For many left-of-center El Pasoans the announcement that all of the Planned Parenthood clinics in this city were closing was a quite a shock. To think that the whole entire program could somehow disappear so quickly was not fathomable by most.
Charitable contributions are the lifeblood of any nonprofit and they simply ran out of blood. It’s not hard to imagine why, though. The big money givers in this town have all been labeled a “Republican Boys Club,” and we know that Republicans aren’t generally big supporters of Planned Parenthood. The abortion issue is still a sticking point for many of us who reside right of center. Asking them for money for Planned Parenthood is like asking Al Gore to sponsor your monster truck team for a season.
Who else could foot the bill? Who has money just sitting in an account waiting to be burned up? Who has the political alignment to be a fan of Planned Parenthood? I’m glad you asked, because I know the answer.
Your entire state and federal delegation is the answer. They are all good party-line Democrats and should have no qualms about supporting Planned Parenthood. They receive tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations each year and usually don’t have tough races seeing as how more than half of them have held their seats since before Troy Aikman retired from the Dallas Cowboys.
I took the time to look up the numbers on my premise and found that our delegation is flush with cash. Below you will find just how much money they have on hand and how much they’ve spent on anything but saving Planned Parenthood in El Paso. Please enjoy and make sure you contact your legislators about how they can help save Planned Parenthood.
Congressman Silvestre Reyes is the big time head of an oversight committee and enjoys only the occasional Libertarian candidate running against him. He’s raised $129,280 since his last reelection and has $85,580 on hand to fight off the next Libertarian to put his hat in the ring. I bet you he could part with a large sum of cash to help keep open some Planned Parenthood clinics here in El Paso.
Senator Eliot Shapleigh has managed to raise $167,566.35 since defeating Republican Dee Margo nearly three years ago. Somehow in that time Shapleigh has managed to spend $78,022.16 of his campaign funds even though he has no challenger as of yet. The “Conscience of the Senate” has $98,020.71 on hand to continue to fight his invisible opponent.
Representative Norma Chavez raised $96,599.99 for her unopposed reelection bid in 2008. She managed to spend $62,943.02 defeating a nonexistent opponent. As of January 1, 2009 she had $43,308.00 on hand. Chavez has been described as unbeatable by Newspaper Tree columnist, Jaime Abeytia. Why can’t the unbeatable Valley Rep make a charitable donation to keep at least one of the clinics open?
Representative Joe Moody has a whopping $27,463.64 left over from his contentious battle with Republican Dee Margo. Nobody has announced a run against him yet, but he surely could part with $10,000 or so for a program lauded by Democrats as an important public service, right?
What about Representative Marisa Marquez? She has $38,221.86 on hand. She may have a race on her hands, but after tallying more votes than the patriarch of the local Democratic party, Paul Moreno, last time, she’s probably fine. She could part with half of her political savings and make huge difference right off the bat.
Representative “Chente” Quintanilla may have been called “furniture” in the past, but he’s got a lot of loose change between his cushions. The guy who will probably be comfortable each election year until a Gandara decides to run against him could part with a least some of his $39,672.55 he has on hand right now to help out.
Representative Joe Pickett has an astonishing $98,726.83 on hand and no opponent in sight. Something about running against a guy with a shiny red fire engine that is a huge hit in all the parades scares the dickens out the folks in his district. If he spends $10 a vote in his upcoming reelection bid, he’ll only be out $50 and win convincingly in his high turnout district.
If you need help locating contact information for our legislators, let me know as I am flush with info.
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David Karlsruher pens the blog Refuse the Juice, voted Best Political Blog in the 2009 El Paso Magazine Reader Survey and is a frequent contributor to Newspaper Tree. To contact him directly, send your email to davidkshow@gmail.com
