Margo Ties Moody to Norma Chavez, But Donated to Her Campaign Previously

by: LionStar75

Fri Oct 15, 2010 at 04:50 PM CDT

In the latest mailer featuring a picture of State Rep Joe Moody and former State Rep Norma Chavez, he alleges State Representative Joe Moody is "more liberal than Norma Chavez". I don't think the Margo campaign means that.

Mostly because Norma Chavez isn't that liberal to begin with. First of all, as David K writes in Refuse the Juice, what liberal brings up the sexuality of an opponent?

The tactic says a couple of things. First it says that polling done to test the viability of Norma Chavez for the State Senate seat must've been really, really, really bad. The other thing it says is that there must be polling that shows that Margo isn't in front, otherwise he wouldn't be going negative.

The point isn't whether Norma's liberal, the point is she's unpopular and that's why he's trying to tie Moody to Chavez.

But Margo should be careful with trying to connect Moody to Chavez because Margo himself has some interesting connections to the very person he is trying to tie Moody to.

Let's start with the fact that Chavez was a Craddick "D". She sold out the rest of the Democratic party in order to get the controversial Republican Tom Craddick to retain his seat as Speaker of the House.

Craddick is a Margo supporter.

But perhaps the most ironic part of Margo's mailer is the fact that according to this campaign finance report, Dee Margo actually provided financial support to Norma Chavez's campaign! If the critique is that Chavez is too liberal and by extension so is Moody, then why would Margo contribute to her campaign?

Campaign finance reports show that Dee Margo contributed $500 to Norma Chavez's campaign on October 1st, 2003, which was right around the time she started dancing with Craddick.

To further underscore the ideological paradox of the Margo mailer, Rick Armendariz, an on-again, off-again Democratic Party political operative is handling Margo's Latino outreach. Armendariz's last gig, with Forma Group, was during the primary race for this election cycle. He worked for Democratic Representative-elect Naomi Gonzalez's campaign.

Armendariz also worked at one point for...you guessed it, Norma Chavez. In fact, the controversial organization of the Camino Real Mexican American Democrats was done under Rick Armendariz's name, though the club has always been known as Norma's club.

Below is a republication of a piece by Don Kirkpatrick from the 2006 Campaign That
References Margo Name Dropping Chavez:

"Deevious - Drop a name, tell a lie"
Perspective and Commentary
by Don Kirkpatrick
October 22, 2006

The stealth Republican candidate for the Texas Senate from El Paso has
employed a new tactic in his effort to unseat incumbent Democratic
Senator Eliot Shapleigh. Dee Margo drops a name, then tells a lie.

When Margo used Hall of Fame Coach Don Haskins' name in his campaign
materials without the coach's permission, he lied.

When he spent $500,000 to attack Senator Shapleigh about
Republican-delayed funding for the Texas Tech medical school in El
Paso, he lied. Lt. Governor Dewhurst, a Republican, called him on that
one Saturday. Both of Margo's lies were front-page stories in the El
Paso Times.

Today, in a joint appearance with Senator Shapleigh on KVIA-TV, Margo
dropped Norma Chavez' name, saying that Chavez called him about a bill
that she could not pass. He left the impression that Chavez supports
him. That is a lie.

During Representative Chavez' 2004 campaign against Marty Reyes,
Senator Shapleigh took a strong stand for her. He endorsed Chavez in
that race and Chavez has endorsed him this year. Shapleigh and Chavez
have worked together to pass dozens of bills in the ten years that
they have served together.

Today, Margo talked about HB 3426, Chavez' bill concerning underage
drinking on the border. That bill was passed by Senator Shapleigh in
the Senate and took effect on September 1, 2005.

Margo uses standard Karl Rove tactics: put forth the Big Lie, then
keep an opponent pinned down responding to the lie..

In today's TV debate, Shapleigh did respond. He apologized to El Paso
for all of Margo's negative, untruthful attacks, part of what Senator
Hillary Clinton called the "blizzard of negativity that is the
hallmark of modern Republican campaigns."

By now, El Paso knows Dee Margo. The latest poll proves that El Paso
voters do not approve of Margo's "Big Lie" campaign. After spending
nearly $1-million on his race -- considering contributions he has
reported, what Laura Bush raised for him last week, and what
Republican fat cat moneymen Robert J. Perry and James Leininger will
deliver for
last minute attacks -- Margo is still 30 points behind Senator Shapleigh.

El Paso voters do not like attack ads -- or liars. When Dee Margo is
done, he will have spent more money than any candidate in El Paso
history -- for far fewer votes.

