The Democrats of Southern Cameron County held another campaign event Monday evening at a strip mall on Paredes Line Road, but the event's poor execution rendered it almost worthless to prospective voters.
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| David A. Esqueda |
As event attendee David Esqueda posted on Facebook afterward:
WELL WELL WELL......THANK YOU SO MUCH CAMERON COUNTY SOUTHERN DEMOCRATIC DIS-ORGANIZATION.......THE SHERFF'S OFFICE CANDIDATE'S DEBATE NON-LIVE STREAM WAS AN UTTERLY COMPREHENSIVELY DIS-SERVICE TO EVERY VOTER INTERESTED IN VIEWING THE DEBATE.........CLOSE YOUR ORGANIZATION DOWN DOWN DOWN UNTIL YOU LEARN TO PERFORM A LIVE STREAM...........
My own comment after reading Mr. Esqueda's:
Jim Barton
It was much worse in the room at 5460 Paredes Line Blvd.
An elderly gentlemen without a microphone read inaudible questions to the two sheriff candidates.
With no one in the audience even hearing the questions, we had no idea what the candidates were responding to.
The "debate" was a poorly staged, unprofessionally run event, wasting the time of interested voters.
Actually, it is not that difficult to test sound equipment in a run through prior to an event or to test the live streaming.
It's done every day by middle school and high school students.
This was not a good look for the Democrats of Southern Cameron County, especially with County Chair Jared Hockema sitting a few feet away from the "action," totally oblivious to the poor sound quality in the room and the live stream.
Although Hockema took umbrage to my plea during the debate to amplify the volume of the questioner, there must be someone in the local party with sufficient understanding to run a basic public address system for such an event including the live stream.
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| Tax Assessor/Collector Candidate Eddie Garcia |
Following the Sheriff "debate," Eddie Garcia, candidate for tax assessor/collector, pledged to run that office with integrity and efficiency while chastising incumbent Tony Yzaguirre for his disrespect to the voters by failing to appear at the event.
Garcia also promised, once elected, to run a comprehensive audit of Yzaguirre's 36 year tenure including the 2015 discrepancies that resulted in no criminal charges.
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| L to R: Manny Trevino, Sheriff Eric Garza |
The "debate" between Sheriff Eric Garza and challenger Manny Trevino repeated familiar campaign themes with Trevino touting his experience, while Garza's more skilled public speaking and managerial technique was obvious.
One of the dumber, but revealing exchanges was about the assignment of "older" cars within the department.
Trevino suggested that "lower" officers would get the "older" cars while Garza said cars would be assigned without regard to rank.
Whether or not that's actually true, Garza easily outwitted Trevino in that exchange.
The broadcast of this event was handled by a local TV station. After hearing your concerns, I listened to the tape on their Fb page. Although it could be a bit louder, it is not difficult to hear. Several other stations also picked up the feed during the event, and from what I’m told that prevented the use of a loudspeaker. Also, the elderly gentleman you refer to is Davis Rankin, who is the host of KURV 710.
ReplyDeleteWhen you walked in and began speaking loudly from the audience, I let you know that the event was being broadcast live and that your comments were likely being picked up by the broadcast.
I did not have any role in the organization of this event, but I thought that DSCC did a great job. I am hard of hearing and did not experience any of the issues you describe. I am very proud of DSCC and all our dedicated volunteers and thank them for working on this well-attended and successful event.