Veronica Escobar’s campaign manager, Lauren Zimmerman, not only managed the campaign of Renard Johnson, but she has now joined the team to re-elect County Judge Ricardo Samaniego.
Martin Paredes of El Paso News reports that Zimmerman is assisting Samaniego with his April 9 fundraiser and that she “will likely assume the role of [his] re-election campaign manager.”
She was remarkably effective at finessing and stonewalling the media during Johnson’s successful election run while disseminating a slew of dishonest mailers making impossible promises, such as that he will lower our property tax.
Of course, reelecting Samaniego will prove more challenging than electing Johnson, who was merely the brother and former business partner of a man indicted for a $3 million Ponzi scheme.
Samaniego voted repeatedly to increase his own salary and is now paid $152,700 plus benefits. What is worse, he voted to place $894 million in new bond issues on the November ballot, of which the voters approved $552 million, and then voted for a $54 million certificate of obligation, exploding our County debt to record levels and costing the taxpayers more than $1.1 billion in principal and interest.
Will Zimmerman allow Samaniego to claim he will lower our property tax, as Johnson did?
Will she prevent the media from questioning him on his miserable voting record?
We can’t wait to find out.