MARY REY IS DRAGGED OUT AGAIN BY POLITICAL MASTERS

By Juan Montoya
By now it has become tedious to either see new accusations or read paid political advertisements by Mary Rey denouncing the DefeatZayasCortezPowers Political Action Committee of which she was president back in 2010 when Rick Zayas, Ruben Cortez and Otis Powers were defeated in their bids for the board of the Brownsville Independent School District.
She is either a glutton for punishment, is getting something in return for denunciations against her former allies, or has somehow gotten some perverse pleasure of bathing publicly in pathos every political season.
And before the usual accusations that we are picking on the poor woman are leveled against us here, let us remind you that it was Ms. Rey, not us, who exposed herself to fair and public comment by allowing herself and her personal problems to be used for crass political purposes.
This time her name appears in an ad allegedly paid by herself in the Brownsville Herald where she levels accusations against a number of people – including this writer – for their alleged involvement with said PAC.
We all remember that she allowed Zayas to air her deposition on the Internet trying to discredit everyone and their cousins for their alleged involvement with the PAC. This time, her ad states up front that "I, Mary Rey, contacted Carlos Quintanilla with a personal problem."
And just what was that personal problem, we may ask? Ms. Rey doesn't say. She just goes to name a list of people she says were on the PAC for themselves "and got what they wanted."
Let's be clear here. Ms. Rey agreed to be listed as president of the PAC because she wanted $50,000 worth of legal representation for her two sons, accused of cold-blooded murder for shooting a Las Prietas resident in the back who allegedly owed them $500 for a drug deal.
Randal Bolivar, 30, along with his brother Rodolfo Bolivar, 26, and Rolando Garza, 33, allegedly shot Aaron Castillo over a dispute about $500 that Castillo’s brother owed him back in February 2009. Unfortunately, it wasn't the debtor they shot, but rather  his brother. Oopsie.
When the $50K wasn't forthcoming, she turned on those she thought should have given it to her.
She lashes out at Quintanila (an ex-felon), Caty Presas-Garcia and Lucy Longoria (whose two votes she said decided the dismissal of the HealthSmart lawsuit), Argelia Miller and Linda Gill Martinez (for being friends of Presas-Garcia), Art Rendon (for his settlement with BISD), Hector Gonzales (also for settling his lawsuit with BISD), Ben Neece (for representing Rendon), Pat Lehman (for making a proposal for a BISD contract), and me (for operating this blog and supporting Presas-Garcia).
Neece is an attorney whose profession allows him to represent any client he wants. It takes a majority of the board (four Ms. Rey) to reach any agreement with litigants. Presas-Garcia and Longoria alone could not have decided on their own.  And how does being friends with anyone make one guilty of anything?
At her advanced age, Ms. Rey complains that her judgement failed her and she "trusted these people" but was then cruelly deceived, and now regrets her participation in the PAC. Sounds to us that she is a day late and a dollar short.
Way after the election and the dissolution of the PAC, we recall that Ms. Rey was chummy with (ex-felon) Quintanilla and wormed her way into discussions with County Judge Carlos Cascos, the sheriff's department, the county auditor, legal counsel and others to discuss issues with the county jail commissary contract and the the treatment of prisoners, particularly with her, her sons. Although the commissary contract question was discussed, it was obvious that her interest lay on getting better accommodations for her offspring. There certainly is nothing wrong with that. She is, after all, a mother. (By the way, that's her in the photograph above being interviewed by a local television station with Quintanilla in happier days.)
I have often found myself on the receiving end of her accusations for my alleged participation in the "starting" of the PAC. Until recently, those were regurgitated uncritically by a local blogger who regularly praises and echoes her allegations. My involvement was getting asked to assist the PAC participants with media relations and ad designs and I got paid for my work. That's it. I've done that for numerous political candidates. I never started the PAC.
In fact, neither did Neece, whose only participation as I have learned was to guide those that did on the legal requirements to start one. Something wrong?
The sad thing about Ms. Rey is that she does not see that in exposing her personal problems in the media, she is letting herself be used as a political pawn by those interests behind the scenes, and for that it is they who must bear the onus of using this poor woman for their political ends.