Tag Archives: El Paso Times

Oh, SNAP!! Beto O’Rourke Posts Massive Fundraising Haul

For Texas Democrats running statewide, what does winning even look like??

No one in contemporary Texas politics knows the answer.  It’s an experience so elusive that you have to go back more than a generation to even ask someone who held statewide office as a Democrat.  That one living person??  Former Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby, and he served during the 1980s.

1994 was the last time Texans sent a statewide elected Democrat to Austin, with Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock.  So if anyone else tells you they know beyond a doubt how Democrats can win statewide, they’ve probably been out in to pasture a bit too long.

But if we can take our best guess at what that win might look like, I’m going to bet that the Beto O’Rourke campaign is off to a pretty good start on that path.  Here’s the big news O’Rourke’s campaign released today, via Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune

U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, raised over $6.7 million for his U.S. Senate bid in the first quarter of 2018, according to his campaign, a staggering number that poses a new category of threat to Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.

The haul is easily O’Rourke’s biggest fundraising quarter yet, more than double his next-closest total for a three-month period. It also is more than any Democratic Senate candidate nationwide took in last quarter, O’Rourke’s campaign said.

Cruz has not released his first-quarter fundraising numbers yet, but O’Rourke’s $6.7 million total is on a different level than his previous hauls, which ranged from $1.7 million to $2.4 million. Those alone were good enough to outraise Cruz for three of the last four reporting periods.

Furthermore, the $6.7 million total came from more than 141,000 contributions — another record-busting number for O’Rourke.

The big money totals are important, but just as crucial is the huge number of individual contributions from people across the state, and other areas of the country.  But most of that money, 70 percent per the El Paso Times, came from folks in the Lone Star State, with NO contributions from any PACs (Political Action Committees) or corporations.  In other words, Beto is not for sale.

After a year on the road, the Congressman has already visited 228 counties and held hundreds of Town Halls with Texans, while simultaneously meeting his responsibilities to the Texans he represents in El Paso.  He’s had over 90 town halls with his constituents!

For Ted Cruz, whom officially launched his reelection campaign Monday in Beaumont, let’s just say the time spent with his constituents has been, well, a little less frequent.  Though if you can manage to drudge up some national news media, you might have a chance of getting him to show up.

Which is why the O’Rourke campaign had an interesting present for Beaumont area voters to welcome Cruz yesterday… a specially-designed Snapchat filter for the big event…

It’s good to see the Democratic challenger putting that campaign cash to use.

And make no mistake, the one thing Ted Cruz does well is campaigning.  Just because he lost to Donald Trump in his bid for President doesn’t mean he’s going to roll over without a fight.  The whole strategy behind emphasizing his work to help Texans recover from Hurricane Harvey is incredibly smart, mostly because he knows that O’Rourke, from El Paso, didn’t and couldn’t play a central role in that situation. But as Cruz runs around highlighting the ONE TIME he managed to actually do his job after a natural disaster, smart Texas voters should be able to see through the smoke screen to reveal a Senator who’s overall record in responding to and working for his constituents has been abysmal.

Whatever lies ahead, it looks like Texans are going to see a real competitive campaign for Senate in 2018, fights and all.  And if we do know anything about Texas politics, we know that you can’t be a winner without first being a fighter.

Kudos to Beto for taking some shots.

 

El Paso Business Leaders Criticize Donald Trump’s Racist Remarks

Donald Trump may be winning hearts and minds among fringe members of the “Republican” (TEApublican?) base, but he is not making many new friends along the Texas-Mexico border.  The candidate’s recent comments have received swift backlash from business leaders across the country, and now we can add the voices of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to that growing list.  Here’s more from Lindsey Anderson of the El Paso Times

The El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the nation’s only Hispanic woman governor, New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, have joined in criticizing Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Donald Trump’s disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants.

The El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce released a statement saying its members were “disappointed” by Trump’s “harsh and insensitive rhetoric.”

Document ›› El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce responds to Donald Trump’s immigration statements

“We recognize the adverse effects that racially charged and discriminatory words can have,” the chamber wrote in a two-and-a-half page statement. “His speech was not only exclusionary, but also inappropriate for a presidential candidate.”

When announcing his presidential campaign two weeks ago, Trump said Mexicans immigrating to the United States are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

“And some I assume are good people,” he added.

His comments led Univision and NBC to pull out of televising the Miss USA pageant that Trump co-owns, and many businesses including Macy’s have cut ties with the billionaire.

Here’s video of what Trump said…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2b1viZpvss

In recent polls of Republican primary voters, Trump is currently near the top of the field among sixteen others vying for the party’s nomination.  And for that reason alone, it is critical that other prominent leaders lambaste his clearly racist comments.  The fact that a significant portion of the Republican party is seriously considering Trump as a legitimate presidential candidate should cause alarm for everyone invested in our political system.  Kudos to the El Paso Hispanic Chamber and Governor Martinez for making it clear to everyone where they stand.  Let’s hope that other prominent leaders (especially those running against Trump) follow suit.

