By Juan Montoya
Well, perhaps the New Year did bring in some good cheer.
We have just learned that at least four Republicans and one Libertarian are lined up to try to unseat Solomon Ortiz from his District 27 U.S. Congressional seat.
Ortiz, 72, has held on to that position for the last 27 years and he's asking us – the voters of his district include residents of Nueces, Kleberg, Kenedy, Willacy and Cameron counties – for our continued support.
Corpus Christi attorney and businessman Blake Farenthold, 48,joined Willie Vaden, 61, Del Mar College Regent James Duerr, 48, and realtor Jessica Puente-Bradshaw, 35, of Brownsville will all be on the Republican primary.
Vaden has made inroads against Ortiz in his three attmepts to unseat him. Vaden says he has garnered support among Hispanic voters in Nueces, Kleberg and Kenedy counties.
"I think that people are beginning to realize that Ortiz has not delivered in his promises of more than a quarter century," he said. "That includes many Hispanic voters who have supported him in the past. We have made good progress with this group and I am confident that if people vote based on the issues that affect their families, they will come around."
Libertarian Ed Mishou, 72, of Brownsville is running, too.
Ortiz has been largely invisible in issues facing the border area, especially in the area of immigration.
In the past, he has turned a blind eye to the issue obscuring the real migration danger –
the continued outsourcing and transfer of U.S. jobs and its manufacturing base to Mexico, and then on to India or China.
the continued outsourcing and transfer of U.S. jobs and its manufacturing base to Mexico, and then on to India or China. He voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). That agreement not only sped up the transfer of goods and services between Mexico and The United States, it also opened the U.S. to Mexican labor and increased migration of workers here. Now border residents face Mexican professionals competing with Americans for the good jobs, and Mexican truckers are free to operate their rigs on this side of the border.
As far as China, Ortiz has spent at least 180 days out of the years over there. Whether it’s at public expense, or at the expense of others, the congressman has found his niche in courting the China trade. The Vela family, for example, paid $20,000 for Ortiz and his former trusted aide Lencho Rendon to travel there after Solomon finally got it right after six years to name the federal courthouse in Brownsville after their relative, the late federal judge Filemon Vela. There was an additional $10,000 political contribution as an added incentive, of course.
Ortiz would do better if he looked after the needs of his district. When the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) committee voted to close the base in Ingleside, some 750 workers who lost their jobs were from Brownsville.
As far as China, Ortiz has spent at least 180 days out of the years over there. Whether it’s at public expense, or at the expense of others, the congressman has found his niche in courting the China trade. The Vela family, for example, paid $20,000 for Ortiz and his former trusted aide Lencho Rendon to travel there after Solomon finally got it right after six years to name the federal courthouse in Brownsville after their relative, the late federal judge Filemon Vela. There was an additional $10,000 political contribution as an added incentive, of course.
Ortiz would do better if he looked after the needs of his district. When the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) committee voted to close the base in Ingleside, some 750 workers who lost their jobs were from Brownsville.
Yet, all we got from Solomon (the so-called Dean of Hispanic congressmen) was a meek “no” vote when the decision was considered. Perhaps he was mad that Nueces County commissioners reconsidered his recommendation that they hire lobbyist Randy DeLay at a hefty $1.2 
million fee to influence the selection of the BRAC members.
million fee to influence the selection of the BRAC members. It was at Solomon's recommendation, after all that the Port of Brownsville continues to pay DeLay and his sidekick Greg Lemoyne $25,000 monthly (combined) to look out after our interests.
What have we gotten out of it?
Every time we run into a roadblock, it’s not DeLay or Ortiz who bails us out. It turns out that we do have a guardian angel in Washington. But it’s not a high-priced lobbyist or Ortiz. Rather, it’s Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who somehow still retains that old-fashioned notion that an elected official is supposed to serve her constituents.
The latest example of this has been her initiation of the process to study the needs of local veterans and their call for a Veterans Administration hospital facility here. Ortiz followed up with a letter to the editors of the Brownsville Herald plaintively pointing out that he had submitted bills for a hospital for the last 22 years.
Apparently, no one told him that a process existed for such an undertaking, and that the first step involves an assessment of need, which in turn drives the process forward. It’s as if history were repeating itself. Hutchinson had to bail out Ortiz in securing funds for the deepening of the port channel and then later, for the naming of the courthouse.
But, we are assured, he means well.
Consider this: Out of 6 bills he has sponsored in the House, (He ranks 289 of 440) 0 (none, zilch) have made it into law. He has been a little luckier with his co-sponsored bills. Out of 164 times that he has jumped on someone else's coattails, (he ranks 226 of 440) a whooping 6 have made it into law.
Do we need someone else there? You answer that question yourself.
3 comments:
Solomon Ortiz has sponsored 6 whole bills in the house? All by himself? What a big boy! Too bad that after 26 years in Washington he doesn't garner enough respect from his peers to get what he needs for his constituents. HE MUST GO!
One of the Republican challengers has made a campaign slogan out of Ortiz's long tenure, as if simply doing a job for a long time is enough reason to get fired.
The reason to oust Ortiz is not that he has been in Congress for so long; rather we should vote him out because he has done so little in Congress that actually benefits either the United States or the 27th congressional district of Texas.
But then, doing little with political power is apparently in the DNA of the Ortiz family - after the last session of the Texas legislature, Texas Monthly named Ortiz Jr. "furniture" for doing so little while in Austin.
Ortiz, needs to go, plain and simple, he has a accent, that is simply horrible. I don't know how this persons, get elected over and over.
So do the Lucio's father and son, they are so annoying. I simply feel like puking everytime, I see either one.
The old man, patronizes anyone for their vote. And the small one, is following in the same foot steps. I wish they would go away. At the present, the Valley is just as depressing as the Mountains of Tennesse. Thanks to the robber barrons, who are in office. They know who they are.
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