Behind the scenes of the election in El Paso’s mayoral race is a proxy war among the Democrats for control of the party apparatus. Infighting for political power among party operatives is not new, but the race for mayor has added a new dimension – a power play using proxies. Over the last few weeks, El Paso News spoke to party operatives, observers and candidates to understand the larger picture of the mayoral race. To get frank assessments and opinions from several individuals we agreed to keep them confidential because many feared retaliations from party officials.