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(Updated 4/412)
I thought the El Paso Times 2012 16th Congressional District comparative piece between Congressman Silvestre "Silver" Reyes and Robert "Beto" O'Rourke was pretty
balanced. Chris Roberts is a straight shooter. Reyes comes across as the
balanced, experienced, elder statesman. I think he doesn't provide enough
detail on how key, (at the Congressional level), RELATIONSHIPS are and what an
important role they play in getting things done for a community.
When I was in the Texas Legislature, I was on the Veterans Committee and we
were given briefings on BRAC (Defense Base Closure and Re-Alignment Commission)
and Ft. Bliss had to make the argument to be a base worth preserving and adding
troops. Granted it was a community effort that included the Chambers of
Commerce (all of them), state, county and city governments, business and community
leaders and of course all federal elected officials. But the local Congressman
has to have the respect from other members in Congress and the President and Vice President, to have gotten what we got. It just wouldn't happen
with a freshman or shady congressman. Reyes is not known as a public speaker,
he sits at the table of power – he has proven he is a deal maker, (example he
was successful in leading the BRAC strategy to save Ft. Bliss, he was able to
secure $1 billion dollars for the Beaumont Army Medical Center). El Paso
benefits from having an experienced Congressman with key relationships with Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
In addition, the argument could be made that seniority is vitally important for
a community with a military base like Fort Bliss, a new medical school still
dependent on federal funding, and because of the on-going public corruption
investigations and future indictments of elected officials that continue to
shatter our community. The stability of a senior member in the highest elected
position for El Paso, is arguably the most compelling reason to re-elect
Congressman Reyes. Not quite time for change!
The current political capital for our city at the federal and state level
includes a freshman Texas Senator, two freshmen legislators (all going to re-election
for a second term), one sophomore legislator and we will be sending another
freshman legislator to Austin. (As a freshman State Representative with connections to the party in power, Dee Margo stated he was connected
to the leadership and criticized the incumbent for failing to file and pass
bills, yet he passed only 2 bills and was not able to fulfill his campaign promises).
The senior legislators (on the federal and
state level) are Congressman Silvestre Reyes and State Representative Joe
Pickett. That is it. Inexperience in the
hierarchy of the institutions of Congress and Texas legislature is significant
for a community. Although both institutions have similarities, Congress
committee assignments are not only based on seniority but on relationships and
position with the Speaker of the House or Minority Leader. Congressman Reyes has a tremendous
relationship with Leader Pelosi and has long standing relationships and respect
by the most politically powerful Democratic political figures in the national
Democratic Party, former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton. Remember, Secretary Clinton chose to make her first stop as a
candidate for US President along the US/Mexican Border in El Paso with
Congressman Reyes. That is a very big statement of the respect and trust the Clintons
have of Congressman Reyes. In addition President Barack Obama has demonstrated
his support and trust of Congressman Reyes and not many congressmen have flown on
Air Force One, much less under two different presidents.
El Paso Times reporter Chris
Robert's comparative piece presents two completely different
choices for Congressional District 16 and I think he did a good job. Here are is my political opinion and analysis.
Congressman Silvestre “Silver”
Reyes
Congressman Reyes is presented as the “well connected” Washington insider (not
necessarily a bad thing when the political capital for our El Paso state
delegation is freshman and sophomore
legislators). Seniority then becomes
important. The Vietnam veteran combat war experiences are important to his rise
to power and his survival of real live combat attacks have allowed him to
handle and put in perspective the political attacks by O’Rourke. Not to say he is not concerned about this election, but observing
him and the strategy of the campaign, his moves have been tactical.
When Roberts covers the
“bump in the road” which was the discussion of marijuana legalization, Roberts
writes of a consistent elder constituent who compares marijuana legalization
with Prohibition and provides O’Rourke’s continued argument of supply and
demand. But Congressman Reyes has never
budged on the issue. And he won’t. His background is law enforcement and you are
either a bad cop or a good cop, and Reyes has not been a corruptible cop! Reyes, again using a tactical war strategy,
reflects on his successes with the US Border Patrol stating his record and shares
his experience of the ultimate corruption - bribery. In that story, he shares how he was offered
$5 million dollars, which he turns down, and the drug cartels dump 5 bags of
onions on his driveway. The onion bags were symbolic and a message (because the drug cartel hide cocaine in the onion bags), and he and
his family had to go under protective custody for a period of time. That is a very good story and counter to O’Rourke’s
pro-marijuana legalization stand. He
wasn’t bribable, he isn’t for drugs, and he doesn’t support legalization of a
drug that could lead to harder drugs.