Executive Committee Camino Real Mexican American Democrats Resign en Masse

by: LionStar75

Mon Aug 09, 2010 at 10:33 AM CDT

The members of the Executive Committee were elected in July and include the Chair Willie Gandara Sr. (Mayor of Socorro, Texas), Vice-Chair Dora Oaxaca (staffer for Willie Gandra Jr, El Paso County Commissioner, and Secretary Alfredo Longoria (local El Paso businessman).

The only member of the Executive Committee to not resign was out-going State Representative Norma Chavez. Chavez has played a leadership role since the beginning of the organziation and has never been out of Executive Leadership. Many characterize the organization as "Norma's group".

The members resigned following the revelation by Chavez that the organization was set-up as a proprietorship, which raised questions among the Executive Committee about taxes, reporting, etc.

The resignation is another addition to an already bad year for Representative Chavez following her defeat to Gonzalez, and a falling-out with several members of her close political inner-circle.

In an email to membership dated August 6th, 2010, Chavez characterized the recent departures as an "organizational restructure".

Related postings can be found at www.thelionstarblog.blogspot.com

Representative Norma Chavez Editorial

by: LionStar75

Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:53 PM CDT

More of the same, win-at-all costs games that she plays, but there is a great editorial on the email in NewsPaperTree (http://newspapertree.com/politics/2419-the-inner-loop-pledging-a-negative-campaign).

Darley is being divisive at a time when Representative Chavez is calling for party unity in El Paso. She wrote an op-ed piece in Sunday's El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9146037).

Here is the text of what she wrote:

Democrats must play by rules to win game
By Norma Chávez / Guest columnist
Article Launched: 05/04/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

In 1966, the game of basketball was changed forever by one courageous and extraordinary man and the first-ever all-black starting lineup.
Don Haskins and his basketball players at Texas Western College were virtually unknown before winning the NCAA basketball championship. When Haskins had to choose his starting lineup, he chose the players most capable for the challenge to win the big game. Haskins and the team played by the rules and used their skill and strategy to not only win the championship but to change the game of basketball forever.
Ironically, this March 29, thousands of proud El Paso Democrats filled the Don Haskins Center for the big "game" -- the El Paso County Democratic Party Convention. Maybe we should have asked Don Haskins to be the coach because in reality we are all on the same team. We are Democrats.
Unfortunately, we have been divided over two great players.
The El Paso convention has become a contentious issue for a lot of Democrats. Mainly because the two all-star players, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, are fighting for the opportunity to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
The excitement of electing the first African-American or woman as the Democratic presidential nominee has increased voter and convention participation. During this unprecedented election year, thousands of new voters, previously disenfranchised voters, young voters and technology-age voters have participated in the electoral process. This is a good thing for democracy.
Party leaders, not public officials, are charged with conducting senatorial county conventions using the rules adopted by the national and state parties. The rules were explicitly created to protect the minority against abuse by the majority. In order for all to be heard, the rules must be applied all of the time, and not just some of the time.
In this case, the minority at the El Paso convention were the Obama supporters.
Political disenfranchisement is the greatest failure we should fear. Although the convention numbers reported that 75 percent of the delegates and alternates supported Hillary and 25 percent supported Obama, the delegate split awarded was 90 percent for Hillary and 10 percent for Obama. In no other game, with perhaps the exception of golf, is the reported score recorded differently from the actual score.
Just as bad officiating happens in sports, it also happens in our political process.
Under the rules adopted by the Texas Democratic Party, the Obama supporters filed a challenge. The challenge simply asks that the selection process for state delegates and alternates honor the rules.
Under party rules, delegates selected must be apportioned to reflect the popular will of the voters as represented by the duly elected senatorial district convention delegates and by polling results of the Nominations Committee.
Some have alleged that this process could have been avoided if certain individuals had played a stronger role in the process. But just as fans cannot run down onto the court and substitute in for a player, Democratic convention participants -- public officials or citizens -- cannot take the gavel away from the elected or appointed convention officials. The Democratic Party chairman, and chairs of the Nominations and Credential Committees, have the power to correct the problem with the El Paso Democratic Party state delegation and comply with Party rules. The ball is in their court.
If Coach Haskins were coaching our team, what would be the strategy and who would be the starting lineup to beat the real opposing team, the Republicans, in November?
That is our real challenge as Democrats.
State Rep. Norma Chávez represents El Paso's District 76 in the Texas Legislature.

