Monday, May 19, 2014

WHY WE'RE VOTING FOR YOLANDA BEGUM IN JP 2-2- RACE


By Juan Montoya
After due deliberation, we have decided to endorse Yolanda Begum, for Justice of the Peace, Pct. 2, Place 2.
By doing this we are not saying that her opponent Jonathan Gracia is a bad person. We're sure he has his good points.
But we do this based on one thing and one thing only: That is her untiring sense of justice.
If it wasn't for her tireless efforts to uproot voter fraud perpetrated in the elections of 2012, the massive manipulation of mail-in and hauled in votes from adult day care centers would still be continuing.
When Yolanda lost the 2012 runoff race to Erin Hernandez Garcia, she did not just roll over an play dead. Instead, she began to acquire evidence showing that politiqueras in the Hernandez vote-harvesting machine had tricked elderly voters with pr mises of chicken plates, favors and even a half-dozen tamales to get their vote.
She even uncovered that a woman who could neither read nor write was "guided" to vote by mail-in ballot for Erin by a paid operative (politiquera). She uncovered literally hundreds of cases where fraud occurred. After collaborating with Citizens Against Voter Abuse and other concerned citizens, she put all her evidence together and prepared a PowerPoint presentation that she took to the Texas Attorney General, the Texas Rangers, and finally, FBI investigators with the Asst. U.S. Attorney General.
As a result of that evidence, the federal government acquired a conviction of Sonia Solis, who had voted through the mail for five "disabled" persons all living in a one-room apartment off Shidler Drive.
During this past election, the mail-in ballots which used to number at between 300 to 400 or more in the 2012 elections dwindled to less than 100, a testament to the message sent to the politiqueras by the prosecution of these paid operatives.
We don't doubt that Mr. Gracia is a fine young man. But some of the examples of his acts while in the employ of former Cameron County D.A. indicates that he went along with the back-room deals by his boss and the likes of Oscar De La Fuente and others who were Mando's political cronies.
If he were committed to justice, he could have stood up and protested the favoritism and cronyism that was a trademark of that office. Instead, he went along to get along and said he was just following orders from his boss.
Someone pointed out that if he was elected justice of the peace and a commissioner told him to do something for them, would he said he did it because that's what his bosses told him.
In legal parlance, that is known as the Nuremberg defense. It didn't work for the Nazi administrators and commanders and it doesn't work here either.
On a personal note, when I attended Cromack Elementary, I played fast-pitch softball with his dad Robert. After we parted ways, he sought his career in law enforcement and I went to do the journalism thing. When I came back home, I got involved with barrio candidates and worked to get our people elected to public office like county commissioners, county judges, and justices of the peace.
Overthrowing or replacing an entrenched political machine wasn't easy. It literally took blood, sweat and tears. During that time we never saw Robert Gracia until much later when he came back to work as an investigator for a local law firm.
In fact, I didn't know that he was back until I saw him quoted in the local newspaper as having had witnessed politiqueros herd elderly and infirm voters at Cristo Rey by Hernandez vote harvesters aboard a rented van.
When Yolanda was acquiring evidence to present to the state and federal investigators she asked Robert for a statement so she could add it to the evidence she had acquired. For whatever reason, the elder Gracia chose not to participate and submit any written statement of what he had seen. Understandably, that was his prerogative.
It's also understandable that having grown up in the same barrio and attending the same school, people would assume that our vote would go to Jonathan.
Sometimes barrio loyalty demands too much. We're with Yolanda.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am voting for the lesser of 2 evils. Morticia.

Anonymous said...

Will VOTE for BEGUM!!!

Anonymous said...

"Begum the Begum" is one of the all time hits by Artie Shaw during the Swing Era.

Anonymous said...

Cannot vote for a person who puts non judicial issues ahead of justice. Will vote for Gracia.

Anonymous said...

Hearing the guy who used to work for Armando Villalobos talk about "justice" is, well, pretty creepy.

Anonymous said...

I will vote for the one on the far left, she is hot! The one in the middle se lo dejo ami abuelita

chief cool arrow said...

begum got my vote, cant trust the villaobos amigo dont want to take that chance once again

Anonymous said...

Hernandez stole her election.
It was David vs Goliath a good woman good candidate vs Cameron County corruption.

I voted for Begum last year I will vote for her again.

The Pissed Off Conservative. said...

I wouldn't waste a vote on soneone who believes on passing the buck to someone else. Parents should always be liable for the bad habits of their brats and the idea of teaming up with UTB to " fix the problem" is laughable at best.

Conservative Voice said...

As a conservative, the real issue for me corruption in the Dumbokratic party.
Here you've got a man with no family of his own, a minion who assisted Armando Villalobos for years. No more Villalobos, no more Dumbokrat patsys.

Anonymous said...

Yes the man clearly has no kids.

Or he would understand it is a parent's worst nightmare their kid in with a drug gang and quits school.

wicho said...

begum got my vote !
and the one on the left is hot hot

good luck begum !

Anonymous said...

If your Kids are in a gang and or drugs it's your responsibility you dumb ass.

Anonymous said...

You dumb ass Gracia , what do you know about kids, you are not married, you probably never will be, you know what i mean? your parents are divorced, no siblings shut up

rita