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City Rep. Chris Canales of District 8 is facing two challengers in the November 3 General Election: Matthew Guzman, a pro-Debt-Plaza drone who must be opposed at all costs, and Arturo Alluin, a successful young investor whose campaign is managed by former tax-and-spend City Rep. Isabel Salcido.
Guzman graduated with a BA in Psychology from a small university near Chicago and then worked in Chicago for 7 years as a financial advisor in the wealth management sector.
According to his LinkedIn, he moved to El Paso in 2015 and went to work full-time for his wife Dr. Barbara Guzman, a Chicago-trained anesthesiologist affiliated with Las Palmas Medical Center.
Since 2018, he has served as Executive Director of the Mary L. Peyton Foundation. The nonprofit’s last 990-PF form covers the tax year ending May 31, 2025 and shows assets with a fair market value of $4.5 million with $140,316 in revenue from securities. Guzman was paid $45,000 in compensation.
Under “Direct Charitable Activities,” the 990 states “the Payton Foundation addresses the financial hardships many of El Paso County’s legal residents are facing and gives medical and vocational/educational assistance. Money is given directly to the source or entity on behalf of the individual.”
The 990 indicates $68,556 was distributed to at least 21 needy individuals, plus $19,500 for the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, which somehow falls within their charitable mission.
In 2023, Guzman and his wife purchased a prestigious Trost-designed home at 628 W. Yandell Drive in Sunset Heights with an assessed value of $816,000.
DOWNTOWN DEBT PLAZA FOUNDATION
Guzman now serves on the Board of the Downtown Debt Plaza Foundation and is one of three officers, together with Tracy Yellen and Joe Gudenrath.
In 2024 he authored an op-ed for El Paso Matters bitterly criticizing opponents of the Debt Plaza, the widening of Interstate 10, the downtown Arena, the Meta Data Center, and the Ballpark. He laments, “There seems to be a group in opposition to just about everything these days. But are these voices – those who seemingly wish for time to stop, for our city to stagnate, and for the world to pass us by – the only voices in the city? Or are they just the loudest?”
Guzman believes that investment in large capital improvement projects through higher taxation will result in greater prosperity for all, even as El Paso’s absurdly high property tax is driving people from their homes. It is the same economic strategy that was foisted upon us by Joyce Wilson more than 20 years ago and failed ever since.
I engaged Guzman on the Debt Plaza issue on social media and tried to be civil but found him to be arrogant and aggressive.
RUN FOR CITY COUNCIL
Guzman filed his campaign treasurer report May 11 and appointed as Treasurer his friend Jody Casey, who managed Beto O’Rourke’s failed senatorial campaign in 2018.
District 8 encompasses wealthy historic neighborhoods like Sunset Heights but also includes the Segundo Barrio, Chihuahuita, and Union Plaza.
As a supporter of the failed multipurpose basketball Arena, Guzman obviously supports mass demolition in our barrios for entertainment purposes and therefore cannot be trusted as City Representative of District 8.
All indications are that he is a standard tax-and-spend “build-it-and-they-will-come” progressive of the type we can no longer tolerate in political office. He seems to be cut from the same cloth as Steve Ortega, Beto, and Escobar with the bravado of Dee Margo and Tommy Gonzalez.
We have no doubt Guzman is a reliable tool of the Oligarchs, who will shower him with cash to try to unseat Canales.
We will be watching Guzman’s campaign and his filings very closely.
Max Grossman, El Paso Taxpayer Revolt
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