Those that have been following city politics may have noticed that a political faction rallying behind Ray Caballero has been building since 2000. Although Ray Caballero is apparently silent on the city’s political landscape, his legacy is felt at the city and the county through various elected officials. His latest incarnation is Claudia Ordaz. Let me connect some dots for you.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ordaz writes that she graduated UTEP in Political Science and Women’s Studies in 2008. In 2009, Ordaz was the Communications Director for then state senator Eliot Shapleigh. Those that have kept up with my blog know that I have written extensively about the “three amigos” – Ray Caballero, Eliot Shapleigh and Jose Rodriguez and their influence over the city’s current public policy agenda. Connected to Caballero and Shapleigh is the Community Scholars. This will become important later in my post.
After leaving Shapleigh’s office in February 2011, Claudia Ordaz became a Press Secretary for the office of Silvestre Reyes. In June 2012, Claudia Ordaz left Reyes’ office with Vince Perez. Perez ran for county commissioner and Ordaz was his Field Organizer. Ordaz is now the District 6 representative on city council.
Today, Claudia Ordaz has an item on the city council’s agenda appointing Jose M. Landeros to the City Plan Commission. For those that do not know, the City Plan Commission can have an impact on city development. It is development, such as the ballpark that has been central to Caballero’s public policy agenda that has included projects such as downtown redevelopment and the medical school campuses that includes the Children’s Hospital and the University Medical Center.
Community Scholars was formed by Ray Caballero and Eliot Shapleigh in 1998 to “build a new generation of ethical regional leaders”. [Press release issued by Ordaz on behalf of Eliot Shapleigh on October 16, 2009] Caballero’s wife ran Community Scholars until it was taken over by Veronica Escobar, who had previously worked for Caballero. Vince Perez was a Community Scholar intern as was Jose M. Landeros. In fact, Landeros worked for Community Scholars, like Veronica Escobar from August 2008 through March 2012. Prior to working for Community Scholars, Landeros has no other work experiences. As if that wasn’t enough, both Vincent Perez and Jose Landeros are connected to Jaime Abeytia. Landeros currently works for Perez and Abeytia used to work for him until recently. Abeytia and Landeros worked together to get Vince Perez elected into office.
As you can see, the dots are connecting showing a concerted effort to put enough candidates into office to pursue the Caballero initiated public policy agenda that has resulted in the chaos of the Children’s Hospital and higher taxes. I have previously written about how certain candidates are incubated until they are ready to run for office. I have showed you how Veronica Escobar was incubated through various nonprofits and a government job and I believe the same thing was provided to Claudia Ordaz.
As one of her first duties in office, Claudia Ordaz is now following the same incubation of future political office aspirants by placing Jose Landeros on an influential city board while Vince Perez keeps Landeros on the public’s payroll as Landeros is groomed into a viable candidate.
As you can see by the evidence I’ve laid out here, Jose Landeros is being groomed for a future political office that will allow the Caballero public policy agenda to continue unimpeded. Does anyone remember certain individuals crying about how political slates lead to public corruption?
How anyone can argue that there isn’t a political slate in place at various positions of power and that future slates are being created is beyond me.
You can read a complete timeline of the Community Scholars here.
Eat your heart out Sicily. El Paso has it’s very own Cosa Nostra, and it’s a “progressive” one. It has a “godmother” instead. Veronica’s syndicate is stronger than Corleone’s.
How would you suggest that future political leaders be groomed? Does someone like the 3 Legged Monkey j
guy just get up one morning and decide he wants to be on CC? Or would you rather that young people be given roles in campaigns and minor offices before being put up for office? I recall how Joe Wardy appointed young people to roles in his administration to expose them to city affairs, which seemed to be good policy to Peppers. If the alternative is the estrogen block on CC of Niland and Limon, do you like that?
So this whole post could be summed up with: New city councilwoman appoints someone she knows to city commission. God forbid.
Where’s the in-depth analysis of Lily Limon’s appointments and their connections? Where’s the “connecting the dots” regarding her attempts to grossly inflate her aides’ salaries?
And, that all this supposedly ties back to Ray Caballero is hilarious. Jose Landeros was what, in middle school, when Caballero was mayor? LOL!