PUNTO!
Next subject is the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC)
recommendations and his role in that process.
In order to put the horse in front of the cart, we as a community had to
deal with our potential water shortages of the future due to our water source –
underground water Bolsons. The El Paso
Times story documents that “THE THEN IMMINENT CLOSING OF FORT BLISS” was due to
El Paso’s lack of a long term water supply.
And one of the most important projects that Congressman Reyes, and Senator’s
Hutchison and Cornyn accomplished was the globally recognized water
desalination plant. This project ensured
Ft. Bliss was back in the “keep open” category and then it became an expanded
base to where we are today.
I cannot emphasis enough that this doesn’t happen without an organized
community, which our local chambers did a fantastic job, the local governmental
entities demonstrated unity, but the sitting Congressman of the district has to
be a respected member of Congress to have been able to have garnered the
support of other congressmen to keep Ft. Bliss open!! A freshman Congressman won’t have that kind
of pull as we address future needs for the base.
The next big issue includes political attacks by O’Rourke that Ft. Bliss
expansion didn’t include enough local contracting. Contracting of $500 million dollars to
local businesses is BIG, but I find O’Rourke’s accusation leaning on
cronyism.
When I was a policy maker, I
never interjected who should get what contract. That was not my job. Our jobs
as legislators, (federal or state), is to ensure the procurement process is
fair. O’Rourke’s stance demonstrates his
ease and comfort level with involving himself in the awarding of public
dollars, of which he showed his wiliness to do so when necessary on various
occasions while sitting on Council, by voting on projects that he should have
recused himself, because his father-in-law had either real estate holdings or directly
benefited from O’Rourke’s vote (more specifics on this in another blog).
Again, in the low brow Congressman’s response, he gave his honest answer that
the office held seminars for the business community, but $500 million dollars
to local contractors is a big deal.
The next question of Aliviane is from the O’Rourke playbook. Reyes did the good cop thing again, called
for a full investigation (it should be noted that State Representative Marisa
Marquez authored and passed Texas House Resolution 1875 and HR 1628 and
provided it to the Congressman for that specific earmark and to demonstrate the
delegation’s support of the funding).
The final issue is skirted but is in my opinion a significant issue. The issue of race.
The first and only Hispanic Congressman to represent El Paso is Silvestre
Reyes. He is the first Texas Congressman
to Chair the US Hispanic Caucus, and the first Texas Congressman to Chair a
standing committee in the US House of Representatives. He is probably one of a handful of
congressmen to ride in Air Force One with both President Clinton and President
Obama. His wife, Carolina, is the first
Hispanic female to be President of the Congressional Spouses Club in the 103
year history of the club. It is an
elected position by the spouses of members of Congress both Democrat and
Republican. Again, Congressman Reyes has the respect of colleagues to have
risen up the political ladder in Congress, his wife has been an honorable partner.
And I can tell you that at the state level, speaking among ourselves, Latino
legislators would ask who would be the next Latino senator for El Paso and who
is likely to be the Latino to take Pickett’s seat when he retires. The seats are statistically Latino districts,
you don’t see many non-minorities representing minority districts in the
legislature or in Congress anymore. El
Paso would reverse the trend with O’Rourke.
Robert “Beto” O’Rourke
First, he absolutely utilizes
the newspaper story to roll out his campaign agenda (Reyes did not do this, and
I think that decision was tactical).
Robert “Beto” O’Rourke starts his interview in the Lower Valley and
every political junkie in town knows that El Paso is a walk district. O’Rourke
makes that the entrance to his story and according to him he’s walked 12,000
houses to date. Pretty grassrootsy.
O’Rourke is not the son of a
sharecropper, he is the son of the late Pat O’Rourke a County Judge in the
1980’s and a conservative Republican. His mother Melissa O’Rourke is a business
woman and owner of Charlottes Furniture who also voted in the 2010 and 2006
Republican Primaries. He is married with
children. His wife Amy, is an administrator
at La Fe Preparatoria (a Charter school) and her father is real estate tycoon
Bill Sanders a Republican. The 39 year old has an Ivy League degree from
Columbia University, and served 6 years on City Council.
The newspaper has helped 39 year old O’Rourke’s campaign by giving him a new
title “reformer” vs the name that is most associated with him and the political
group he emerged from “progressive”.
That is an interesting play and way to disassociate himself from the
City Council majority he voted with, that were all recalled by petition (legal
challenges left the actual vote for the recall in limbo and out of time). Most honest political pundits believe that
had he remained on council, he too would have been successfully recalled.
