PENA'S WEASELWORDING 101

By Juan Montoya

Now that Holy Week is over and election day is near, it is safe to criticize the holier-than-thou image with which supporters of Precinct 2 Cameron County commissioner candidate Ruben Pena have attempted to wrap themselves in their bid for one of the top five county rep spots.
Insinuations of payola (without proof), disingenuous claims of keeping the race clean while hurling mud at their opponents on the sly, and other self-serving claims of martyrdom have been emanating from them against this blog.
We are not ones to dispute that Democracy is a messy process and that in the end the candidate whose message attracts the most voters will win.
Most of the time the winner will not satisfy half the voters. And in the case of the runoff between Ernie Hernandez and Pena it will be no different. Other blogs have whipped, chastised, and ridiculed Hernandez and his family to no end. It's their right.
And we are within our right not to follow the party line in bringing out the past of the candidate who wants the voters to let him run their affairs.
Is it important to point out that Hernandez has "seen my opportunities and I took them"?
Sure it is.
Is it important to point out that Pena has shown a pitiful talent for managing finances (not his)?
Of course it is.
We'll say it again. We feel that it's a legitimate public interest to know whether Pena's management (or mismanagement) of a $1.8 million estate in the late 1980s that resulted in the depletion of that estate is pertinent to his seeking the reins of a public office that will place him in partial control of the county's $118 million budget.
That he was "exonerated" of the charges of fraud and self-dealing brought forth by the heirs of that estate is a matter of interpretation. Those courts upheld his contention that those charges not be allowed to be heard by a court or a jury because the statute of limitations on the matter had passed.
And his bringing out that Constable Alfredo Jimenez who executed the warrants issued by Justice of the Peace Gualberto Weaver was many years later indicted by the federal government and convicted is a convenient cover to cloud the issue.
Jimenez was convicted in 2004 for a drug trafficking charge. Pena's alleged offenses occurred some 20 years before. In fact, Pena also mentioned the conviction of former Cameron County Conrado Cantu in a previous ad along with the Jimenez conviction.
How does he enter the picture?
Despite the claims made against Hernandez, we have found no police or court document that support any claims of theft, larceny or other crimes in his file. Can anyone produce any?
Some voters have already made their decision and voted in the early voting period this week.
The rest of us will do so on Tuesday. Hopefully, the choice we make will reflect the qualifications for public service exhibited by these two men.
But we defend the right of the public to debate the merits and shortcoming of all the candidates, not just one.