POLITICS NOW IN FULL SWING. LINAN A ZAYAS-CORTEZ "STEALTH" CANDIDATE?

By Juan Montoya

Think what you will of them as individuals, but the eight candidates that registered to run for the position of county commissioner for Precinct 2 are putting their future in your hands.
Someone once said that if you wanted to find out about your true ancestry, file for office. Now, with eight candidates in the running for the nomination of the Democratic Party in this primary, the genealogy of each will be open for all to see.
Until a few weeks before the election, there were only seven candidates. Now seven candidates for a position that in the past has only drawn three at the most was noteworthy in itself.
The first to announce for the the position were businessman Ernie Hernandez, Ernesto De Leon, Pastor Victor Alvarez, Dr. Enrique Escobedo, Pastor Alex Resendez, attorney investigator Leo Garza, and attorney Hector Peña. Hernandez and De Leon are former City of Brownsville commissioners.
That is, until Gerard (Gerry) Linan filed his treasurer's name with the Cameron County Elections administrator. That signaled the official start of his campaign.
But insiders say that his candidacy had been incubating for months now inside the fertile minds of some well-known members of the board of the Brownsville Independent School District.
They point out that Linan's entry into the race actually grew out of BISD members Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez to torpedo the candidacy of Escobedo, a member of the board minority that has proved a thorn on the side to the majority.
Escobedo, Catalina Presas-Garcia, and Minerva Peña until recently frustrated the efforts of the Zayas-Cortez, Joe Colunga and Rolando Aguilar majority ($4) to keep things running quietly as they set about to fire the district superintendent, fire Art Rendon at Special Needs, prolong the reign of AD Joe Rodriguez, and hand out lucrative contracts to their favorite local vendors. The minority members asked embarrassing questions and even forced the hand of BISD to release critical reports on Rodriguez to the public.
They say that Linan was Rick Zayas' roommate in college and that they have been good friends since they were children.
Linan listed his treasurer as Dr. Joe Zayas Jr., a local dentist and Rick's brother.
"Rick could not be Linan's treasurer because he is an elected official," said a supporter of one of the seven candidates. "But rest assured that Rick and Cortez are behind it."
That is giving the camps of the other candidates cause for some concern. Cortez is Cameron County Justice of the Peace Linda Salazar's son, and in local circles she is known as a tireless campaigner with strong grass root support.
Zayas, in turn, is Cortez's partner in running the lucrative county jail commissary. The Sheriff Department's chief deputy is Gus Reyna, Cortez's cousin.
And observers remember that Zayas was able to garner more than 10,000 votes in his last election contest against former BISD board member Pat Lehmann.
"Garry Linan came out of nowhere," said a local Democrat. "I had never even heard of him."
However, at least one candidate doesn't put any stock at what he calls inflated numbers.
"The last election where Rick ran was in the presidential year," said Ernie Hernandez. "Everybody got 10,000 votes. This is different. He's going to have to work if he wants to win. I know we are."
Others point out that voters who will become aware of the Zayas-Cortez-Salazar-Reyna connection to Linan it will backfire on him.
"I don't think that people like to see a small group of people hold so much power and influence," said Alvarez. "The ties to the mess at the BISD can only hurt him."
And Escobedo, who is the alleged target of the group's support of Linan's candidacy, said he doesn't discount that interpretation.
"I wouldn't doubt that they want a candidate to come against me in this election," he said. "I don't put it past them. We're going to keep on working regardless."
Ernest De Leon said the ties to the Zayas-Cortez group makes him question the motive behind Linan's candidacy.
"When anyone runs a candidate to get back at somebody they're losing sight of the purpose of democratic process," he said. "You're supposed to run to represent the people."