Wendy Davis Gets Personal In New Book

Over the weekend Texans received something of a campaign season bombshell that has now turned into a national story.  In advance of her book’s release date, Wendy Davis revealed that she, like many other Texas women, has had to terminate two of her pregnancies due to severe fetal abnormalities.  Here are more details from the El Paso Times, via AP…

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, who became a national political sensation by filibustering her state’s tough new restrictions on abortion, discloses in her upcoming memoir that she had an abortion in the 1990s after discovering that the fetus had a severe brain abnormality.

In “Forgetting to be Afraid,” Davis also writes about ending an earlier ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus. Davis says she considered revealing the terminated pregnancies during her nearly 13-hour speech on the floor of the Texas Senate last summer — but decided against it, saying “such an unexpected and dramatically personal confession would overshadow the events of the day.”

The Associated Press purchased an early copy of the book, which goes on sale Tuesday.

Both pregnancies happened before Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, began her political career and after she was already a mother to two young girls. Davis catapulted to national Democratic stardom after her filibuster temporarily delayed passed of sweeping new abortion restrictions. She’s now running for governor against Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is heavily favored to replace Republican Gov. Rick Perry next year.

After the news broke, Davis sat down with Robin Roberts for an interview on Good Morning America, where she was pressed about the interesting timing of her book release less than 60 days before the 2014 election.

The timing factor is interesting for sure, but interesting is not the same as illegal or unethical.  Politicians write and sell books all the time.  Politicians also do all sorts of other types of work while campaigning… you know, like not stepping down from being Attorney General and not excusing yourself from cases that could have a direct effect on your upcoming election.

For the Abbott campaign, Davis’ book presents a perilous quandary of how to respond.  So they chose to go the path of ethics.  Here’s more from the Houston Chronicle on that…

Republican gubernatorial nominee Greg Abbott asked the Texas Ethics Commission on Monday to rule whether opponent Wendy Davis’ book deal and tour crosses the line on illegal corporate campaign contribution because it is tied to her ongoing campaign.

Davis’ campaign immediately labeled the filing a “frivolous stunt.”

In a three-page letter requesting an advisory opinion, Abbott campaign manager Wayne Hamilton asked whether a book tour paid for and promoted by a corporation constitute in-kind political contributions. Under state law, corporate contributions to a campaign are illegal.

[…]

While the request for an ethics opinion makes no mention of Davis, the name of her publisher and details of her book deal are the same as those in the letter.

“Because of the proximity of the book’s publishing and the election, the candidate will be using political funds on voter contact at the same time the publisher is using corporate funds to promote the book,” reads the letter,  insisting that political observers “seem to agree that the promotion of the book essentially equals promotion of the candidate’s candidacy.”

Davis’ campaign spokesman Zac Petkanas said the campaign was “very careful to follow every legal guideline.

“This frivolous stunt by the Abbott campaign is the clearest sign yet how worried they are about the power of Wendy’s story,” he said.

Were Greg Abbott running a more ethical campaign himself, this line of attack may garner more teeth.  But unless he’s planning to resign from office early, relax Voter ID laws reveal the locations of dangerous chemical locations, the request to the Texas Ethics Commission is little more than a small stone within Abbott’s magnanimous glass house.  Plus, what can the Republican really yield from trying to stop the tour anyway?  At best, attacking Davis for the timing of her book can motivate a few more people in his base… ones that really care about the “inside baseball” of politics and were solid GOP supporters anyway.  At worst, the attack makes Abbott look like a hypocrite.

On the other hand, Davis has nothing to lose from releasing her book now.  Scoring an interview on GMA rockets her name ID back to the forefront of the news at a time when she most needs it, and motivates the Pro-Choice base of both parties to really show up and show out this November.  Yes… in the real world, there are still Pro-Choice Republicans in Texas, the very people who Wendy Davis is counting on to win in 2014.

One more calculus that may have been made by the Davis campaign here.  Even more important than what and who everyone is talking about, guess who they are not talking about?  The correct answer is Greg Abbott.  In a critical time for the Republican to be connecting with voters over his personal story of tragedy followed by triumph, Davis has managed to stop Abbott’s momentum dead in its tracks.  As the old saying goes, ‘All politics is local’.  But Wendy Davis is proving right now that the best politics is personal.

 

 

 

The Immigration Fight: Protesting Children??

For those that were around an American television in the year 2000, it’s quite possible you remember the name Elian Gonzalez… a little boy from Cuba that was the center of a massive international custody fight.  He originally came to the US by boat and his mother actually died en route to get to Florida.  When the six year-old Elian arrived here, he was greeted by a group of angry protesters that told him to turn around and go back to where he came from.

