IS RICK LONGORIA RUNNING SCARED OF ROMAN PEREZ?

By Juan Montoya
If Roman Perez thought his call for civility in politics when he announced for the District 1 seat in the City of Brownsville elections May 14 would set the tone for his race against incumbent Rick Longoria, he had another thing coming.
Whether it's having his signs removed, having his opponent deliberately follow him to place signs right next to his, or even having embarrassing encounters with Longoria and his supporters out on the hustings, he's found that he's in for a nasty barrio scrap out in Southmost.
Perez, 32, said when he announced that he would be courteous toward Longoria, unlike the incumbent who's made it clear he considers Perez a threat to unseat him from his post.
"The time for civility is now," Perez told the local daily when he announced. "The time for honest talk is now. The time for change is now."
What he's found instead is that Longoria considers this a barrio scrap and is pulling out all the stops to get the upper hand. Among some of the things that Perez and his supporters have found is that rumors have been circulating from the Longoria camp that mayoral candidate Tony Martinez had donated $5,000 to help in his campaign against Longoria.
"Rick even called Martinez to ask whether that was true," said a Southmost veteran campaigner. "Martinez said he was staying focused on his race and denied that he was giving anyone $5,000."
There has been little love lost between Perez, a studious gadfly whose public comments before the city commission meetings led Mayor Pat Ahumada and the rest of the city commissioners including Longoria and Charlie Atkinson – also running for re-election – to heed the advice of contract attorney Mark Sossi and ban the public comment section from being broadcast on the city's public channel.
Sossi said he recommended the commission delete the comments from the broadcast to prevent the liability to the city potential lawsuits. However, it was obvious that the comments by Perez and others like Fernando Ruiz, Robert Uresti, Dagoberto Barrera, et al, rankled some of the commissioners, but especially Ahumada, Atkinson and Longoria.
"That act alone, gagging the critics by shutting down their comments on the public's air waves, I think, is going to count against the incumbents," said a Ruiz and Perez supporter. "Whatever happened to free speech?"
Perez said Longoria had promised to support him for office because he was thinking of running for Mayor after his term expired in District 1. However, Perez said Longoria backpedalled after he discovered that Perez was serious about running for the position.
"Since then he has acted very unprofessionally," Perez recalled. "One time he was even playing grab-ass when I met him in a public function. My kid asked me why the commissioner had done that and I was embarrassed for his behavior."
For now, however, Perez has run into former Longoria supporters as he block walks door to door in the Southmost area who say they are disillusioned with the incumbent for what they perceive as arrogance that he has developed over the years he's held office.
"A lot of people who have supported him in the past say they aren't voting for him now," Perez said yesterday after he finished block walking in a Southmost neighborhood. "He's pulled a lot of fast ones and I think people are on to him and want a change in that office."