HINOJOSA THROWS EVERYTHING BUT KITCHEN SINK AT CASCOS

By Juan Montoya
If you glanced at the Sunday newspaper today, you probably came upon the large ad paid by the Cameron County Democratic Party Executive Committee.
Now, usually, the ads crow up the Democratic candidates in the upcoming elections. That's what made the ad taking Carlos Cascos to task for "never calling for an investigation of the scandalous corruption in our county" a little different.
The ad says that "our former sheriff, DA, and a District Judge have all been found guilty."
We don't know what Cascos could possibly had done to stop Conrado Cantu from taking money from drug dealers, what he could have done to stop Armando Villalobos from racketeering, or what he could have done to stop Abel Limas from taking bribes.
There was also something about one of the employees of his accounting firm embezzling money from the firm that was settled quietly. And of course, there was an item about Cris Valadez "accused" of tampering with electric meters while a board member of the Brownsville PUB.
We knew that Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilbert Hinojosa – who Cascos beat for county judge before – has a direct hand in the running of the Cameron Party Democratic Party as does his wife Cindy. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that it was Gilbert behind the ad. You see, it looks really bad for Gilbert for his home county to elect a Republican and now it's obvious that the resources of the state party are going to be used to try to prevent that.
But let's take a look at what Hinojosa balmes Cascos for.
Wasn't Conrado one of Gilbert's best friends and Gilbert one of his staunchest supporters before The Fall?
And wasn't Hinojosa and his buddy Juan Magallanes some of the local lawyers who had an open door to Villalobos when he was DA?
Yet, the ad tries to lay the blame the judicial corruption of Limas at Cascos' doorstep. Remember the testimony by Limas himself on who talked him into running for district judge? Let us refresh your memory:
In an article written by Emma Perez-Treviño in 2011, she wrote that, aside from contributions, "A good portion came from a $25,000 loan that Limas secured from the International Bank of Commerce' came from local lawyers. Four Brownsville attorneys and a relative put their names on the line for Limas, each guaranteeing $5,000 of the loan. These were not reported as campaign contributions, and individually they exceeded state limits on contributions to judicial candidates.
The attorneys were Ernesto Gamez Jr., who was Limas’ campaign spokesman; Leonel Alejandro, now (then) judge of the 357th Judicial District; and former Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa’s partners at the time, Juan Magallanes and Eddie Treviño, now (then) former Brownsville mayor, with the then-law firm of Magallanes, Hinojosa and Treviño."
Then, in 2005, after Limas had been in office for one four-year term and was embarking on a second one, the partners heard he was thinking of resigning his bench.
During the Ray Marchan trial, Limas told prosecutors that he had told them he wasn't going torun and they talked him out of it.
LIMAS : "I was going to resign in 2005. I had a letter for Gov. Rick Perry in 2005.
ASST. U.S. Atty. "And they told you don't resign. Please don't resign."
LIMAS: "Yeah, they told me not to resign. They didn't tell me 'Don't resign. We'll do this for you.' No. They encouraged me not to resign. And I said 'I'm going to resign.'"