Max Powers

Veronica Escobar's Plans Are Ruined

A while back, some tub of goo...cough...Jaime Abeytia...cough..had spread rumors that State Senator Jose Rodriguez was not going to seek re-election. 

Well, Jose put that rumor to rest. 

Jose ain't going anywhere and that sucks for County Judge Veronica Escobar.

Jose is up for re-election next year and will almost certainly win, which means he will stick around at least until 2020. 

Veronica is now stuck. 

By the time 2020 rolls around, she won't be the only one looking at that Senate seat, but she will be the only one carrying the baggage of a bankruptcy.

So what about Mayor?  Nah.  Veronica wouldn't want to be mayor because she wouldn't be able to control a Niland or a Limon. 

Congress? Forget about it. 

Now looking back though maybe Norma Chavez should give herself a pat on the back.  Just the threat of her running for State Senate a while back freaked out Team Shapleigh, so Team Shapleigh sent old fuddy duddy, Jose, into that race instead of one of the younger Eliotistas, like I dunno...Veronica.  Because of that decision of sending in Jose, instead of the one of the young guns, some of the young guns saw their political futures derailed...except for Beto.  But that's only because Beto kicks ass.

 

 

 

 

Cesar Blanco's Next Goal...

...moving to El Paso.

That's right. 

Before Cesar announced his candidacy, he was a resident of San Antonio.

Or maybe he still is.

Cesar rents in El Paso, but owns in San Antonio.

See for yourself: Cesar Blanco's Home.

He bought his two-story home sometime in 2010. 

You would think Cesar would have sold his home in San Antonio, and bought a place in his district instead of continuing to own that San Antonio home, and pay rent in Austin AND El Paso.  I say pay rent in Austin only because I am not so sure if Blanco would commute from San Antonio to Austin during the legislative session.  We are talking about a 1 1/2 hour commute one-way from his San Antonio house to the state capitol.

Assuming he has a mortgage to pay, he either has to find a job quickly to make payments on his place in San Antonio, and pay rent in El Paso, or he sells his home in San Antonio to get a place in El Paso.

Either way, you probably shouldn't complain to Blanco about property taxes in El Paso since he doesn't pay them.

 

 

 

 

Jose Rodriguez's Legislative "Success"?

El Paso Times' Marty Schladen has a story about State Senator Jose Rodriguez's legislative success.

One thing that immediately caught my eye:

He passed 71 bills, the fourth-most among the Senate's 31 members.

Hmmmm.

I don't know about that.

I did my own little research.

Rodriguez filed 133 bills and joint resolutions (proposed constitutional amendments).

Of which only 28 have been sent to the Governor: Download Rodriguez bill report.

Now, Jose could have passed some bills as amendments to other pieces of legislation.

He appeared to have some success in having amendments adopted.

Of the 53 amendments he proposed, 26 were adopted: Download Texas Legislature Online - Amendment Search Results.

But just because those amendments were adopted does not mean though they were necessarily kept in a final version of a bill that was sent to the Governor. 

Even then, we are assuming that the bill that was amended made it to the Governor's desk.  Eight of his amendments were tacked onto bills that did not make it to the Governor's desk.

So from that 26 we are down to 18 amendments (we are assuming the language from the other amendments made it to the Governor's desk).

Between his 18 amendments and 28 bills, we are at 46, not 71. 

Now the question is: Where the hell did Marty Schladen get that 71?

 

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

The Lower Valley's own State Representative, Mary Gonzalez, who tried to kill a bill that had nothing to do with her district, ended up voting for it after all.

Which is stupid.

Because of Mary's stunt, her visitor center feasibility study for Hueco Tanks was killed.

Because of her flip-flop, her bill was killed for nothing.

It would be great for Hueco Tanks to have a visitor center, but because of Mary's short-sightedness, a ground-breaking for a center will not happen for another six years. 

Meanwhile at the Franklin Mountains State Park...