May 2, 2009
Seems like on odd mixture of topics, but that was the main theme at the Coffee with the Candidates on Saturday at Kristoph's Coffee House on Lee Trevino. The event, sponsored by the group Campaign for Liberty, featured candidates Howard V. Barton in District 2 and Robert Lars Larson in District 7. There were about 12 people present when the event first started; the group grew to about 15 or so at its high point.
The candidates fielded questions from the crowd, which seemed to be made up of a mixture of moderate Republicans, Neo-Conservatives, “Constitutionalists,” and Libertarians. Many of the attendees referred to themselves as Ron Paul Republicans.
I know what you're thinking. What is a Chicano activist doing in a room full of mostly-white conservatives? I thought it was going to be a little weird, but it wasn't. It was really interesting. Actually I knew several of the people there and everyone was extremely nice and polite.
I was the only member of the media there so I asked questions about policy and their agenda as it relates to the campaigns; everyone else seemed to want to talk about God, the government that wants to take guns away from people, and community gardens. Barton did a great job of bringing the answers to questions about God, guns, and gardens back to the campaign.
Barton Speaks
I went to the event specifically so that I could learn about Robert Larson. He's been the one candidate whose campaign was a mystery to me. I had heard very little about his ground game and campaign activities. I hadn't seen or heard anything about him. No pictures, no video, no mailers, and until recently, no signs. So I went to learn more about this mysterious candidate and maybe get a picture of him (he graciously obliged).
He was in jeans and a t-shirt and I didn't know who he was when I first saw him, but he sat next to Barton up front so I quickly figured out he was the candidate. Larson spoke very briefly in his opening statement and kept his answers brief. I was most struck by his age. I knew he was young, only 24, but he looked even younger than that.
He spent more time answering my questions when we visited after the forum.
Larson is another example of a candidate who isn't ready to be a public servant. What separates him from the rest of the young candidates out there who aren't quite ready for prime time, with the exception of District 4 candidate Brian Burds, is that Larson has the one thing they are missing. He has mentors, which means he has the potential to be a formidable candidate one day. Larson is mentored by Jaime O. Perez, Howard Barton, and to a degree, Matt Sistrunk. Perez and Barton you know, but Sistrunk is lesser-known in El Paso's political scene.
I have my differences with Perez, but there is definitely a support system in place for the young candidate that he can, and should, take advantage of.
Larson doesn't appear to have a strong grasp of the issues and it's a good thing for his political career that he hasn't entered into a policy debate with District 7 city Rep. Steve Ortega in public. He'd lose every day and twice on Sunday.
Larson has pretty well-defined ideals that he is able to articulate but those don't translate well into a clearly defined campaign platform. He's clear about what he's against, but not so clear about what he is for.
Part of the problem goes back to the fact that he doesn't really know the issues. Here's a few examples of what I mean:
• I asked Larson about his position on Certificates of Obligation (CO's). He wasn't entirely sure what CO's are.
• I asked him what five things he would do first if elected and he struggled to come up with three substantive answers and tossed in a fourth. One of the three answers involved economic development.
• I followed up with a question about just what his economic development plan was and he replied, “Community gardens.” I waited to see if he was going to add anything or elaborate on his answer and he didn't.
• I thought I'd give him another stab at it and asked him about what his plans were for bringing in jobs and he replied “I'd have to go back to my last answer, community gardens. The gardens will give them jobs."
But what is so refreshing about Larson is that he's not afraid to admit when he doesn't know something. He doesn't try to fake the funk. He says he doesn't know, but he has a look in his eye like he's determined to learn about it. So the next time I asked him about CO's I won't be surprised if he comes back with a pretty strong answer.
In addition to the policy stuff, I had the chance to find out some other information I'd been wondering about. The reason that I didn't know anything about his campaign activities is because they have been a little off the traditional play book. Larson told me that he's been concentrating his campaign efforts on El Paso Community College and a couple of high schools. He said if he had the money he'd focus on even more high schools. Larson said that he's also been doing the traditional door-knocking with established voters, but apparently not enough for Jaime Perez's liking. Larson tells me Perez wants him to focus harder on traditional voters.
Larson says Perez is his mentor, but he was recruited to run by Howard Barton almost a year ago. Larson said that Perez gave him a binder full of newspaper clippings about incumbent city Rep. Ortega.
