June 23, 2009
The inauguration for the newly elected and re-elected members of council and the municipal courts took place last night at the Plaza Theatre. The group was sworn in by Judge Bill Moody and was sworn in all at once.
Then the fun started.
Each of the newly elected officials had an opportunity to give a speech and most of the elected officials took the opportunity to thank their family, their staff, and their supporters for seeing them through the election cycle.
All of them, except Northeast city Rep. Carl Robinson. Carl told a few jokes, good ones too, then thanked God, then thanked his mentor Dusty Rhodes (former East Side city rep), and then decided to have a little fun at my expense.
The funny thing about having a column is that whenever you make a fair critique about someone, their supporters automatically start of with the shouts of being "biased" or "slanted." Some people haven't figured out the difference between analysis, editorial, and reporting and they jumble things up a bit.
As I have freely admitted, repeatedly and publicly I might add, I was wrong about Carl Robinson. I was wrong in the general election -- along with most people -- and I was wrong in the run-off. Not by the fact that he won, but by the margin of victory, which everyone else was shocked by as well.
Despite my fair criticisms of both candidates, the former city Rep. Melina Castro and Robinson, both camps swore I was on the other team.
Election night was the first time Robinson decided to have a little fun with me. I felt like it was a celebrity roast because he lit me up pretty good. It was his night, so I didn't put up a fight. Apparently Robinson didn't have his fill, so he gave me a few more jabs during his speech last night.
"And for my friend in the media, Jaime, I just want to let you know that we had a strategy, we were persistent, and we were consistent. We stayed on the same course, when you have a mission, and you have a plan, either you plan to fail or you fail to plan. And we neither failed to plan nor did we do bad planning ... For you who want to know who was the strategy behind the campaign manager, it was Him, you'll get that on the way home."
Apparently not too many people were paying attention to the last sentence because they thought Robinson was referring to me, when Robinson, who is a very spiritual man, was actually referring to God.
Good to know we are friends. Maybe now he'll take my phone calls.
Robinson was clearly the rock star last night because he was the only new member elected to council. Everyone wanted their picture taken with him and he had clearly the loudest and largest ovation of the evening. Though the campaign between Robinson and Castro was fairly tame and clean by most standards, the aftermath of the campaign took an icy chill. Castro has never called to congratulate her opponent on his victory and she skipped her last day on council. Robinson has taken the high road throughout.
But there was one noticeable instance where Robinson showed a little less restraint than normal. Robinson took the opportunity to thank all of his opponents in the race ... except Castro. He mentioned each of the opponents by name, all of whom were there except Castro and Brian Burds. Right when he finished running down the names, the part where you expected him to mention Castro, Robinson paused for a moment and shifted gears into his vision for the Northeast.
As for the rest of the members of council, it was something they had all done before but they still seemed to enjoy the event. Central-NE city Rep. Susie Byrd had great substance in her speech, echoing El Paso's past, but had a hard time with delivery. East-Mid Valley city Rep. Steve Ortega was actually still writing as the other members of council were giving their speeches.
Either that or some chick in the audience was giving him her phone number.
Mayor John Cook, who usually makes me roll my eyes when I see him break out the guitar, gave a pretty moving performance. He performed a song for his mother who recently passed, telling the audience it was the first time he'd had an inauguration that she wasn't able to attend. I had to blink back a few tears.
After the ceremony I interviewed the Mayor about the song and he told me, "It's the first time I've been able to sing it without crying." The Mayor also mentioned that the ceremony marks the end of the campaign season and it is now "time to get to work for the people of El Paso."
East-Central city Rep. Emma Acosta in particular seemed to enjoy the evening, mostly because she had survived a nasty campaign and emerged with the largest margin of victory of any of the candidates. That campaign was so nasty that it made most divorces look like a passionate first date. Acosta told the most jokes of the evening, which turned in to El Paso's version of Amateur Night at the Apollo. Her best line was when she ended her speech. As she was walking away from the podium, she turned back towards the microphone and added, "By the way, I DO live in the district".
I'm not sure what was funnier, her grandson raising his hand in the air and playing to the crowd when he was introduced, or the fact that the Mayor left the microphone at his level after introducing Acosta. She approached the stand and the microphone was so high that it was actually pointing over her head.
The three municipal court judges that were in attendance also gave speeches. I didn't pay too much attention to their names and don't want to mention any of them by name in case I ever get a traffic ticket and have to be in their court but I'll give you a quick run down of their speeches. The first one was brief and poignant. The second one was sentimental and you could tell she has aspirations of a higher office in four years. The last one started off funny, died an agonizing death, and went on way too long.
Everyone was telling jokes last night and not all of them were funny. A couple of times they really could have used that dancing clown with the hook from the Apollo to pull people off the stage.
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Abeytia writes the Lionstar 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.