El Paso Dem Chair Playing Both Sides?

by: LionStar75

Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 04:46 PM CDT

Judge Williams and Mr. Anchondo recently appeared (can you say appeared when talking about a radio show?) on the El Paso on the Move Weekend Edition with Hector Montes (http://www.khro1650.com/). During the show, Mr. Williams remarked, on more than one occasion, that Mr. Anchondo discussed how to award the at-large delegates. Mr. Williams characterized the conversation as Mr. Anchondo AGREEING with him that the proper way to award the remaining delegats would be to award them in a way that would balance out the delegation to roughly a 75-25 split.

Mr. Anchondo did not disagree with, dispute, or challenge that characterization by Mr. Williams.

Interestingly, in the letter sent from the President of El Pasoans for Hillary to the Hillary Delegates, the author states:

As you might already know, Obama's supporters are challenging our status as delegates to the state convention. Many of you have contacted me recently to get clarity on this issue and to organize. Mr. Anchondo, the County Democratic Chair, will be mailing all delegates very soon an explanation of the status of our delegation.

The most interesting part to me is this:

What he has indicated is that Mr. Williams misinterpreted his comments at the convention to be supporting Mr. Williams argument, and that the challenge is just that, a challenge.

So this leaves me wondering. Is Mr. Anchondo playing both sides of the fence on this one? If Mr. Williams did infact misinterpret his comments, why didn't Anchondo say anything during the show and why hasn't he said anything since? He was on the radio again yesterday on Fernie the Attorney Show and had another chance to set the record straight but he remained silent on the issue.

I'd really like to know what the real story is.

El Paso County Democratic Chair Jeopardizes Entire Delegation

by: LionStar75

Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 07:02 AM CDT

The El Paso County Democratic Convention is mired in controversy regarding the seating of at-large delegates to the state convention in June. El Paso's popular vote went for Hillary Clinton, around 70%-30%. The delegate proportion at the convention went in Hillary's favor at a margin of around 76%-24%.

Democratic party rule [(10. Election Procedure in Presidential and in Non-Presidential Years, (d)(4)]
reads "Poll results shall be used by the Nominations Committee and by the Convention as a whole as the basis for nominating and for electing At-Large Delegates so as to ensure the fairest possible representation of the Convention participants as a whole within the total delegation, without disturbing the Precinct Caucus election results."By this rule the delegates that are sent to the state convention should more or less reflect the popular vote margin.

This is where the wheels came off. Anchondo stacked all the committees with a large amount of Hillary supporters and ensured that they got their way. That's fine, that's politics and the system we operate under.

However, there are rules to protect the minority. Apparently Anchondo, and Nominations Committee Chair (and former State Committeeman) Ken Sutherland didn't care much for protecting the minority. Sutherland says that he knows that there were many Hillary delegates that never got seated and that the number of delegates signed in at the convention, about 6% more than the popular vote margin, didn't accurately reflect the will of the people in El Paso.

So he felt like a more appropriate representation of the will of the people of El Paso was a 90%-10% split in favor of Hillary! The Obama camp immediately raised objections but Danny Anchondo pulled a Pontius Pilot and left the vote up to the body, which was 3-1 in favor of Hillary.

The irony is that many of the El Paso County Democratic Party establishment that were willing conspirators in the shenanigans, like out-going Representative Paul Moreno, complain about the tactics used by Tom Craddick in the legislature. Apparently they figured if you can't beat'em, join'em. The pulled the same thing in El Paso.

The part I can't figure out about Mr. Sutherlands idea of "fair" is where he came up with the 90% figure. He seems to have pulled that out of thin air and there is nothing in the record offered to substantiate the method used to arrive at that margin. Furthermore, if there was a problem seating the Hillary delegates, one has to wonder why. The Hillary camp clearly controls the local party leadership, the nominations committee, and the credentials committee!

This will end up as a fight at the state level and there are basically three possible outcomes. Outcome number one is that there is a challenge in the state credentials committee and the Obama delegates from El Paso get seated. Outcome number two is that the Obama delegation is not seated and the state party allows everything to proceed as is. And outcome number three is that the entire El Paso delegation is not allowed to be seated.

Now we all know what it's like in the Democratic Party sometimes. Some of the most rough and tumble fights I was ever in were with my own brothers, but at the end of the day, if anyone picked on someone in our family we dropped the in fighting and banded together. Much like our party does.

But this is something that Anchondo has fostered and allowed to get out of hand. The Democratic Party in El Paso may be irreparably split as a result. What makes things worse is that it didn't have to be done this way. Hillary was clearly going to have more than twice the number of delegates from El Paso, as she should have. The Obama camp, led by State Representative Norma Chavez, never sought to unseat Hillary delegates in place of Obama delegates. They were simply trying to get the amount that there were entitled to in accordance with party rules.

Danny Anchondo has taken the Democrat out of the democratic process in El Paso.