Since we were on the topic of Perez, I asked Larson to clear up the issue of his last name. In his campaign forms, Larson filed under the name Robert Lars Larson. In a letter written on behalf of the Americans for Energy Independence, the a political action committee that provides financial support to Barton and Larson, Jaime O. Perez refers to Larson as Robert Larson-Barron. Larson admitted to me that he doesn't normally use Barron and that it was done for campaign purposes so that voters would know that he was raised by his mother, who is Latina.
I finished the interview by asking Larson about his plans if he doesn't win. This is when his eyes lit up. He said that he was going to be around for a long time. The excitement he felt about politics almost couldn't be contained by his grin. Larson is clearly a man of strong political principals and believes in his endeavor. He's smart enough to take advantage of mentor-protege relationships and at just 24, will one day be a political force to be reckoned with, especially once he learns more about the issues.
This week on the Trail
Things seem to get uglier and nuttier the closer we get to election day. The week began with the start of early voting on Monday. The El Paso Apartment Association, which has benefited from a recent shot in the arm of cash, as put up signs around town endorsing their candidates. Gus Haddad is the mayoral choice and Trini Lopez, Alejandro Lozano, Yamil Chaheine, and incumbent District 4 city Rep. Melina Castro are their choices for city representative. The only incumbent candidate to win their endorsement was Castro and the only other incumbent invited to compete for their endorsement was District 3 city Rep. Emma Acosta. City Reps. Ortega and Susie Byrd (District 2) did not receive an invitation.
I asked Larson about the endorsement and he was surprised he didn't win it. Larson told me that El Paso Apartment Association didn't invite Byrd and Ortega because “they know where they stand.”
Tuesday's City Council meeting featured a couple of interesting things. First was the introduction of a proposed ordinance that would require anyone doing business with the city to disclose any familial relationships with members of the media. Mayor John Cook allowed public comment on the issue, which is not usual for an introduction. David K, conservative blogger and author of Refuse the Juice, was in attendance along with his attorney. His attorney addressed council, and the proposal was killed in the womb.
The council agenda also showed a $500 contribution to Castro from Stanley Jobe. I found that interesting because Castro voted in favor of allowing Jobe's quarry in the North Hills area, a vote that was pretty controversial because a petition in opposition garnered more than 2,000 signatures.
Turns out Castro has received more than $3,500 from Jobe, according to her finance reports. So I asked her about the contributions in a forum held at El Paso Community College on Wednesday. Castro was annoyed by the question and ran out of time in her response but said she'd be happy to talk with me about more about it.
Funny thing is, I called her three times to finish our discussion on the issue and she didn't answer or return my calls. More on that later.
Thursday was the latest chapter in the Lozano-Acosta novela. Acosta filled an ethics complaint against County Judge Anthony Cobos for providing documents relating to her employment applications with the county to Alejandro Lozano. Cobos told ABC 7 that the documents were provided to Lozano as part of an open records request made by Lozano to Cobos.
Records indicate that Lozano was provided the documents by Cobos on April 2. Curiously, Lozano then turned around and requested the same documents he already had in his possession the very next day from El Paso County Human Resources. I'm still not sure I understand why he made a second request for documents he already had been provided by Cobos.
Friday I was a guest on the Barbara Perez show. We disagree a lot, but Perez is my five year old's favorite radio talk show host and I've never been on her show before so there's no way I was turning down the invitation. It was a blast! Castro came up in the conversation and I mentioned that she hadn't returned my calls so she called in to the show. We exchanged words a bit and Castro said that I followed her around to forums and just asked her questions to embarrass her and make her look bad.
That's a really interesting assessment because I've only asked her two questions at forums. The first was at the Ray Pearson forum about appointing a member of a Minutemen spin-off group to a city board. The second question was at Wednesday's forum. Both my questions were based on her record in office.
Strange that she finds that questions about her record would “embarrass” her.
The campaign week ended for me at the Coffee with the Candidates event on Saturday morning. I was surprised to run into a familiar face in the coffee house.
Judge Manny Barraza was there.
I think it was just coincidence because he was only there for a few minutes after the event started.
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Abeytia writes theLionstar blog and is a political animal who spends way too much time traveling the wilds of El Paso politics. Reach him at lionstar@thelionstarblog.com.