There is an Oligarchy candidate running for election in each of the four city district races, and Bettina Olivares is the Oligarchy candidate for District 8.
A LIFE IN POLITICS
According to her campaign webpage, Olivares has worked for politicians for 8 of the last 12 years, since graduating from college in 2010–for US Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Texas State Senator Carol Alvarado, and most recently for City Rep. Cassandra Hernandez of District 3. She earns a base salary of $53,345, which is $1,745 more than a City representative. She has lived in a political bubble for nearly her entire adult life with little real-world experience. By contrast, her opponent Rich Wright has more than 40 years of experience in business, on both sides of the border.
LEGISLATIVE AIDE TO CITY REP. CASSANDRA HERNANDEZ OF DISTRICT 3
City Rep. Cassandra Hernandez states that Olivares has been her legislative aide for the last three and a half years, in District 3. Hernandez has voted to raise our property tax for six years in a row, every August since she assumed office. She has also authorized every single CO issuance since 2017, adding more than a half-billion dollars to the City’s debt without voter approval. She has voted for every insolvent municipal project without exception and is the most fanatical supporter on City Council of destroying Duranguito for an arena. As far as I can tell, Olivares and Hernandez have identical policy positions, whereas Rich Wright is a fiscal hawk who has always been committed to cutting taxes and spending.
MOVED TO DISTRICT 8 IN APRIL!
In her application for a place on the ballot, Olivares indicates that she has lived in District 8 since April this year, just in time to comply with election laws. That is, she has no connection to District 8 beyond the six months she has resided there. She moved to N. Stanton St. for no other reason than to run for a position on City Council. By contrast, Rich Wright has lived in District 8 for a total of 38 years, three more years than Olivares has been alive.
VOTED IN ONLY 10 ELECTIONS SINCE 2015
Plugging her voter unique identifier (VUID) into the County voter registration page, I found that Olivares has voted in only 10 El Paso elections since the beginning of 2015. That is a poor record considering that she hopes to represent a City district here. By contrast, Rich Wright has voted in 24 of the last 25 elections in District 8 since 2015.
CAMPAIGN DONATIONS
Olivares’ 30-day campaign finance report indicates that she received $11,300 in political contributions, including large donations from Maria Teran, Steve Ortega, Rick Francis, and Miguel Fernandez. She is definitely in the Oligarchy camp, exactly like her boss, so we can expect her to embrace their agenda without question. By contrast, Rich Wright has received no contributions from developers, lobbyists or bankers and is a fierce supporter of the 99.5% of El Pasoans who are not millionaires.
BLAND CAMPAIGN MAILER
Since Olivares is employed by Hernandez and is thus inextricably linked to her political agenda, she will not mention the high taxation, deficit spending and financial waste that they both represent. Thus, her first and only campaign mailer is bland and evasive, with no substantive positions on anything at all. (See attached) On the obverse of her mailer, she brags about her “government experience” (as if her over-taxed constituents would see that as a good thing). On the reverse, she claims she will tackle our high taxes by diversifying the tax base, presumably by luring more businesses to El Paso with taxpayer-funded incentives. She does not advocate for lowering our tax burden or reducing spending, because taxing and spending is what she is all about.
NO CONSIDERATION FOR OUR CULTURE AND HISTORY
In her mailer she claims that “El Paso will become the hot spot for visitors and tourism when we have quality hotels, hospitality, restaurants and service shops.” Apparently she is completely blind to our most precious cultural assets: historic buildings and neighborhoods and the people who live in them. For her, these are not part of the reason that tourists would come to El Paso, and so we should not be surprised that she wants to destroy Duranguito for an arena. By contrast, Rich Wright for many years has lead tours of our historic neighborhoods and understands their potential to drive heritage tourism. He has publicly opposed the arena project from day one.
There is a clear choice in the District 8 race and it is not Olivares.
