Seriously, why would State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso be attending a Get Out The Vote event with John Cornyn in El Paso? My other favorite thing in this bit of news someone sent over to me is Republican candidate Dee Margo blaming Senator Shapleigh for the floods in El Paso. There is some serious smoking of the loco weed out there. (Full story in the permalink)
Getting the vote out
Cornyn talk touts fence, security and Dee Margo
By Darren Meritz / El Paso Times
El Paso Times
Article Launched:10/27/2006 12:00:00 AM MDT
Discussion of the controversial border fence plan, signed into law Thursday by President Bush, was part of a Republican Get-Out-The-Vote Rally in El Paso, but the heated District 29 state Senate race continues to be foremost on Republicans' minds.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in town Thursday to campaign for his party's local candidates, said building a border fence is only part of the solution to curbing illegal immigration across the porous U.S. Southern border.
Cornyn told supporters that the fence should be accompanied by higher-tech security devices, such as ground sensors, thermal imagery cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles and night-vision technology.
"There is the need for physical barriers on the border," Cornyn said. "Ultimately, though, technology is going to be the solution to our problems."
Despite campaigning with local Republicans on Thursday, state Senate candidate Dee Margo said his race had less to do with party affiliation and more to do with which candidate would better represent El Paso interests in Austin.
Margo also said that his opponent, Sen. Elliot Shapleigh, has taken positions that aren't resonating with El Pasoans, and he blamed the incumbent for low teacher pay, lack of funding to establish a four-year medical school in El Paso, and the floods El Paso endured this summer.
"I don't think it's a Republican or Democratic race," Margo said. "This is an El Paso race. This is about who can represent El Paso in Austin to get things done on behalf of El Paso."
Shapleigh, who said he had problems with a Get-Out-The-Vote Rally taking place at the private El Paso Club, described Margo's criticisms as a strategy to distance candidates from nationally publicized Republican scandals.
He also said Cornyn, because of his efforts to close down the Tiguas' Speaking Rock Casino and because of e-mails that suggest the U.S. senator had ties to the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, would have no clout with El Paso voters.
"How does John Cornyn rally voters in El Paso when he's the guy who shut down the Tiguas and wants to build a border wall?" Shapleigh asked.
About 75 people attended the rally, including state Rep. Pat Haggerty and his brother, justice of the peace candidate Brian Haggerty.
State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, also attended. An invitation to the rally said the cost to attend was $45.
Unfortnately, I happen to live with Joe Pickett's district. FORTUNATELY, I have this piece of information & I will be at the forefront of trying to get rid of this rep!
You will hearing more from the "Eastsiders against Pickett!"
Thanks for the info!
Adrian, before you run off crying to Eastside voters in EP, make sure you do your OWN homework first. (Re: EP Dem)
I know Pickett too and maybe Joe sees that bi-partisanship is the way to go.
Pickett has been leading the fight against the local toll road proponents, led by Mayor John Cook and four corrupt councilcritters.
Cook and the gang will shortly approve a "revitalization" plan for downtown El Paso that will, in the bargain, pretty much destroy the oldest and still vibrant Chicano barrio in town. The barrio, to no one's surprise, is not even part of downtown.
Shapleigh is strongly in Cook's corner,and he also favors the toll road crap.
There is no way that Margo can beat Shapleigh, but he (Shapleigh) has lost my vote and that of many Chicanos who can see past his campaign crap that he is a good guy because he works to save CHIP, can speak Spanish, and claims ancestors from Chihuahua state in Mexico.
If you are interested, read the "El Paso" section of my web page.
Dowtown is about slum lords and downtown businessmen who make $$$ off of poor people and the status quo. And Pickett is a nut. As a Chicano, people who claim to be "Chicano" and then defend the slum lords betray the label and show their ability to be so easily manipulated. Yes, the plan should have been handled differently and Shapleigh has said it 1000 times. Staying home is a vote for Margo, a good ole' boy from a time when Mexicans weren't allowed to walk north of Paisano.
There is no defense of the slumlords in the barrio in anything I wrote. Shapleigh has also accused plan opponents of being "racists" - and he has done it in writing.
The problem with the slumlords is that building codes are not enforced, and the "nuisance" laws are not used to make them clean up their mess.
The problem with the plan is that it is based on racist assumptions. Getting rid of the "male, 50-60 years old, gritty, dirty, lazy, speak Spanish, uneducated" image others allegedly have of El Paso and replacing it with with a yuppie culture (think gourmet pizza) exemplified by pictures of Penelope Cruz and Matthew McGonahey as representatives of the new "South Side" is apparently O.K. with you.
You may be interested to know that the representatives of these two stars are making inquiries of the unauthorized used of their names and pictures by plan proponents.
At 72, a retired lawyer, principal founder of the El Paso Mexican-American Bar Association, co-founder of the El Paso Legal Aid Society, the lawyer who filed and won the single member lawsuits against the major school districts and the community college which gave black and brown people real representation on their trustee boards, I am not easily manipulated.
By the way, that bullshit about Mexicans not being allowed to walk north of Paisano is just that, bullshit. I was walking across Paisano when it was still named "second street" probably long before you were born. There is a hell of a difference between walking and being used. Learn it.
Your use of the name Doroteo Arango is funny. Thanks for the laugh.
Pompous losers like both of you are why no one will ever give a shit about El Paso, nothing more than a fucking third world rat's nest for ex- and wannabe mobsters. Just STFU and leave the rest of us alone until the North American Union comes in and makes you happy. Then all your bs will be history, and all you will have is another Monterrey or Tijuana, and you will be right at home in all the shit.
Seriously, could you people get in together and prove that your town isn't a backward colonia shithole say, sometime in the next decade?
"The rest of us?" The "North American Union"? Nice pointy hat you're wearing - matches your torch and pitchfork. Ain't anonymity grand,or is it shitty?
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It's no sceret that Pickett is a very conservative Democrat, the type of Democrat back in the day. He did go to Ardmore , but he tends to vote with the Republican leadership more. Also, he has some beef with Shapleigh.