246 4778 Age: 34 Occupation: Texas Tech College of Architecture Instructor Candidate Informational Narrative: Peter Svarzbein was born and raised in El Paso. Svarzbein is… Read More Candidate Profile Peter Svarzbein
I added the latest campaign contributions data to my database and I thought I would share some of the data with you today. Total raised by all candidates: $167,887.88 Total raised by the incumbents: $92,603.00 (55.16%) Total contributors in this cycle: 346 Of these, three contributions were made by a political PAC. One was the… Read More Analysis of the 2015 May Election 30 Day City Council Financial Reports
As you likely already know, there is an election scheduled for May 9, 2015. As with all elections the outcome will determine what the public policy will be for the City of El Paso until the next election. Will the new comers replace the existing public policy or will the two incumbents retain their seats,… Read More El Paso News Blog 2015 Election Campaign Coverage Calendar
In anticipation of the upcoming elections, I have been gathering information on each of the candidates for future in depth reports. Today, I thought I would share the basic profile for each of the candidates in the upcoming citywide elections. The candidates are listed by District and then according to their ballot placement. District 1… Read More 2015 May Election Candidate Basic Profiles
Score another victory for the blog and social media. As many of you probably already know, Hunt Communities has agreed to let the flag mural to be painted at the Canutillo school. Before Lisa Turner (U on social media; and yes she has admitted to it so I am not outing anyone here) and David… Read More Hunt and the Flag Debacle
Last week I received a tip from a reader that wishes to remain anonymous. The reader shared with me information about a new consulting group offering consulting services to political candidates. According to the reader, Hector Montes and Stephanie Townsend Allala are providing consulting services to some candidates in the upcoming election in May. The… Read More Attorney, Former Television and Radio Personalities Provide Consulting for Politicians
Many times the traditional news media likes to argue that online media has no effect on public policy. They want to keep this fiction in place because they are hoping to stop the erosion of their reader/viewership. Today we proved that online media has the reach necessary to influence public policy. At 9:44 this morning,… Read More Today We Proved that Online Media is Effective
For the last few weeks I keep letting you know that I’m trying to limit my postings on the weekend. Unfortunately the political shenanigans going on at the city keeps me having to post on Saturdays. As you likely know, in last week’s meeting, the city council, [link to details] with the exception of Lily… Read More Alert: El Paso Council To Vote on Limiting Agenda Postings on Monday
City council yesterday discussed and approved a request for the city attorney to draft a change to the process by how city representatives put items on the agenda. Item 23.2 “Discussion and action to give direction to the City Attorney to develop a resolution changing the rules concerning placing an item on the agenda” was placed by Ann… Read More City Council Requires Three Representatives to Post Agenda Items
As many of you know, the Hispanic Cultural Center is now becoming a controversy for the city. As is typical in El Paso politics there is much going on in the background that the public is not privy to. The controversy surrounding the proposed cultural center, under the 2012 Quality of Life bonds, is basically… Read More The Backstory to the Cultural Center
The two underlining themes in the questions and comments I received, as a result of my articles about Jaime Abeytia’s criminal travails, were about why Michiel Noe would appoint him and why did I bother to write about Abeytia. I would like to take this opportunity to address those two questions. The first question is… Read More Why Abeytia and Noe
As most of you know, the impetus for my blog is the continued distortion of the public record by the El Paso Times pretending to be a newspaper. Distorting the public record, especially when it comes to influencing an election, has been an ongoing activity for Bob Moore ever since he came out in support… Read More Just So We Are Clear, Bob Moore Distorts The Public Record
As you know there is an election scheduled for May 2015. There are three city representative seats in contention as well as several school district seats. Because of the various controversies and the possible change in the makeup of the power base at the city, I expect the various races to get contentious. This is… Read More City Council and El Paso Independent School District Election 2015
All those that argued that Stephanie Townsend Allala’s quest for government transparency was wrong owe her an apology. This is especially true of the El Paso Times masquerading as a newspaper who did not understand that allowing the Steve Ortega’s of the world to hide government records through legal subterfuge goes against the very fabric… Read More Stephanie Townsend Allala is Owed an Apology
It is a funny thing that the more things change the more they stay the same. Today city council is going to embark on the city’s latest fiasco by appointing a city board to oversee the development of a Latino/Hispanic/Mexican-American/And God Knows What Other Name It’s Going To Get Cultural Center. The conversation is an… Read More The Hispanic Cultural Center Isn’t For Mexicans
My two articles last week focused on the impending economic doom of El Paso and the resulting tax increases. I believe that it has become obvious that the tax increases are needed because El Paso government officials have refused to acknowledge the ample evidence of economic strife and instead are hoping to spend their way… Read More How You Are Helping to Build the City you Will One Day Be Excluded From
Something has been bothering me about the Canutillo flag debacle and Hunt’s involvement in it. At first, I wasn’t able to pinpoint exactly what was bothering me about it. Although it surprises me that a military city like El Paso has had such a muted (corrected typo on 18feb15 at 11:05ET) response to the flag controversy it… Read More Hunt and the Flag
The ongoing bathroom debacle at the San Jacinto Park clearly demonstrates a dysfunctional El Paso city government. As if the fact that restrooms aren’t important enough for the focal point of the much-touted downtown revitalization project the excuses after excuses mounted by the dysfunctional city council betrays the utter stupidity that drives city government. The… Read More City Incompetence on Display with San Jacinto