If I were Cemelli De Aztlán I'd be raising hell about the fact that she actually turned her financial report in on time but the city clerk's office waited until almost the close of business yesterday to post it.
It unfairly gave the impression that she didn't turn it in on time. And that is the problem that seems to be systemic at the city, simple jobs aren't getting done or are failing to get done in a timely manner.
She should've taken a break from the special meeting for the municipal ID's yesterday and gone and inquired about why it was taking so long.
Personally I don't think if I were running her campaign that I'd have her at the meeting all day long, along with several of the campaign team, effectively losing a day of productivity during early voting to be at a meeting that was just posted as a discussion item.
Although now that I think about it, it may have been something they were really rolling hoping they could capitalize on. Her campaign guy kept posting on social media using the word "historic", clearly trying to create narrative that something big was happening.
There wasn't.
It was a discussion item on a Monday meeting. Or as I like to call it, the place were council puts stuff to make it look like they are doing something.
An entire day of productivity in early voting lost for something that didn't generate media coverage for the candidate. Maybe not the best choice.
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CDA's Financial Report
Getting to the actual finance report, Cemelli de Aztlán out-raised Jim Tolbert. That is a big deal and should like a fire under Tolbert.
For those of you keeping score at home CDA received the Times endorsement AND out-raised Tolbert. And by a pretty considerable amount too.
So for those of you that aren't taking her seriously, just look at the facts. Those are two big factors.
CDA raised about $5,700 to Tolbert's $3,400. To be accurate, on the first report CDA raised almost nothing and Tolbert had a huge lead in money. In terms of what is left in their accounts, Tolbert has the edge. He has about $5,200 left in his account and CDA has about $1,400 left in her account.
When you read through her report, there are a couple of interesting things to note. The notable contributions came from Enrique Moreno who gave $1,000 (or about 1/6 of her total contributions), $500 from Carmen Rodriguez, $100 from County Attorney Jo Ann Bernal, $100 from Margarita Cabrera, $100 from Jose Limón (spouse of Rep Limón), and $50 from Diana Washington-Valdez.
Lets address the elephant in the room...Moreno's contribution. I've written about this a few times now and I think the Times should address the issue. Moreno is on the endorsement panel that determines in part who the Times endorses for races. I think he's a valuable member of that panel. You won't find many, if any, people brighter and more respected across the board than Enrique Moreno.
And he has a First Amendment right to support the candidates of his choosing.
But he shouldn't be allowed to do both at the same time. If he's being a financial contributor to a campaign it naturally draws scrutiny to an endorsement he participates in. Most especially because ethics is his watchword.
The optics are bad.
The optics are even more terrible when his contribution is about 1/6 of the candidate's entire budget.
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Field Analyst
So here is something I found more interesting, an expenditure for Jessica Yañez for being a Field Analyst. I've been around campaigns my entire life and have done a lot of campaign work myself and I've never heard the title Field Analyst.
It got me curious because I know almost all the local field people and hand't heard of her before. Did some digging and found out she worked for Getsemani Yañez and Diana Ramirez. Getse ran for the D2 seat when Romero won. He and his wife Diana run a consulting firm called Quixote and Jessica was the data person for their firm.
Her association with CDA's campaign is separate from Quixote. She has an MBA and is pursuing a PhD in economics. So I'm guessing "field analyst" is either fancy word for "block walker" or she's getting paid to put her data together.
Not entirely sure which.
But...I did find this tidbit interesting.
Since David K called me out for not checking CDA's voting record I am not obsessed with checking everyone's voting record. So I checked her out. Turns out, she voted Republican in the March primary.
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It unfairly gave the impression that she didn't turn it in on time. And that is the problem that seems to be systemic at the city, simple jobs aren't getting done or are failing to get done in a timely manner.
She should've taken a break from the special meeting for the municipal ID's yesterday and gone and inquired about why it was taking so long.
Personally I don't think if I were running her campaign that I'd have her at the meeting all day long, along with several of the campaign team, effectively losing a day of productivity during early voting to be at a meeting that was just posted as a discussion item.
Although now that I think about it, it may have been something they were really rolling hoping they could capitalize on. Her campaign guy kept posting on social media using the word "historic", clearly trying to create narrative that something big was happening.
There wasn't.
It was a discussion item on a Monday meeting. Or as I like to call it, the place were council puts stuff to make it look like they are doing something.
An entire day of productivity in early voting lost for something that didn't generate media coverage for the candidate. Maybe not the best choice.
---------------------------------------------------------
CDA's Financial Report
Getting to the actual finance report, Cemelli de Aztlán out-raised Jim Tolbert. That is a big deal and should like a fire under Tolbert.
For those of you keeping score at home CDA received the Times endorsement AND out-raised Tolbert. And by a pretty considerable amount too.
So for those of you that aren't taking her seriously, just look at the facts. Those are two big factors.
CDA raised about $5,700 to Tolbert's $3,400. To be accurate, on the first report CDA raised almost nothing and Tolbert had a huge lead in money. In terms of what is left in their accounts, Tolbert has the edge. He has about $5,200 left in his account and CDA has about $1,400 left in her account.
When you read through her report, there are a couple of interesting things to note. The notable contributions came from Enrique Moreno who gave $1,000 (or about 1/6 of her total contributions), $500 from Carmen Rodriguez, $100 from County Attorney Jo Ann Bernal, $100 from Margarita Cabrera, $100 from Jose Limón (spouse of Rep Limón), and $50 from Diana Washington-Valdez.
Lets address the elephant in the room...Moreno's contribution. I've written about this a few times now and I think the Times should address the issue. Moreno is on the endorsement panel that determines in part who the Times endorses for races. I think he's a valuable member of that panel. You won't find many, if any, people brighter and more respected across the board than Enrique Moreno.
And he has a First Amendment right to support the candidates of his choosing.
But he shouldn't be allowed to do both at the same time. If he's being a financial contributor to a campaign it naturally draws scrutiny to an endorsement he participates in. Most especially because ethics is his watchword.
The optics are bad.
The optics are even more terrible when his contribution is about 1/6 of the candidate's entire budget.
--------------------------------------------
Field Analyst
So here is something I found more interesting, an expenditure for Jessica Yañez for being a Field Analyst. I've been around campaigns my entire life and have done a lot of campaign work myself and I've never heard the title Field Analyst.
It got me curious because I know almost all the local field people and hand't heard of her before. Did some digging and found out she worked for Getsemani Yañez and Diana Ramirez. Getse ran for the D2 seat when Romero won. He and his wife Diana run a consulting firm called Quixote and Jessica was the data person for their firm.
Her association with CDA's campaign is separate from Quixote. She has an MBA and is pursuing a PhD in economics. So I'm guessing "field analyst" is either fancy word for "block walker" or she's getting paid to put her data together.
Not entirely sure which.
But...I did find this tidbit interesting.
Since David K called me out for not checking CDA's voting record I am not obsessed with checking everyone's voting record. So I checked her out. Turns out, she voted Republican in the March primary.
