I appreciate the El Paso Times pointing out how our current city councilman who is running for mayor has changed his tune about receiving campaign contributions from the group behind the baseball franchise.
The article said:
In January, Ortega said he would not accept contributions from them.
“On the heels of the ballpark issue, it’s more appropriate for me not to accept money from the ownership group, nor have they offered,” he (Ortega) said.
Then they quoted the candidate again:
On Friday, Ortega said, “I welcome their support that they believe in community and future.”
Whatever that means. We don’t know if that was a misquote or just not a good sentence.
What we do know is that he has accepted money from the people he said he would not take money from.
What we do not know is how much money. The Times did not report that. The actual numbers will probably not come out until after the election since the report will not be due until then.
By waiting until late in the campaign to make their contributions they were able to avoid public disclosure of the actual amounts until later.
What portion of what this person says should we believe?
elpasospeak 
If money is going to win this campaign, it will be Leeser that wins. So if you’re concerned about donations influencing a campaign, check out Leeser’s donors carefully.
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ElPasoan, we know who the big financial backers are for Steve Ortega. I don’t know who has deeper pockets than the Hunts and Fosters, so who are you wanting to implicate as backers of Oscar Leeser? The Sunday paper indicates that Steve Ortega is significantly ahead of Mr. Leeser in contributions, so how are you asserting otherwise at this stage of the election? Brutus’ point was that Mr. Ortega told us he wouldn’t take money from the Hunts and Fosters and now they happen to be his largest contributors. Hmm….what can we discriminating voters believe from Mr. Ortega?
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I would like for Mr. Ortega to defend with a straight face the sizable contribution he received from the PAC of HNTB, a huge construction and engineering conglomerate based in Kansas City. HNTB specializes in large infrastructure and transportation projects, etc.
What exactly is HNTB’s motive for trying to influence a mayoral election in our city? If they deliver superior services at fair prices, why is it necessary to try to influence our election and buy the favor of our politicians who vote on the awarding of contracts for their services?
Why would an out-of-state corporate PAC spend $2,500 to be one Ortega’s biggest contributors? Truth be told, they’ve been feeding at our public trough for a few years now and are eating quite well.
Could it also be the fact that Ortega has been the leading advocate for a rail project (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18537361) for which HNTB has been involved in the planning (http://www.camsys.com/pubs/RailTransitStudy.pdf) and hopes to benefit from in the future? HNTB also seems to have a hand in Loop 375 projects and in the new 40-mile toll road (see “Border Control” article on this page: http://news.hntb.com/relatedExpertise.cfm?expertiseID=2689&expertise=Tolls).
I now feel compelled to dig into any HNTB contracts voted on by city council and projects that HNTB hopes to benefit from in the future. I am also curious to know if HNTB has made donations to the previous campaigns of city council members.
One of Ortega’s contributions came from Pirates & Piranhas, LLC. That’s appropriate.
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If you want to know more about HNTB, there is plenty you can read here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/hntb-corporation/political-cover-ups/kansas-city-missouri-c3780.htm
After you finish your digging into contracts it would be interesting to see what you find out. Let us know.
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Bob,
Thanks. Good info at that link. If HNTB staffs our new toll road with employees who sleep on the job as they did in Florida, perhaps we can drive through the toll booths without paying. Nah, no such luck. We’ll end up paying for both technology and overpaid employees. It’s amazing that the local media have never done their research on HNTB. Once again, we see that people like Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the former healthcare exec who ripped off consumers and the government, and Rick Perry and our own government officials are ok with waste as long as the wasted money pads the pockets of their friends in the private sector.
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