In addition to the good looks and somewhat anti-incumbent sentiment in El Paso,
O’Rourke has help from a Houston Based Super PAC (a Texans for Lawsuit Reform
(TLR) federal "big sister" PAC). The
mission of the PAC is to take out long term incumbents and it will have the
money and capacity to fund negative campaign ads, phone banks, radio, and
TV. The PAC leaders and deep pocket
contributors are from Republican based TLR, including big chunks of change from
his father-in-law Bill Sanders. I’m sure
that the Super PAC will drop big dollars against Reyes, adding to the three TLR
Texas House seats in El Paso they have bank rolled and now this roll of the
dice for the congressional seat. (The prototype for this type of funding is my
race where TLR bankrolled 86% or $338,000 of Rep. Naomi Gonzalez campaign funds, making
her the number 1 purchase in Texas in 2010.
The title of the story is “Who Owns the Legislature” http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/who-owns-the-legislature
and that is what TLR is now doing on the federal level). O’Rourke will benefit from this Republican
money.
Although Roberts mentioned in detail the “smart growth” initiatives for
Downtown, he failed to mention the eminent domain problems O’Rourke had with
Downtown property owners not tied to his father-in-laws real estate investments
or Downtown millionaire businessmen who created Paso Del Norte Group (PDNG).
Nor was mention made that he was forced into
recusing himself after an unsuccessful recall petition drive and because ethics
complaints were filed on votes that included conflict of interests because of real
estate investments of his wealthy father-in-law. It should be noted that O’Rourke
was brave enough to silence speakers at a City Council meeting who were
supportive of a ban of use of eminent domain for private redevelopment Downtown
and “a vote was quickly called by O'Rourke without hearing from people
who had signed up to speak”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O'Rourke Nor did Roberts interview people living in Segundo Barrio or Chihuahuita who
opposed the transportation projects that could displace them. Nor did he interview people at the bus
station that was relocated to the Chihuahuita area at the desire of the PDNG who did not want the bus riders or "that element" at the Plazita de Los Lagartos (San Jacinto Plaza) anymore.
As O’Rourke continues his
journey through “Lower Valley” neighborhoods, he presents his political
campaign issues. A full service VA
hospital, improving the international bridge time to cross over (remember Rep. Stevo Ortega sitting in his car with a videocam trying to cross the bridge – that is how
they roll together), and cleaning up corruption (really? that is a good one).
Lower Valley Dan Gonzalez is
given 7 paragraphs to tell how he likes Reyes, how Reyes has done good, how he
got $40 million dollars of work at Ft. Bliss because of Reyes, even states the
old Shapleigh line “don’t ever make the mistake that we didn’t get our fair share” BUT he’s voting for
O’Rourke. That appears very, very well
staged.
In the newspaper, O’Rourke
makes his public debut statement that “he will NOT bring the legalization of
marijuana issue to Congress”. What perfect
timing. Sunday’s paper, above the fold, and conveniently mentioned in between
his laying out his political campaign agenda.
He’s written a book on the subject with City Rep. Susie Byrd (his
political ally and confidant), he started a book tour (which was quickly
stopped), he presented a resolution on City Council to call for the
legalization of marijuana, and he’s been in many pro-marijuana publications
because he was proposing legalization as a sitting City Councilman on the
Border with Mexico where a drug cartel war has torn our bi-national community
apart. And during this metamorphosis he went from legalization to a
legalization “conversation” and now in the El Paso Times, it’s “I’m not for
that anymore”. He is pro-legalization of
marijuana and Congressman Reyes has every right and should pounce on his head
with that every chance he gets because he “shelved” the issue for now, he didn’t
kill it.
The international bridge issue is multi-tiered and thanks to the terrorists who
masterminded the 911 American tragedy, homeland security takes precedence over speeding
up lines of vehicle traffic into the US. The technology is being tested, and a
slew of federal agencies have jurisdiction over the international bridges not
to fail to mention international law and treaties, and sorry Beto but the drug
cartel wars and trafficking come into play in the whole public policy decision making
process. I hate to tell you, but a
freshman congressman is not going to just speed up the cars and the bridge
waits. This political issue is silly and
demonstrates O’Rourke’s lack of knowledge of Congress.
One thing O’Rourke does is
tell everyone that he supports another international bridge. What he doesn’t
say is that the bridge location he prefers is the Yarbrough Bridge that
Congressman Reyes has adamantly opposed.
