FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS: WHY AHUMADA CAN'T WIN

By Juan Montoya

By all rights, Mayor Pat Ahumada should get re-elected to office.

He was right on the Border Wall, right on the Public Utility Board's raising the impact fees on developers, right on the "think-green" plastic-bag ban, and right on the progressive view on our inhumane treatment of animals.

All that being said, however, he has been all wrong on how to go about getting the rest of us to follow his lead.
When Ahumada was elected last time around, he defeated Ernie Hernandez who then went on to get elected to the office of Cameron County Precinct 2 Commissioner. That was no small feat. Hernandez pulled out all the stops, including his vaunted mail-in ballot machine and generous friends in the developer community.
But the people heeded Ahumada's call for progressive leadership and gave him a mandate for leadership.
However, even after being handed the scepter and a portfolio of political stock that would have been the envy of any blue-chip broker on Wall Street, he set about to meticulously erode his base of support with his abrasive personality and style.
One by one the other commissioners abandoned the Good Ship Ahumada, probably like many of the shrimpers on the boats he used to take out into the Gulf. But out in the drink they had no place to go if they didn't like the captain.
In the case of the city of Brownsville, there are plenty of harbors to jump ship. And they did. Remember how buddy-buddy Charlie Atkinson was with Pat during the last mayoral campaign? Now they can't stand each other, and no one has ever blamed Charlie for being discreet about his outward emotions. In the case of Ricardo Longoria, he has made no secret that he despises the mayor and takes every opportunity to ridicule him on the bully televised pulpit that City Hall has become.
That is still another reason why the people won't go along with Pat this time. Instead of giving city critics and gadflies their 15 minutes of fame, he has used the questionable justifications of contract attorney Mark Sossi to gag the public and has gone as far as to censor their comments on the city's television channel.
Such heavy-handedness against the likes of Robert Uresti, Fernando Ruiz, Dagoberto Barrera and other vocal, if nettlesome, critics does not sit well with a public who would choose to amusedly tolerate these squeaky wheels. But to shut them up and censor their comments goes far beyond the general civility many of us would prefer.
Ahumada was right (and still is) on his take on the new United Brownsville (AKA Imagine Brownsville) group based on his criticism that the cabal of bankers and fixers are pulling the strings of local government without the blessing of the voters of any entity and without any kind of accountability. Yet, when a majority of the commission chose not to have him represent the city as other executives of other entities did, he was out  of the loop and lost out on influencing the direction this group was taking.

Thanks in part to the outcome of the BISD and TSC board elections, that group's aims have been seriously damaged and it won't be long before its funding from the entities that support it year to year will wither away.

In fact, the organization has already cancelled numerous events it was planning and is now seeking a new director after Brian Godinez abandoned his tailor-made position recently.

Talk about the rats leaving the sinking ship!

On a one-to-one basis Pat is a likable guy.

As someone who has supported his aims since he first ran for mayor the first time, I am loathe to write his political obituary. But, as a student of Greek mythology, he has been cursed as Cassandra was during the Trojan War. She was given the gift of prophesy but the mischievous gods also cursed her by having no one believe her prophesies.
So while Pat may see himself as an Atlas holding up the heavens, political doom awaits him if he strives to reach out for another term.