The election results are in.
In the city elections the incumbents seem to have done a better job raising money than getting votes. The incumbents won but not in proportion to their war chests.
The firefighter’s won all three of their issues.
At the Ysleta school district the school board lost their bond election. One incumbent was voted out and one narrowly won.
The question now is will these elected officials start paying more attention to the voters or will they continue on their present course?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
A total voter turnout of only around 30,000 strikes me as pretty low, yet again. Personally, I am sorry to see that no incumbents were unseated, and I can only conclude that El Pasoans still don’t give a rat’s patoot about how much it costs to live here.
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It looks as though the turnout represented about 5-6% of the people of voting age living within the city limits.
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The public is not informed on the issues so they dont vote.
The under 30 bunch are all out partying and the rest are trying to earn a living and rush to the bank before their checks bounce so that leaves. . . mostly only the retired folks who have the time to check out any voting issues.
This will be the case in other cities also.
When I go to vote I mostly see older than 60 year olds.
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The turnout was not quite 10%, even with the firefighters issues on the ballot. This is much worse than any other city in Texas, and is one of the many reasons that El Paso counts for very little in state politics.
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They will continue on their currrent course, which is to help their big backers make as much as possible for as long as they can.
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the incumbents are safe and will term out anyway but this is a good thing. the tide is changing, albeit slowly.
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Two thoughts:
Those who don’t vote are obviously uninformed and don’t care to become informed. They should not be encouraged to vote because their vote would be purely random.
Secondly, did you all read where Weisenberger said there was no other choice but to pony up additional money for the Quality of Life bond issues? He should have said that he would stick to the budget or find a way to bring in private partners. Instead, it appears as if he will willy nilly approve additional funding at the taxpayers expense.
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Let us hope there is a debate or two where he and Peter can be forced to say exactly what they would do with the bond projects, the four-day work week, etc.
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Josh did quite well for himself and left Niland on shaky ground. Remember she would like to be the next Mayor.
We have a first time campaign, novice politician, little or no money, a late start and not a polished speaker. Quick learner.
We have the incumbent that spend thousands of dollars in campaign, seasoned politician and polished speaker. It’s usually difficult to beat an incumbent anyway. Never underestimate the turtle.
And she wins with a eight per cent margin? That doesn’t put her in a favorable or popular position. It makes look very bad.
If Josh had started much earlier, practiced public speaking, put together a bigger team and did a few fund raisers, he would have unseated her .
Let this serve as a warning to the entrenched self enrichment and incompetent politicians. The people are starting to wake up and see thru the bs. One or two elections and we will see a change. Then we have ensure the new officials do not become greedy or lose common sense. “You ain’t seen trouble but it’s coming”.
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Excellent analysis. I hope Josh’s team will start to work on the next election pronto.
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key factors that should really trouble the current faction that are in power: Dagda’s supporters are young and highly educated. They are young progressives troubled by the how the now approaching middle-aged faux progressives have sold out to special interests. Couple that with westside fiscal conservatives tired of being miked by the cabal. In the east side, young and very ambitious Vince Perrz and Claudia Ordaz reign. Those two are also astute will not hesitate to trade loyalties for opportunity as they have before.
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Same old song and dance !!!
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It seems Peter has been front and center in making sure to be creative and proactive in looking at Public private partnerships to cover the gaps on the bonds… Al doesnt seem to have any concrete ideas except to spend spend spend.
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This comments sounds like a post from a Szvarzbein campaign worker who is campaigning to attract Bonart voters in the run-off.
The comment sounds good in concept, but is also short on details. Look where the so-called public/private partnership on the ballpark got us. The city doesn’t even share in the revenue from the naming rights of the ballpark. Mountainstar waited until the game went into extra innings before they offered to cover some of the construction costs of the ballpark and that was because those dollars were going into features that generated revenue for them — revenue that the city does not get a piece of.
Ask Peter to give specific examples of companies that he thinks can and will spend millions to cover those QOL funding gaps, especially if the so-called partner is not benefiting financially as does Mountainstar in the case of the ballpark. Ask him for examples of which companies might fund specific projects. There just aren’t that many companies that can or will put up millions just for goodwill.
Peter is also from the Mountainstar camp, so I don’t necessarily trust him to do the right thing for taxpayers rather than special interests. I also think he will vote for anything that involves more spending related to downtown.
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