The Return of Carlos Sierra?

I read the article and wondered where Quintanilla was getting all his money from. He has lit, a website, a newsletter, his filing fee, money for lawyers, paid for a fundraiser and now money for an (alleged) appeal. 

As I read the piece I noticed something else that costs money...

A spokesperson.

How does a guy who has never been involved in politics before - to the point where he's never even voted - end up with enough money to pay for all of that stuff and have a spokesperson and "senior management of the campaign"?

Since I know most of the media and political consultants in town, I found the name Ahmed Khan unfamiliar.

Being the curious sort, I looked him up.

Guess what I found?

A connection to a dubious name in El Paso politics, Carlos Sierra.

Sierra - who was once a political consultant to a few candidates in town including Mayor Leeser and failed County Judge candidate Aliana Apodaca, was all but run out of local politics a couple years back. Just about everyone tried to distance themselves from him and he didn't really have that great of a win-loss record anyway. He's quick to take credit for victories but fails to mention all of his losses.

But he's almost always connected to Chris Acosta from the Sheriff's Office. She was going to appoint him to the Sheriff's Office Advisory Committee which is her little click of supporters. 

But on his way out the door he very famously made a threat to County Commissioner Vince Perez, City Rep Emma Acosta, and County Judge Veronica Escobar that said in short that he wouldn't stop until he had them out of local politics. 

As you can see in this screen shot, Khan and Sierra were both part of an effort to draft Vice President Joe Biden to run for president. They both list the same address in this filing of a place in Chicago, Illinois.

But hey, its Chicago. Those names just might be total coincidence right? I thought thought that too until I checked Sierra's Twitter feed and I noticed that he just so coincidently regularly posted about the Draft Joe effort. These are just a few examples of what I mean.

Isn't that a nice coincidence? Actually it's more than a coincidence. Read this report, http://blogs.rollcall.com/rothenblog/draft-biden-organizer-dismissed-past-legal-problems/ and you'll see it is indeed the same Carlos Sierra.

Its even more interesting when you consider that Sierra is also a very proud REPUBLICAN.

Don't believe me? Read for yourself.

So the "Proud Democrat" (Quintanilla) is connected to a Republican political operative... who is trying to make a comeback - from the shadows. 

The connection of Sierra to a campaign is usually through Chris Acosta from the Sheriff's Office. As you can see in this article from the El Paso Times a couple of years ago, there was documentation of her association with Sierra "...who worked with her on several campaigns...", and an attempt to get him to do some consulting with the EPCSO website and an attempt to recruit him to be a part of the Sheriff's Officer Advisory Committee.

As I previously wrote, Acosta has made an effort to recruit campaign assistance for Quintanilla, which is how I first heard of Sierra's involvement.

Sierra's buddy is Quintanilla's spokesperson. Sierra has many documented ties to Chris Acosta. Acosta's candidates have almost always received large sums of money from the El Paso Sheriff's Officer's Association, of the slightly over $10k he has raised so far half of it came from the Sheriff's Officer's Association.







Acosta is an officer in the Paso Del Norte Tejano Democrats with Quintanilla's treasurer Isela Castañon-Williams and Eddie Holguin is the Chair. A text from the PDN Tejanos to their membership was sent out as a reminder to attend a Quintanilla campaign event despite a similar notice never before having been sent out, nor since. Holguin is the spouse of Iliana Holguin, an attorney who will be taking over as Party Chair soon.

So what does Carlos Sierra have to say about all his possible connections to Tony Quintanilla and a possible comeback to El Paso politics?

"Lies."

Okay, I guess its all just one big series of coincidences...