A reader brought to our attention a tax lien for unpaid taxes filed against the El Paso Democratic Party chair Michael Apodaca recently. This is what our investigation found. According to the tax lien, Kenny Michael Apodaca owes $89,590.59 in unpaid sales taxes for his business Marquis Wireless.
The tax lien filed on October 28, 2016, by the State of Texas shows that Apodaca had not paid sales taxes on his business from January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2015. According to county records, Apodaca acquired Marquis Wireless, located on Lee Treviño, sometime in May 2009 from Sabino Marquez, Jr.
Apodaca moved the business to Gateway Boulevard sometime in March 2014.
According to the tax lien, Apodaca operated the business from 2012 through June 30, 2015 while collected sales taxes from his customers, but he did not transfer the taxes he collected to the State of Texas.
In total, Apodaca owed the state $89,590.59 in sales taxes, states the tax lien.
We reached out to Apodaca yesterday asking for comment about the tax lien and asked if he had satisfied the tax debt. A search of online county records do not show that the lien has been satisfied.
As of press time, we have not received a response from Apodaca.
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2015 Arrest Warrant
While researching whether Apodaca had satisfied the tax debt, we found an arrest warrant issued to him in 2015.
The City of El Paso sometimes contracts with the El Paso Times to list the names of individuals who had active municipal warrants for their arrests. Apodaca’s name appeared in the El Paso Times February 22, 2015 active warrant list. The list does not state what the offense was for Apodaca’s arrest warrant.
Michael Apodaca, as the El Paso County Democratic Party Chair, previously opposed a recall effort in a municipal election for the misuse of taxpayer funds, although municipal elections are non-partisan and fall outside of the scope of his party leadership duties.
Recall Effort Against Cassandra Hernandez
In September 2023, a recall effort was launched against Cassandra Hernandez after she was reprimanded by the City of El Paso Ethics Commission for the use of her city-issued gasoline card. The recall effort was led by Irene Armendariz-Jackson, a controversial conservative activist.
Soon after Armendariz-Jackson announced the recall effort, Michael Apodaca issued a statement on behalf of the El Paso County Democratic Party. But, according to citizen journalist Max Grossman, Apodaca did not put the statement to a vote of the Party committee before issuing the statement.
Apodaca told the El Paso Times that he “opposed” the recall effort, “not because of the merits,” but because of the “far-right…extremist views” views that he argued Armendariz-Jackson represented. El Paso city council offices are non-partisan.
However, the El Paso Democratic Party issued a statement in September 2023 stating that the Party believes “that the community should make the decision on this recall and that’s why, as a party, we’re not going to take a position on the issue.” Apodaca’s initial statement condemning the recall effort insinuated that the statement was issued by the Party.
Although the Party had clarified that it would remain neutral in the recall effort, Apodaca’s previous statement insinuating that the Party was unanimous in condemning it had damaged the effort.
After the failure of the recall effort, Armendariz-Jackson told the El Paso Times that the recall volunteers “found the task of gathering the requisite number of signatures very challenging,” because of the “public warning by the county chair of the Democratic Party not to sign, even though our effort was nonpartisan.”
In the initial statement Apodaca issued on behalf of the Party, Apodaca implored Democrats not to sign the recall petition, although the Party later issued a statement that it would remain neutral.
On November 6, 2023, Armendariz-Jackson issued a press release stating that the recall effort failed.
Armendariz-Jackson recently challenged Veronica Escobar for her US Representative District 16 seat. She gained significant votes against Escobar while Escobar lost votes in the last election.
El Paso News spoke to a precinct chair about the tax lien. The individual agreed to speak to us on the condition of anonymity so that they could be frank about Apodaca without facing repercussions from the Party leadership.
The individual expressed surprise about the tax lien, adding that it is something “that should be discussed” at a party meeting. After we told them that Apodaca had not responded to us about whether the tax debt had been satisfied, they added that “he [Apodaca] needs to inform us if he has met” his tax obligations.
We asked the individual if they would seek answers about it within the Party, and they told us that they would discreetly reach out to party members to see if the “Party had the stomach” to address it.
The unnamed individual told us that “taxes are an important issue” in El Paso elections and “having a party official” who may owe taxes “is not a good thing for us,” they said.
Should Apodaca respond to us at a later date, we will update this story.