Video showing paid out of towners campaigning for incumbent City of Odessa candidates has made the social media rounds this week.
Odessa GOP Precinct Chair Ronnie Lewis videoed the paid workers who were campaigning for Mayor Javier Joven and councilpeople Mark Matta and Denise Swanner. The workers, who couldn’t pronounce Joven’s name, said they are being paid to be here until the election is over and are staying in local hotels.
Elected city offices pay about $10 a meeting and some are questioning why anyone would bus in fake supporters to campaign at the polls and also who is paying the bill for the paid poll workers.
“The fact that Mayor Joven, Council members Denise Swanner and Mark Matta felt they needed to use paid out-of-town and out-of-state political activists to scratch and claw their way to remain in office is shocking,” Lewis said. “But what is more alarming is what kind of man would arrange for this amount of money to be transferred to a PAC solely to sway an election in order to project a personal agenda and have so much influence over Odessa’s Mayor and City Council? In my opinion, not a good man.”
Paid poll workers for local races is something State Rep. Brooks Landgraf, who is unopposed in this year’s election, has not heard of prior to this year’s brutal local campaign.
“Each candidate is free to run his campaign as he sees fit, and I don’t claim to be an expert in campaign strategy,” Landgraf said. “I don’t recall ever seeing paid out-of-towners working polling locations in Ector County, or anywhere else in West Texas.”
Landgraf went on to say he has seen paid operatives used this way by expensive campaign consultants in big-city elections that have hundreds of polling places. “I’ve never used that strategy before, and I think it has big backfire potential in a conservative community like Odessa where voters usually do their homework before heading to the polls.”
Volunteers who support local candidates are more important, he said. “In my view, poll workers are most valuable to a campaign when they are local volunteers who are also the neighbors, friends or acquaintances of the voters who are going inside to cast a ballot.”
He said it is rare that a voter is undecided walking into the polling location, “seeing a familiar and respected person supporting a particular candidate might make a difference.”
He is disturbed by reports of bad behavior at polling locations this week.
“Even as a candidate in highly-contested races, the only ‘campaigning’ I do at a polling location is hold my sign, smile and wave to voters from a comfortable distance. If they approach and ask me questions, I’m happy to answer them. Otherwise, the only thing I’ll say is ‘thank you for coming out to vote.’”
He said he’s not a high-dollar political consultant. “I know there are lots of ways to skin a cat, but I think there’s a good reason that we normally don’t see paid out-of-towners working the polls in Ector County.”
Odessan Craig Stoker, who is seeking Swanner’s at-large seat, said these hired guns are here to disrupt the election.
“I find it hard to believe that Swanner, Matta, and Joven could not round up enough volunteers and had to hire people from out of town to work the polls. They could have at least hired local college students and kept the money here in Odessa’s economy,” Stoker said.
He said upon further research, he is convinced “this is an organized group led by the extreme far right brought here to further disrupt our local election. Odessans are tired of the lies and manipulation from this small group of loud extremists. Like I encourage folks when choosing a restaurant or shop, shop and buy local. I encourage you to vote for candidates who do not need out-of-town support to disrupt the elections to win.”
Stoker has been repeatedly attacked via social media by Swanner and her allies. Odessa GOP Party Chair Donna Kelm knows something about that as she had a brutal campaign in the spring against former GOP Chair Tisha Crow. She said she is aware of the out-of-town poll workers.
“It’s ludicrous. I met them. They stand out like a sore thumb. The girl was from Houston and we all know how blue it is. The one kid told me they were from Frisco. I asked them, if you are from Frisco why are you not working there to turn Frisco red instead of blue and the response was they were just working to keep Odessa red. They were working against Cal Hendrick and Craig Stoker specifically, for Swanner and Joven. Not for President Trump or Senator Ted Cruz.”
Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett said nothing physical has been reported this election at the polls, but law enforcement has been called at UTPB’s location a couple of times. One incident involved a voter and another involved candidate Denise Swanner’s husband Bobby.
Fawcett and Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis last week held a news conference calling for good behavior at the polls.
