You probably caught that article in the EP Times from Ms. Grissom on the big race and if you didn't, you can here. There was another article, but it's less important to me than the one linked to here.
Was I surprised that Michael Moore went ahead and put Dee Margo's name on the ballot even though there were questions as to when Margo moved into the district? No. Moore is a lackey for Margo. When my wife was working for Margo during the Shapleigh challenge I saw Moore following Dee around trying to kiss his feet at every stop. This was a huge turnaround from the year 1999 when Adair and Dee orchestrated a takeover of the local Republican Party because they were hated by the local members. I'll explain.
In 1999 Bush was running for president. Adair and Dee were expected to organize on his behalf. You may remember the "Amigos de Bush" campaign that involved quite a few wannabe prominent El Pasoans. While the "Amigos de Bush" organization was aimed at being neither Republican nor Democrat, the other efforts by the Margos involved the local party. The Margos, or at least Adair, needed to be picked as a delegate to vote for President. Adair was not.
The local party saw the involvement of Margo and friends as fraudulent and fleeting. Not electing Adair as a delegate to put in her vote for Bush was a huge slap in the face for the Margos and a warning to stay away. At the time Michael Moore was a nobody in the party. He was a guy who did the invocation at meetings because he was/is a pastor. His wife was more "popular" within the group than he. It looked as if she would be the one to assume a higher position within the party structure.
Just in case you are wondering, David Thackston was the local party "bad ass" at that time. He was the perfect representation of what the El Paso Republican Party looked like then -- dressed right out of 1975 with food on his face and shirt. Every member of the local party looked and acted just like him. This was not the type of place the Margos were comfortable, so they decided to change it.
After the election Kenna Ramirez, Cecilia Levine and Adair Margo set their sights on taking over the partly defunct local chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA). Adair would not be embarrassed again!
A meeting was set to take place at the local party headquarters which just happened to be owned by Ric Barraza of Italian imports. Ric was/is a huge supporter of President Bush and friends with the Margos. At that meeting Kenna and Cecilia informed the members of the group that they were taking over and there would be a vote to install new officers that night. I was present at the request of Kenna and the gang. Little did I know that I was there to stack the vote. Resistance to the takeover was futile because they knew Ric would kick them out of their building if they didn't go along and they were also outnumbered by the planted folks like me. Taking over the RNHA was just the first step in taking over the entire party here in El Paso.
For my participation in screwing the former members of the El Paso chapter of the RNHA I was named as a delegate to the state meeting of the RNHA in Houston. I was to go to the state wide meeting with Cecilia Levine, Mary Yolee Moore and her husband Michael Moore in Houston. I didn't know it at the time, but the Margo group would use the Moores to later take over the local party.
The Moores are just about the most embarrassing people you can be near when a politician walks in the room. They take pictures of politicians incessantly and treat them as if they are movie stars. I remember several elected persons in Houston during the RNHA convention getting very angry with them. I'm pretty sure the Margos used the Moores addiction to politico-gawking to lure them to their side. The Margos could provide lots of picture opportunities with very important people in exchange for some favor in the local Republican Party.
Fast forward to May 2006 and my wife working for Dee Margo as campaign manager. The one thing Dee kept saying was that he didn't want to be painted as just a Republican, but as an "El Pasoan" instead. His headquarters over off of Geronimo quickly turned into the local hangout for the Republican Party. The biggest surprise to me was that Michael Moore, the sheepish loser whose wife bossed him around when he wasn't blending into the wallpaper, was chairman of the party. I guess the Margos got their guy installed as chairman at some point.
I was very shocked at how the party members now worshiped the ground the Margos walked on when just a few years earlier they did everything they could to push them away.
It should be noted that Margo failed to keep the creepy party regulars out of his steering committee meetings and he scared off some very prominent and serious El Pasoans who could have helped him beat Shapleigh. My wife may have been fired because of objection to the creeps hanging around all the time.
So, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? I was not shocked that Michael Moore put Margo on the ballot even though there were questions about Margo's residence status. In any regular Republican primary the chairman would have protected the incumbent and found any little reason to disqualify the challenger. The party members who once were in love with Haggerty now all have allegiance to the Margos.
I hope this has been helpful or eye opening.
As for Margo saying he doesn't have any connection to Craddick, that's bullshit. Margo is one of a couple races setup by the big money boys in order to ensure that Craddick has the votes to once again be speaker. You see, Craddick hated Laney and wants nothing more than to serve longer than Laney. Craddick has promised the big money boys anything they want if they can get him the votes. Haggerty is not only an opponent to Craddick, but a "no" vote as well. Now if Margo can both eliminate a competitor and a "no" vote, the big money boys win.
This is all about Craddick and nothing else.
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David Karlsruher is a host on KHRO 1650-Radio Free El Paso. His show is 6-7 a.m. daily. He also blogs at http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/
