CATY SURVIVES, POWERS IN, WILL THERE BE A PLACE 7 RECOUNT AS A RESULT OF GILL-MARTINEZ'S 4-VOTE WIN OVER CHIRINOS?

By Juan Montoya
The dust hasn't settled in the race for control of the board of the Brownsville Independent School Board. But one thing is for certain.
The proposed majority of Otis Powers, Butch Barbosa, Minerva Peña and Jose Hector Chirinos is not to be.
Voters decisively voted to keep in Catalina Presas-Garcia and maintain the current board majority of Enrique Escobedo, Presas-Garcia, Lucy Longoria and Christina Saavedra.
And, if Chirinos calls for a recount and the resutls remain the same, Linda Gill-Martinez (the bus lady) will taker he seat after the results are canvassed and her razor-thin 4,709 to 14,705 four-vote victory stands. Word is she gets along just fine with the current majority.
No one expected Gill-Martinez to beat Chirinos, and before a certain discredited cyberpolitiquero group tries to pin that rose on their ample lapel, the rrunrrun is that her extensive network among special ed parents and the community are responsible for her impressive showing.
Chirinos, who was counting on his good-guy demeanor and giving away of the BISD budget in overtime to bus drivers while head of BISD transportation was in for a rude awakening. Apparently, playing Santa Claus and Casanova with OPM (Other People's Money) didn't materialize as votes.
Observers say it stands to reason since the Choferes Unidos emit more sound and fury than actual votes.
"A lot of them can't even vote because they aren't citizens," said a BISD observer. "They are used to the tactics of the sindicatos of Mexico. That doesn't go over big around here."
Nonetheless, if Chirinos wants to stage a recount, it'll cost a pretty penny. Will his anger at being shunted from department to department so that he could get the idea that his days at the BISD were over drive him to incur yet another expense to feed his anger?
We'll see.
On the other hand, Powers' 2,722-vote edge over Argelia Miller (16,120 to 13,398) might at first blush seem convincing expect if we consider the fact that Miller was hampered from campaigning because she is employed by the district, spent virtually no money, and except for one newspaper ad, limited her campaigning to emailing supporters from her hand-held iPhone.
With plenty of ammunition at her disposal from the lawsuits filed in federal and state courts where Otis was recorded taking an active role in a conspiracy with the former board majority to fire the former superintendent Hector Gonzales, Miller chose not to make use of it. Why?
"Perhaps she really didn't want to win and lose her job," commented a BISD critic. "She was the most reluctant candidate I have ever seen."
Given Powers' 10-year tenure at the district (except when he was beaten by Presas-Garcia in 2008), his hiring of politiqueras, and his association with the Ernie Hernandez vote-harvesting machine, his victory is less than impressive.
"Watch out deer, that's all I have to say," said a participant at a victory party. "Otis likes to go hunting at vendors' expense and he's back on the board. It's hard to tell where he'll put the deer heads he will get from the taxidermist now that he can hunt again at other people's expense."
Presas-Garcia, on the other hand, was the lightning rod on the board who was targeted by the likes of former trustee Rick Zayas, former AD Joe Rodriguez, and the SAVEBISD PAC headed by Ernie Hernandez Politiquero Joey Garza.
It should be interesting to see who funded the PAC when the final report is due. In their 30-day prior to the election report, they listed a total of $600 in their contributions. Yet, the expenses surely amounted to perhaps four nor five times that in newspaper ads alone. Who will Garza say gave him money. We know they didn't have any chicken fundraisers or such to hide their contributors. Expect some gymnastic contortions in that report.
Presa-Garcia faced the Perfect Political Storm and out polled her closest competitor J.M. "Butch" Barbosa with 3,931 votes (12,571 to 8,640) and Don Clupper by 4,382 (12,571 to 4,382).
It is doubtful that any candidate in recent memory had so many enemies come together against her at any one time. Zayas, for example, filed a lawsuit against forensic auditor Danny Defenbaugh on behalf of Rodriguez and his protege Tom Chavez. Yet, the contents of the case read as a liturgy against Presas-Garcia and were filled with allegations against her.
Likewise, Zayas filed another lawsuit on behalf of two former Presas-Garcia real-estate clients less than 10 days before the Nov. 6 election alleging she stole money from them.
The timing of the lawsuits raised the suspicions of the electorate and the ruse backfired. Even worse, the lawsuit against Defenbaugh triggered a $1 million countersuit by high-powered attorneys who charged that the allegations in the lawsuit were groundless and filed for the purposes of harassment and other purposes having nothing to do with their client and defamed him and hrt his livelihood.
"If Rodriguez and Zayas think this thing is over, they don't know who they tangled with," said a BISD administrator. "They're not going to let go just because Caty won. It's not over, Rover."
Should Gill-Martinez prevail in her victory over Chirinos, what will result will be a supermajority with Powers and Peña in the minority.
"Powers knows how to play ball," said a former trustee. "He knows he has to horse trade if he wants to have things done. Even if Escobedo waffles on the majority, Gill-Martinez gets along with the other women and they'll make him irrelevant."