February 25, 2008
The 65th District Court campaign is one of the interesting pieces in this election cycle. Incumbent Judge Alfredo Chavez has got to be one of the most embattled office-holders short of the County Commissioners Court Crew (waiting for the other shoe to drop or flop), yet so much of it is under the radar.
Chavez faced complaints of alcohol use and sexual harassment on the job. In March, 2007, a county committee found insufficient evidence to support allegations that turning down the judge's advances hurt the complainant's employment. But the committee did find that the judge "failed to observe the El Paso County Substance Abuse Policy against alcohol in the workplace, creating a workplace culture that may have led to the complaint." [committee report]
The last quote, from the report, also was used in an article by KVIA Channel 7 reporter Stephanie Valle, who brought up other items of controversy during his tenure. [valle commentary ]
She mentions the millions in grants for drug offenders and mental health patients Chavez claims on his Web site to have brought to El Paso. Valle didn't mention that the county is suing LKG for return of more than half a million from the Border Children's Mental Health Collaborative, a federal grant program that through the county was contracted to LKG. [county lawsuit news release ]
Chavez recommended LKG, whose principal, Sonny Garcia, has been linked to the FBI public corruption investigation, to the county.
Monday, Max Higgs, a supporter of Yahara Lisa Gutierrez, one of Chavez's challengers, sent a letter to Alfred Hawkins, commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services, asking why Chavez listed on his endorsements page a letter from CPS, which is under HHS. [higgs letter] The other candidate for the office is Felix Saldivar.
Higgs said there were two possibilities: That Chavez knew the letters were not endorsements and put them up anyway, or that he did not know.
"If he doesn’t know the difference he lacks judgment and if he does know the difference he lacks judgment, and being a judge is all about judgment," Higgs said.
Chavez sent a reply Monday afternoon, but it was not to CPS. It was to CASA, another program whose representatives sent Chavez a letter that ended up on his endorsements page. [chavez letter endorsement page ]
Chavez wrote that the letters were mistakenly put on his endorsements page by the Website developer, and he attacked Higgs. Chavez wrote that Higgs was upset because Chavez would not appoint him to represent parents in CPS cases, and that Higgs had been promised an associate judge's position "by the very person he is working with and opposing me in this campaign. Any comments or complaints by Mr. Higgs should be construed as biased, self serving and for personal gain."
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Louis Irwin, Democratic candidate for Texas House District 78, wrote a news release taking Newspaper Tree to task for failing to track him down in time to get information for the NPT Voter Guide. (See his answers and the answers from the judge candidates named above -- and most all candidates, for that matter -- at the electronic version of the NPT Voter Guide.)
He got this part wrong:
"Irwin claims he has missed forum announcements, voters’ guides, and endorsement opportunities because of an incorrect phone number disseminated originally by the Newspaper Tree, an online news outlet it El Paso."
He got this part right:
"Irwin’s home number is also publicly listed in the El Paso phone book."
Irwin also smacked the Times, which endorsed Joseph Moody, his opponent, “without the courtesy of an interview.”
“Of course I respect the freedom of the press to endorse any candidate, but to do so without being interviewed seems lazy, at best. If my opponent was interviewed though I wasn’t, it raises a question of fairness. If my opponent wasn’t interviewed but was endorsed anyway, that’s even more troubling.”
Irwin's Website is http://www.lirwin.org/.