If you remember the story, you’ll also remember that the above is incorrect.  Because Elian was from Cuba (and yes, in part because his story made national news), he was not treated the way that so many undocumented people entering the United States have been treated.  Instead, the United States treated him as a refugee from the malicious Cuban government, and he was taken to family members in Florida.  Elian resided in the country all the way through a vicious court battle which eventually had him sent back to his native land (In case you’re curious, Elian Gonzalez is now all grown up and a faithful devotee of Fidel Castro).

This illustrates one sad truth of the United States immigration system… it’s completely unfair.  Elian, like many undocumented Cubans that have ventured to this country before him, was deemed a refugee thanks to the shaky relations between the two governments.  He was not locked away in a holding cell, and he was not met by screams from protesters.    But for the undocumented children on U.S. soil today, that’s exactly what they have faced.  As Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee said this weekend, we should not be berating people simply trying to flee from danger.  Here’s more from the Houston Chronicle

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Sunday called upon charitable and faith organizations to help the tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children who are pouring across the Texas border.

The Houston Democrat said a federal emergency should be declared to handle what she called a humanitarian crisis.

“These unaccompanied children are not America’s enemy,” said Jackson Lee, who spent three days touring detention centers turned into makeshift shelters that are overflowing with children in the Rio Grande Valley.

[…]

“It would not be humane to put these children on planes and buses to ship them back. They could be killed by the cartels and gangs at home. They are not a security threat to us,” Jackson Lee said. “What mother would not send their children here if they were told they had to join the gang or be shot to death?”

The congresswoman told of seeing “frightened children who just want to be comforted” at the shelters, stressing America has always received those who fled persecution.

Her comments come against a backdrop of rising tension this week in places like Murrieta, Calif., where protesters turned away three busloads of immigrants that rolled into their town. Efforts to set up a detention center there were thwarted, and the undocumented immigrants were relocated to San Diego.

As Jackson Lee states, this is a humanitarian crisis, not a national security threat.  Many of these children and families are fleeing unspeakable crimes in their homeland, including massive gang violence, murder and rape.

In a recent article, Diane Washington Valdez of the El Paso Times reported just how pervasive child sex trafficking is in the neighboring city of Juarez, Mexico…

Juárez is one of the Mexican cities where child-sex tourism persists, according to a U.S. State Department report on international human trafficking released Friday in Washington, D.C.

“Child sex tourism persists in Mexico, especially in tourist areas such as Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, and Cancun, and in northern border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez,” the report said. “Many child sex tourists are from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, though some are Mexican citizens.”

John Martin, director of Paso Del Norte Center of Hope, which assists human and sex-trafficking victims, said he’s learned from researchers that Anapra is one of four areas in the Juárez region where sex with children is available.

“Reportedly, people can get sex with a child for $5,” Martin said.

For all of those angry protesters demanding children go back to where they came from, are they also ok with them being sold into slavery or used as pawns for a gangland war? Do they want them sent back, even if it means a death sentence??

To those that complain about how the United States cannot afford to care for people fleeing imminent danger, they should also be asking how we can afford tax give-aways to massive corporations, or how we can afford to spend trillions of dollars nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Protecting the lives of people within our borders, documented or not, should be a priority over trying to “force Americanization” of places not even in the same hemisphere.

And therein lies another inherent problem with the immigration fight… some that are against comprehensive immigration reform don’t feel that certain lives warrant the same need for protection as others.   Here’s what Bud Kennedy of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram had to say regarding a right-wing Facebook page…

 if you read the “Protect” delegates’ convention Facebook page, they reprinted this Thursday from a California restrictionist group protesting at Murrieta, Calif.:

“Americans are not breeding while ‘the bronze master race is.’ … We will die out and they will win.”

There you have it. A major Texas Republican faction that just successfully rewrote the platform is publishing warnings about Central American child detainees arriving as part of an “agenda” for a “bronze master race.”

It’s not about legal or illegal.  It’s about bronze.

The Protect page has 932 followers, including several Tarrant County Republican precinct chairs and party officers. It does not identify an author, editor or administrator.

According to the Protect Texas page, at least some of those protesting the children in Murrieta are concerned about much more than just what papers they possess.  Sounds familiar to a previous post discussing the unspoken fears that many on the right have about America’s future. At least they used to be unspoken.

No matter what one’s political views, we should all feel ashamed that innocent children would be treated with such disdain.  Whether they have 50 press cameras on them like Elian or zero, these children are in need right now, and the least we can do is help them.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/07/05/5950561/on-child-bashing-republican-facebook.html?storylink=addthis#.U7hy2dxjdW4.twitter&rh=1#storylink=cpy

 

 

(photo credit:  KTLA)