FALLOUT FROM RUNOFF ELECTIONS SHOWS POWER VACUUM

By Juan Montoya
As predicted, this year's Democratic Party runoff elections for seven county positions drew a diminished number of voters who nominated the candidates for the November elections.
And since there are no Republican Party candidates for six of those positions, only one of the candidates – Cameron County Clerk Joe Rivera – will face Republican incumbent Carlos Cascos for Cameron County judge.
With 183,211 registered voters on the rolls, only 11,102 took the time to vote, a dismal 6.06 percent.
The closest race of all was between Leonel "Lito" Lopez and Alex Dominguez for commissioner of Precinct 2. That race was decided by a margin of 72 votes of the 4,788 cast, or 1.5 percent.
Many were surprised at the number of votes that went to Lopez, but insiders say it wasn't so much Leo drawing the electorate, but rather the influence of his spouse, 404th District Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez's influence working behind the scenes. Lopez came in second in the March election and trailed Dominguez with 464 votes. he ended up losing in the runoff with only 72. In fact, even with Elia's pressure on the contributors and electorate, Dominguez beat Lopez by 58 votes in the early voting (1,572 to 1,514), by 11 votes on election day (821 to 810),  and by three votes in the mail-in ballots (37 to 34).
After the forced resignation of former Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez, Lopez obviously saw a power vacuum in the county's Democratic power structure and encouraged three candidates in the March primary – Gloria Rincones against Juan Magallanes for the 357th District Court, Dolores Zarate against David Gonzalez III in the County Court-at-Law III race. Rincones and Zarate came close, but no cigar, so only "Lito" was left in the Lopez ticket. With his loss, it was close, but as the man said, close counts only in horseshoes and hand grenades. Still, the narrowness of the margins in all three races – but especially her husband's –  means that the Lopez influence will be around for some time to come.
On the eve of early voting, the Lopez campaign accused Dominguez of having a conflict of interest if he were elected commissioner because he would have to vote to approve his ad litem payments when he is appointed to  represent indigent and mentally-impaired clients. They also charged him with a "blatant disregard for the law" because of complaints filed against him with the Texas Ethic Commission by local blogger Robert Wightman,a resettled disbarred lawyer from Dallas. That, too, backfired on Lopez when Dominguez showed that he had stopped receiving appointments in 2011 and that the TEC had no-sanctioned him on four of the five Wightman-initiated complaints.

For now, though, the residents of precinct 2 will have representation on the commissioners court with
Dominguez probably appointed to that position as soon as the votes are officially canvassed.
Instead of Lopez filling the vacuum, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa's ticket of Rivera for county judge, Eric Garza for District Court Clerk and Sylvia Garza-Perez for county clerk to replace Rivera has emerged as the moving force in the primary. Garza beat Elvira Ortiz and Garza-Perez beat Arnold Flores. This last one is important because halfway through the campaign Flores was taken under the wing of the Lucio dynasty (state senator Eddie Jr and state rep. Eddie III) who spoke sweet nothings in his ear through mouthpiece Joseph O'Bell and took over his campaign and Flores bit the bait and left the group that had gotten him into the runoff with Garza-Perez.
Whether Rivera can unseat Cascos in November will be the litmus test for Hinojosa and his ticket.
This morning we ran into the state party chairman as he walked past the courthouse and inquired about Rivera's chances at defeating the incumbent.
"I think he can," Hinojosa said.
The other races of note were Jonathan Gracia beating Yolanda Begum handily for the JP 2-2 position now held by Erin Garcia Hernandez. Gracia came out of nowhere to get into thew runoff with Begum. Backed by the clique headed by attorney Ernesto Gamez it is obvious that Gracia is looking at this election as a stepping stone for higher office. Some people have heard Gamez bragging about how they are grooming Gracia for state office and later U.S. representative.
Begum, who did the yeoman's work of toppling the Ernie-Norma-Erin Hernandez vote-harvesting machine unfortunately was associated in the minds of the voters with the corruption and manipulation of the Hernandez group of politiqueras and Gracia slid in behind a squeaky-clean image and a hefty campaign treasure chest.

"I learned a lot," Begum said. "I met many people made many friends that I wouldn't have met if I had never run for office. I worked very hard and endured many things, but maybe he worked harder. I will not run for office anymore, but I will still try to do something for truancy. Maybe all these exposure will be good for something."
Begum also endured the slings and arrows of embittered Wightman who accused her and her son Alex of being the scourge of the earth because of their alleged blaspheming of everything holy and sacred. He accused mother and son of engaging in countless conspiracies which he said he had reported to the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and God Almighty. His bizarre assault against the family will doubtless continue.
Up until the end, Begum was assured by local pollster Dann Rivera that her numbers looked good.
"We have hit 50 percent versus 37 percent with more to come," he emailed her. "Looking real good at this point. When variance hits 50 percent, the confidence level soars. the chances of our winning this thing looks better today. we shall talk soon."
Alas, neither the numbers nor the votes showed up on early voting or election day. Gracia won by 64.88 percent to 35.12 percent.
In the other JP race,  Mary Esther Garcia defeated former constable Pete Avila by 1,227 votes. Avila was mortally wounded by revelations that the county had paid a former secretary and her lawyers $150,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit in federal court. Avila, who said he didn't want to settle and fight the lawsuit instead, lost by 894 votes in the early voting (2,594 to 1,700) and 336 on election day(1,316 to 980). He won by three votes in the mail-in vote (49 to 46).
In this case, even Wightman's allegations of barratry against Garcia and her employer, local lawyer Luis Sorola, didn't deter the electorate from ignoring the allegations and overwhelmingly electing her.
Now the Democrats will have to see if after all the bloodletting of the primary and runoffs will allow for a cohesive and united party to get Rivera elected over Cascos in November.