COURT-AT-LAW NO. 3 RACE JUST GOT TIGHTER

By Juan Montoya
The race for Cameron County Court-At-Law No. 3 just got tighter.
The candidates in that race are David Gonzales III, Dolores Zarate, EV Garcia and Robert Mendoza.
As usual, it took a well-researched piece by journalism diva Emma Perez-Treviño to lay bare the relationships that are shaping this race behind the scenes.
In her piece buried on Page 2 of Wednesday's Brownsville Herald, Emma revealed, among other things:
A. That Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos procured a $4,000 monthly contract to be paid by county taxpayers for Gonzales – days after Gonzales left the county to campaign for his run at the newly-created Cameron County Court-at-Law No. 3 bench.
B. That Gonzales continues to be Villalobos' campaign treasurer, and held that position even before the DA's last race for office.
C. That not only do both men share the same pollster – Dann Rivera of Victory Data – but that the DA hired Rivera to a one-year contract to provide Villalobos assistance in the jury-selection process at a base cost of $3,000 a month.
D. That Rivera also is a hired pollster and political consultant to the Gonzales campaign.
E. That Villalobos paid Victory Data $1,000 for "polling services" in two payments of $500 each on Oct. 28., ostensibly from public funds.
F. That Gonzales paid Rivera $1,000 on March 13 and $2,500 on Dec. 23 for polling services for his campaign while still in the county's employ.
While both men assure the press that there is no conflict of interest in their personal and professional dealings, it will be interesting to see what kind of hay David's opponents are going to make out of this matter. One can almost hear the other candidates salivating at the ammunition that has been deposited at their doorstep by these new revelations.
How many cases has David tried for the DA in the three months that he has been paid $4,000 monthly?
And if there have been none, is Villalobos in fact using public funds to subsidize his former chief assistant's campaign?
And what once was thought to be a race between two main contenders (Gonzales and Zarate, both, by the way, advertisers in this blog), could suddenly become more open with Mendoza reporting in his campaign report that he has pumped more than $38,000 into the contest.
Mendoza, as we know, has entered a few races and has been unable to garner a victory in the past. However, his new-found wealth as a result of product liability and personal injury case awards could make him a factor in the eventual outcome. The latest revelations could pry that door open for him even more.