By Juan Montoya
Local millionaire attorney Tony Martinez won the mayoral election by an overwhelming 54 percent of the vote over four hapless opponents Saturday.
And two races – the City Commissioner-at-Large A and Distrct 4 positions – will have to have runoff races within the month.
Martinez won over incumbent Pat Ahumada (who only garnered a measly 9.17 percent of the vote), Edward Camarillo (23.24), Michael Garza (10.29) and Viro Cardenas (2.09). He spent more than $110,000 to be the city's next mayor with no salary.
But even as the runoff for the At-Large A will be decided between Robert Lopez and Estela Chavez-Vasquez and the District 4 race between Tony Zavaleta and surprising John Villarreal, the historical results were in the District 2 race between incumbent Charlie Atkinson and write-in candidate Jessica Tetreau Kalifa where the challenger beat Atkinson by 239 votes.
The Tetreau candidacy was marked by protests by Atkinson that she lived outside the district with her husband. However, unlike his previous opponent Zeke Silva, who was disqu
alified by the state for a previous felony conviction, neither the city nor the state disqualified her from beng on the ballot as a write-in candidate.
"This is historic," said a Tetreau supporter. "About the only other case I can remember of a write-in candidate winning office was the case of when Ray Ramon won in a primary for the Democratic nomination for county judge. This is unheard of in city politics."
Already, a graduate communications student said he was going to write his mater's thesis on the Tetreau race citing the extensive use of social media in the race.
"It happened in Egypt, in Lybia and even in Iran," he said. "Now we have a race for a city position using the social media extensively to secure a win on the city commission. This is truly astounding."
Local millionaire attorney Tony Martinez won the mayoral election by an overwhelming 54 percent of the vote over four hapless opponents Saturday.
And two races – the City Commissioner-at-Large A and Distrct 4 positions – will have to have runoff races within the month.
Martinez won over incumbent Pat Ahumada (who only garnered a measly 9.17 percent of the vote), Edward Camarillo (23.24), Michael Garza (10.29) and Viro Cardenas (2.09). He spent more than $110,000 to be the city's next mayor with no salary.
But even as the runoff for the At-Large A will be decided between Robert Lopez and Estela Chavez-Vasquez and the District 4 race between Tony Zavaleta and surprising John Villarreal, the historical results were in the District 2 race between incumbent Charlie Atkinson and write-in candidate Jessica Tetreau Kalifa where the challenger beat Atkinson by 239 votes.
The Tetreau candidacy was marked by protests by Atkinson that she lived outside the district with her husband. However, unlike his previous opponent Zeke Silva, who was disqu
alified by the state for a previous felony conviction, neither the city nor the state disqualified her from beng on the ballot as a write-in candidate."This is historic," said a Tetreau supporter. "About the only other case I can remember of a write-in candidate winning office was the case of when Ray Ramon won in a primary for the Democratic nomination for county judge. This is unheard of in city politics."
Already, a graduate communications student said he was going to write his mater's thesis on the Tetreau race citing the extensive use of social media in the race.
"It happened in Egypt, in Lybia and even in Iran," he said. "Now we have a race for a city position using the social media extensively to secure a win on the city commission. This is truly astounding."
9 comments:
The key is knowing who is behind the candidate. We know that Tony Martinez has money to fund his own campaign, but he has sold his soul to Gilberto Hinojosa and the Cameron County Democratic Party to get the election without a runoff. Tony paid and the Dumbokrats brought it home. While a write-in is historic....who is behind this "carwash mama"??? Who took advantage of the fact that Atkinson was disliked and a blowhard....to get the vote out for Ms. Tetreau. Was it Tony, was it someone else or was it the Demokrats protecting Tony's base??? Do we know?
Anon 5/15/11 of 3:43 pm
what's the DUMBOKRATS motto "NEVER WASTE A CRISIS"!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this the best we residents of District 2 can do? Vote in someone like Jessica Tetreau to be our commissioner. A write-in candidate at that too! I’m sure there are an extreme amount of talented, business experienced and well educated individuals without any baggage who reside in District 2 who could have ran for the post. Instead we end up with a commissioner we know little about and whose personal married life regarding several family disturbance incidents is well documented within the Brownsville Police Records. To top it of, it is still questionable whether she resided in the district prior to announcing her candidacy. Sure a misanthrope like Atkinson needed to go but c’mon Brownsville; is this the best we can do?
To Anonymous3, the inevitable answer is: "Yes. This is the best we can do in District 2. For now."
As someone mentioned to me this past weekend, we've traded the Devil We Know for the Devil We Don't Know. But it HAD to be done.
Let this be proof positive to "talented, business experienced and well educated individuals without any baggage who reside in District 2" & other parts of Brownsville:
There are many folks out there, talented & resourceful folks, who would gladly lend you a hand in gaining elected office & performing your civic duty. You just have to make the initial commitment.
If you run it, they will come.
Yes there are qualified people in District 2, but where were their balls three months ago? NO ONE wanted to step up and run against Charlie. Craig Grove and others were asking many many people to run yet no one would do it.
Finally Zeke Silva stepped up and was removed because of his record. The deadline to file for a place on the ballot had passed at that point. Tetreau filed as a write-in, and faced a hostile City that tried to have her disqualified as well. had to go all the way to the Secretary of State's office to get her write in candidacy qualified. Fortunately for us, Charlie was so lazy that rather than focus on his own race, he was too preoccupied trying to get her disqualified and running his mouth, first to disqualify her write in status, then some bullshit story about her husband's property on the north side.
He put up a few political signs.
She organized and had Brownsville Cheezme covering and organizing volunteers over facebook, while on the conventional campaign side appointed a poll watching director, blockwalk- phonebank coordinator, had artists and managers with campaign experience doing her mailouts, press releases and fundraising. Pursued and got endorsements from BUC and others who sponsored cookouts and get out the vote rallies for her campaign.
Where was Charlie? fretting over a hidden camera, Fly Frontera, and chillin at Shenanigans?
That's how the cookie crumbled...
"Martinez buys election..."
That's it? Aren't all elections pretty much bought?
We need a good gallo against Longoria, not the chicken that just ran against him.
To Anon My 16 12:05 (Charlie??? is this you?)
If there are so many great candidates....why didnt you or them run for office? Charlie; just go away....
The fiasco with Silva proved that it's near impossible for someone to get on the ballot against an insider like Charlie. Sossi was working hard keeping him unopposed. Looking back at the last election, I remember wondering why he was unnoposed. Now I know why, because the powers that be wouldn't let anyone in... The only reason Tetreau made it onto the ballot as a write in is because of the Attorney General and social media exposure. We need to find out who else in the City government was keeping Charlie's race unopposed and hold them accountable.
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