HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED

By Juan Montoya
Did you see who J.M. Lozano, the challenger to Texas State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra Rios Ybarra's re-election for Texas House District 43, had as a campaign supporter when he arrived to attend Democratic candidate for governor of Texas?
Would you believe Sabrena Brashear, the former wife of South Padre Island millionaire developer Clayton Brashear who divorced him after she caught him fooling around with Ybarra-Rios?
The Lozano entourage not only included Brashear, but also a group of five or six aides and legislative wonks who are on the Lozano team. While not overtly campaigning for Lozano, Sabrena, a St. Joseph Academy teacher, worked the crowd on his behalf.
"I shook her hand and she told me her name was Sabrena Brashear," said one of those attending the White campaign stop. "At first it didn't dawn on me why a school teacher would be interested in a political race. Only later did I realize that something was happening there."
Lozano, a Kingsville restaurant owner and businessman, will have to have deep pockets to unseat Ybarra-Rios, who defeated the incumbent Juan Escobar after she received $100,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Even now, her campaign chest is bulging with contributions from conservative groups.
She said that she first met Brashear while she was an alderwoman at South Padre Island, and that he was a supporter and contributor to her re-election campaigns. She estimated that he donated between $20,000 and $25,000 for her state election campaign and raised thousands from other contributors.
Even though scores of local elected officials have already pledged their support for the 29-year-old Kingsville businessman, he has a tough row to hoe because while the southern part of the district is growing, the northern part where he lives, is not.
Still, no one can say what effect the Brashear divorce will have on the race. South Texas has been historically conservative on moral issues, and this one has generated reams of juicy gossip in the area. The district includes Cameron, Willacy, Jim Hogg, Brooks, Kenedy and Kleberg counties. She told the daily she doesn’t expect that the publicity generated by her deposition will hurt her chances of re-election.
Rios Ybarra admitting in a deposition to being “intimately involved” with the wealthy land developer from South Padre Island while he was still married. At the time of Rios Ybarra’s deposition, she said that while she and Brashear had jetted to Disney World and Cabo San Lucas, they did not sleep together when her children were present.
Sabrena Brashear is an eighth-grade history teacher at St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville. She filed her divorce petition on Oct. 10, 2008. The marriage had lasted 22 years. Besides being a against real estate developer, Brashear is also the town’s Planning and Zoning commissioner. Court records indicate that the land developer owns property in Brownsville and on the Island appraised at $11.3 million. The flagship property is a parcel at 7200 Padre Blvd. valued at $6.6 million.
Rios Ybarra is a dentist with a practice in Brownsville. She said in her Aug. 7, 2009 deposition that she and Clayton Brashear began an intimate relationship last February after she had filed for divorce Dec. 17, 2008 from her husband, Richard Joe Ybarra, a doctor.
The recrimination from the couple’s mates has already begun. Dr. Ybarra, the solon’s disgruntled mate, told the daily that he won’t vote for her when she seeks re-election to the Texas House and will actively support a challenger "with integrity."
Dr. Ybarra was not with the Lozano entourage when they attended the White visit.
Sabrina Brashear told the Valley Morning Star that throughout her 22-year-marriage to the developer she helped him to become successful. She said his sudden change in political philosophy took her by surprise, "This woman doesn’t deserve to be a representative," she said. "He went on trips to Mexico (with Rios Ybarra) while I taught summer school to pay our daughter’s (college) tuition because he wouldn’t pay it," she said.
With less than a month left in this election, it'll be interesting to see what effect the Brashear-Ybarra Rios affair will have in the March 2 primary election.