Sunday, May 11, 2014

CELESTE SANCHEZ FIRST WOMAN MAYOR IN SAN BENE

By Juan Montoya
By all rights, Celeste Zepeda Sanchez should have been on the Texas State Board of Education.
She was in a runoff with fellow Democrat Ruben Cortez who used the much-maligned mail-in and hauled-in votes from politiqueras in Cameron and Hidalgo counties to hijack that election.
But, undaunted, Sanchez, a former San Benito City Commissioner and San Benito Consolidated Independent School District Asst. Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction instead ran for mayor of the Resaca City and won.
She defeated incumbent mayor Joe H. Hernandez by a 448-vote margin, 1,390 to 942.
"I think my first order of business,” she told the San Benito News, “is to familiarize myself with the revenues of the city and the expenditures, because people ask me, ‘Where is my water increase going?’ So my first order of business is to get a thorough presentation and review of the budget to let people know where their money is being spent.”
When Sanchez rand in the 2012 Democratic primary for the State Board of Education. District 2, she soundly defeated the two other candidates – Cortez and Larry E. Garza – in Cameron County. She garnered 9,738, or 47.9 percent to go into a runoff with Cortez who got 6,927 in his home county.
However, no one had noticed that Cortez got 163 mail-in votes, more than Sanchez and Garza's combined mail-in total of 98. In the runoff election that followed in Cameron County, Cortez drew 407 mail-in votes to Sanchez's 87. In Hidalgo County, it was worse.
This was before the indictments that followed in Hidalgo County over the use of politiqueras who would entice voters with food and gifts in return for their votes.
And political observers were aghast that Cortez – with only a GED – was able to bamboozle the voters and media who never questioned his education credentials. Here you had a candidate with scant educational qualifications running for the state school board which decides educational policy for the entire state who was never challenged for that shortcoming. Somehow, the Cortez campaign was able to convince the voters to pull the lever for their candidate against Sanchez who was eminently qualified to be an assistant superintendent of the Sb school district. Go figure.
There is a saying that all politics are local, and by voting for Sanchez the residents of San Benito may have signaled they are ready for a different type of leadership, a no-nonsense business-like approach to local issues instead of the in-your-face brawling politics associated with the Hernandez administration.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

No doubt she will do an outstanding job !!!

Anonymous said...

She should have but this office is but one step in her career as a public servant.
Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Montoya,

Very well said. Brownsville's mayor
might want to take notes and learn from
Mrs. Sanchez. She has a different plan and
her community will not regret voting her into office.


It's a new beginning in San Benito!

Anonymous said...

Clairol Blondie. Wannabe.

The Truth said...

If you passed behind San Benito City Hall where the election results were read yesterday, you would have seen City Commissioners Tony, Rene and Joe D all huddled with Joe Hernandez and company. In fact, Joe D was decked out with his ‘Joe for Mayor’ T-shirt. Along with that gaggle several wannabees like Jose Morales, (chain-smoking like there was no tomorrow) were there with them.
The voters of San Benito were sick of the corruption, abuse of official capacity, and being the laughing stock of South Texas.
With a solid victory, the voters gave Celeste a mandate for change.
Alas, Tony and Rene did not share in the new mandate and both were in close races; in fact they were almost beaten by two candidates that spent very little money of their campaigns. Shirley Vega only lost by SIX votes and has stated publicly that she will ask for a recount.
Commissioners Joe D and JD Penny are up next for election next time around and had better understand there is a new day in San Benito. Citizens are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
I drew a few conclusions from the elections:
1) You can’t fix STUPID, but you can VOTE IT OUT!
2) It doesn’t matter how much money you spend on political signs.
3) Time wounds all heels.

(Yes, the San Benito Commissioner is the SAME Joe D. that was fired from SBCISD and Donna ISD due to several investigations into contracting irregularities...
$23 million worth of telecommunications projects).

In case anyone forgot...
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/09/21/425aptxdonnaschoolsinvestigation.html
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/092207/nat_092207065.shtml

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows that Ruben Cortez stole that election. Linda Salazar and her politiqueras made sure of it.

Cameron County Taxpayer said...

Joe Hernandez says that he should have campaigned harder? Hey pendejo and arrogant F#%^! It would have not made any difference. You still would have lost. People in San Bene didn't want you anymore. The ones that use to vote for you finally realized that you are an uneducated idiot and bully. Now, you can make money really cutting hair and not off snow cone stands.

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Now we have an educated idiot and bully.

Anonymous said...

Ruben Cortez is an ignorant DICK! He is the baby boy of JP Linda Salazar and that klan might go the way of the Hernandez Klan if investigators continue their good work in Cameron County. Linda Salazar and her Klan are akin too to Aurora de la Garza in trying to put the entire family on the public tit and continue Dumbokratic corruption in local politics....especially in the judiciary. Linda Salazar and Ruben Cortez only serve themselves and they could care less about the public; just like Erin and Ernie Hernandez and Aurora de la Garza and her family working at the courthouse.

Anonymous said...

San Benito SPEAKS !!!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, they are also wisdom gray hair?

rita