THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR ZAYAS-CORTEZ?

By Juan Montoya
A survey performed by an independent polling company has members of the DefeatZayasCortezPowers Political Action Committee cautioning against growing overconfident based on the results.
The survey was conducted Thursday evening and involved more than 4,000 potential voters in the Brownsville school district precincts. The survey had a 3.1 percent margin of error.
The survey results showed that over time, Ruben Cortez and Rick Zayas – the two incumbents – and former Brownsville Independent School District trustee Otis Powers, have steadily lost ground and their opponents have gained momentum in the race for control of the BISD board.
In Place 1, Dr. Christina Saavedra led the other three contenders by a wide margin. She got 41 percent of the respondents' support, with Powers running at 23 percent, Eric Garza also at 23 percent, and Daniel Pena running a distant fourth with 13 percent.
In Place 2, Enrique Escobedo maintained his seemingly insurmountable lead over Cortez with 59 percent to his opponent's 41 percent.
In Place 4, Luci Longoria has vaulted over Zayas by a 56 to 44 percent lead.
That last result was most surprising to the pollsters.
"Longoria seems to have benefited tremendously from the fact that Zayas has focused his advertising on helping Cortez in his race," said a polling company principal. "Had he focused on his race instead of diverting his energies to attack the PAC, the results may have been different."
The results have changed from a poll conducted by the same firm about a month ago. In that poll, the results from the Place 1 race were Saavedra 38 percent, Powers 36 percent, Garza 16 percent, and Pena 10 percent.
"Saavedra has solidified her lead here," he said. "Perhaps as a result of the sign-stealing allegations against Powers, he lost a significant part of his core constituency."
The previous results of the Place 2 race are similar. Escobedo's numbers went from 53 percent in the earlier poll to 59 percent, while Cortez dropped from 47 to 41 percent in that period.
The real shocker was in the Zayas-Longoria race where Zayas dropped from 53 percent to 42 percent and Longoria climbed from 40 percent to 56 percent.
"If I was a Longoria supporter, this would indicate to me that I needed to work harder to maintain the apparent momentum toward my candidate," he said. "If I was Zayas, I would rethink my strategy and present a different image to the potential voters. In any case, it could be too late to shift strategies."