In addition, the newspaper did not state that an international bridge
must get the approval of the sitting Congressman in order to proceed to the
permitting phase. Bill Sanders and his
real estate investment companies and real estate partners have vast real estate
holdings on both sides of the border as well as in the Sunland Park international
bridge area. The Ysleta Independent
School District has opposed the bridge because of health and safety issues of the
pre-school that was constructed on Yarbrough, neighborhood groups oppose the
bridge, and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo oppose the bridge at Yarbrough. Because another international bridge is such
a big issue for commerce and trade,
for the Lower Valley, and with environmental impact and safety issues, the
bridge at Yarbrough deserves an in depth investigative story by the El Paso
Times and or El Paso Inc. (Why is the Tornillo bridge not sufficient?)
O’Rourke cannot truthfully say that the international bridge is a Metropolitan
Planning Organization issue because any international bridge will have to get
the approval of the sitting congressman where the bridge is proposed. O’Rourke needs to be directly asked if he is
for the International Bridge at Yarbrough, Congressman Reyes is adamantly
opposed.
O’Rourke’s response to his
mother’s corporation “Charlottes Furniture” charges were skirted again in the
paper as “IRS disclosure issues” but she entered a “plea” for the corporation
SHE OWNS and signs a PLEA AGREEMENT admitting that the corporation SHE OWNS accepted
$630,745 IN CASH, and that there was the “altering receipts” for a “particular
customer” and she was fined $250,000 as part of her/the “plea bargain (and
ironically Melissa O’Rourke was a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas – doesn’t quite
pass the smell test she should know the rules intimately). In addition, agents analyzing seized records show
“structured payments” of $1,071,934 in “CASH PAYMENTS” between 2005 and 2008
for “a particular customer”. Use of structured transactions is a common
placement strategy for “money laundering”. If it walks like a duck, quacks like
a duck and it looks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. Looks more like money
laundering to me “for a particular
customer”. Beto O’Rourke’s response – he punted to his attorney. http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2010/0506/20100506_091732_Plea%20Deal.pdf
Cleaning up corruption is an O’Rourke’s campaign message in the Lower Valley
and in political mailings. Wow a closer look at his votes on Council demonstrate
tax breaks for political contributors, at least one conflict of interest vote
on Downtown revitalization that directly benefited his father-in-law, ethics
complaints that were reviewed by friends and dismissed, a mother’s corporation and her signed
“plea agreement” for a federal felony, a father with an alleged cocaine
problem. I believe the message is pandering to a worn Democratic base that has
witnessed the corruption scandal and indictments of a variety of elected
officials with no end in sight. But be careful what you ask for.
O’Rourke concludes his
“Lower Valley” tour with a veteran who is genuinely disheartened with the 10
hour wait he had at the El Paso VA Healthcare offices. O’Rourke advocates for a
full VA Hospital, however, Reyes has secured $1 BILLION dollars for a new Beaumont
Army Medical Center. (Thomason Hospital name was changed to University Medical Center (UMC) – aren’t they one in the same?).
And finally term limits. “The
promise”. Proposing term limits is
political pandering to the Democratic Lefties. It is not likely to pass in our
life time.
So me and my family, have decided that experience at this time, is important.
Seniority has great value at the federal level. And a respected elder statesman
is what we need as we continue to go through the public corruption scandals in
El Paso and as our state legislators build seniority. Congressman Silvestre
Reyes is not perfect. He is not an
incredible public speaker but a deal maker, he stayed within the federal
election laws when he hired and paid or reimbursed family members as campaign
staff (maybe not the smartest thing to do, but legal), he has been consistent in
utilizing his seniority to rise among the ranks of Democrats in Congress and
has been successful in bringing federal funding to El Paso and adding language
unto bills moving in Congress for El Paso, and Congressman Reyes is TOUGH ON DRUGS. He’s one of us. And he has earned my vote for
another term in Congress.
Rep.
Ortega you attended a meeting that I held in February 2010,
where you quickly exited the building to
boo’s and parents asking you where
you stood regarding the construction of an international bridge at
Yarbrough. I coordinated that meeting as
Chair of the International Border Bridge Task Force under the Metropolitan Planning Organization (I still have those papers and the video)
until political ally Ted Houghton, (as
Chair of the Transportation Commission not
MPO) appointed you Chair of ANOTHER
Border Bridge Task Force Committee, because of concerns that I did not support
destroying neighborhoods and disrupting YISD schools in the immediate area, and
because you were going to make incremental steps to push forward with the bridge
at Yarbrough. 
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