TETREAU-KALIFA IS STARTING TO BELIEVE HER FACEBOOK FRIENDS

By Juan Montoya
Years ago, in a previous lifetime,I used to work as an administrative assistant to an elected official.
Back then, as elected officials were wont to do, they would get together on Friday's at their favorite water hole and shoot the breeze. Inevitably, the talk would turn to issues that they dealt with during the week. Then, in the heat of the talk and in their cups, they would ask me to write a letter to the editor of the local daily expressing their diverse views on any given subject. I would make a note of their more sober arguments and – come Monday morning – the letter would be shot off to the local daily.
Given, as I was, the advantage of hindsight, it often contained their most cogent arguments on any given subject. If there were opposing viewpoints, as there often are in any public issue, these two would be addressed and rebutted.
As often happens to people who speak out in the passion of the moment, by the time the article appeared in the editorial pages of the newspaper, the issue had long been forgotten by the boss.
It wasn't until the calls started coming into the office congratulating him for the letter that he would come into my office to ask for a copy of the newspaper contianing his views that had been sent under his name.
"What did I say,?" he would ask. "I need to know so that when people call I'll know what to say."
That experience reminded me of the pompous, self-serving response that City Commissioner Jessica Treau-Kalifa had in response to former commissioner Charlie Atkinson dropping his lawsuit to have her declared ineligible to hold the office because of very credible questions regarding her residency in the district.
A visiting judge decided that even though questions remained over the legitimacy of her candidacy for the seat of District 2, Charlie Atkinson's removal action would require the support of the state.
Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos has said in the past that he would not get involved. That is about par for the course for Villalobos. After all, he has allowed the manipulation of the mail-in votes in the past in every county and city election including his own races. To expect him to weigh in on this apparent fraud would be out of character for the DA.
Instead, Atkinson, no sweetheart, faced the uphill battle to convince the Texas Attorney General to step in for him and help him remove the only write-in candidate who has ever won a seat on the city commission.
Was Tetreau-Kalifa humble, contrite, or even conciliatory in her response to Atkinson dropping his lawsuit?
"It was a bogus lawsuit," Tetreau-Kalifa told the Brownsville Herald. "It was very, very saddening that he disrupted my historical candidacy, my historical win with this nonsense. Justice has most definitely been served."

C'mon.

The fact is that neither the DA or AG decided to get involved in the case is that decided her continued holding of that seat. We have seen some very credible proof that she moved in with her parents solely to run against Atkinson after Zeke Silva was disqualified after a felony conviction made him ineligible to run.

About the only thing "historic" about the Tetreau-Kalifa win was how Atkinson himself made it all but impossible to rescue his candidacy. An acrid tongue, a perception in the community that he was using city resources to disqualify his opponents, his continued draining of BEDC and GBIC funds to fund the Brownsville Sports Park over other city projects, and his none-too-endearing personality turned off the voters and led to his defeat.

Tetreau-Kalifa may continue to hold on to her delusion that her platform, or lack of one, led to her "historical" victory.

She would do well to learn the needs of her adopted district and stop believing the ramblings of would-be social media Merlins and their claims that their political alchemy put her in the District 2 seat.