The Lion's Den: Me Thinks the Lady Doth Protest Too Much

The Lion’s Den: Me Thinks the Lady Doth Protest Too Much
By Jaime Abeytia

I thought the height of hypocrisy in this town was to see County Judge Anthony Cobos appoint Stuart Leeds, a guy who has been against the concept of the new Ethics Commission from the get-go, to the Ethics Commission. To add yet another layer of irony, Leeds ends up as the guy driving the bus!

So just when I think El Paso hypocrisy can't get any worse, I read an op-ed piece in the El Paso Times from State Representative Marissa Marquez. Marquez where she pontificates on the “divisive politics” called “factionalism” in El Paso.

Why is this so ironic? Here's why: A major factor in the election of Marquez to the state house is the fact that she very skillfully used one political faction to defeat another.

So entrenched in factionalism was Marquez that I first heard the term “Moreno Mafia” from then-candidate Marissa Marquez. At the time she was an upstart candidate with no political history taking on long-term State Representative Paul Moreno.

Enter State Representative Norma Chavez.

Moreno and Chavez were long-time rivals, much more so than Chavez and Marquez are now. Chavez saw an opportunity to take out her long-time foe and Marquez needed the help of a powerful ally. Sort of an enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing.

Thus the birth of their short-lived alliance.

One thing that really hasn't been examined publicly in the past is the fact that Chavez and Marquez's relationship started to sour since before the Democratic Primary of 2008, but Chavez had already invested too much political capital in the young upstart to walk away. Once the election results came in and Marquez was the winner; Marquez stopped taking calls from Chavez.

I guess when you have what you wanted, you don't need to continue the relationship anymore. Talk about hit it and quit it!

As a vocal opponent of the factionalism that infects the El Paso Democratic Party almost from the day I started blogging, I completely agree with Marquez's thesis that it needs to stop. But the message gets lost coming from this messenger. The infighting is completely unproductive and turns off young people from participating. Factions are out for themselves and keep opposing view points from having a seat at the table.

There are good people in all the political factions in this town with good heads on their shoulders with the best of intentions. There are also some real bad apples in all of the factions in this town. There are no absolute good or absolute bad factions here. They are all equal parts sugar and turd.

As I read the piece by Marquez, I noticed something. “Some elected officials appear to relish conflict more than solutions and do all they can to foster these factions, taking the focus off of performance and results and instead place emphasis on personality and likability.”

If you didn't notice it, Marquez takes a shot at an unnamed elected official. I've seen that tactic used locally once before and it wasn't all that long ago. Guess where?

Senator Eliot Shapleigh.

In an interview I conducted with the Senator back at the end of September when he released his new book, Shapleigh used a similar tactic. When asked about how we could get away from factionalism in this community and specifically within the El Paso legislative delegation, here's what Shapleigh said. “We need to get past this very petty and very personalized, envy-based politics like we saw from one member of our delegation last session...you get branded as, why does that go on in El Paso? And that's something that ought to come up at election time.”

Another attack on an unnamed elected official. Three guesses who he is talking about. “...something that ought to come up at election time?” Sounds like the Senator was foreshadowing a little strategy.

Obviously these are comments aimed at Rep Chavez. When you think about it, Shapleigh appears to be doing a good job of moving his chess pieces around the political board. The fact that Marquez no longer has an opponent now that Mike Torres has indicated he's no longer considering a run, frees up Marquez to play the role of attack dog. Without an opponent to focus on, Marquez has a lot of time on her hands to devote to defeating Rep Chavez.

And talk about dodging a bullet. Marquez should count herself extremely lucky because Torres backed out. There were a couple of card-carrying members of Team Shapleigh that were going to back Torres over Marquez.

Marquez pontificating on factionalism is simply ridiculous and she's one of the last people that should be preaching that message. However, in a strange way that’s an example of the genius of Marquez. She's good at controlling the image she's built. A perfect example is her rift with Chavez. She's found a way to make it look as though it’s a one-way thing when in fact, she's been a very active participant in the rivalry. The only difference is that she's better at putting on a public face than Chavez, despite the fact that Chavez has been in politics a lot longer.

And what a difference one term makes. Now Marquez is professing disdain for something that got her elected in the first place, and something she now continues to participate in. The only difference is the team she's playing for now.

Marquez was elected on a message of change and benefited from the idea of change almost as much as President Obama.

And now she has changed teams, trading in her Chavista jersey for a shiny new Shapleighite jersey. But it wasn't all that long ago that there was a group picture of Team Shapleigh in a show of force in their support for Marquez's opponent. In fact, if memory serves, I seem to remember a piece written by Yours Truly calling out some of the Shapleigh clan, specifically County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, for not serving as a mentor for young Marissa Marquez.

Of course political spin will provide another story line. The story line will be that State Representative Marissa Marquez rose above the picture and collaborated with some of her former foes during her freshman session on issues like the Ethics Bill.

But if you examine the circumstances a little closer, it’s easy to see that this is just another example of Rep Marquez's political savvy. After the rift with her former benefactor, Marquez found herself in need of another powerful ally.

Enter Team Shapleigh.

Sound familiar?

Jaime Abeytia is a Newspaper Tree contributor and the host of “Lionstar Live” that airs on weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on KHRO 1150 AM.