SUDDENLY, ISRAEL TAPIA JR. IS ALL SMILES... AND A JP CANDIDATE WITH HIS FOOT IN THE DOOR

By Juan Montoya
He hasn't announced yet, and he hasn't listed his campaign treasurer with roger Ortiz at the Cameron County Elections Office, but judging by his campaign stickers and push cards, Israel Tapia Jr., a clerk at the Justice of the Peace 2-2 office is off and running for his boss's position.
A frequent visitor to the office now occupied by Kip Hodge says that Israel's usual gruff demeanor and cold treatment of supplicants on traffic violations and truancy matters has miraculously changed.
"I was in near the justice of the peace office today and I saw a school workers with  some of the students that needed to report for truancy, and I noticed a distinct change in Israel," said an eyewitness. "Israel was different. He was not his usual asshole self, but all smiles."
The source at the second floor of the courthouse said that as he stood nearby, Israel told the counselor and the that he was going to announce his impending candidacy for Justice of the Peace and asked everybody present for their vote and support.
 "What a nerve!!!"
Now, we understand that Hodge is a straight-laced kind of guy who would probably be spurred to some kind of passion if he learned that his underling was using the power of the office where he is employed to work the hustings.
Even though Tapia, unlike County District Attorney Armando Villalobos, is not an elected official, neither Mano nor he should be allowed to use county property or a county office to conduct their campaign.
We are still waiting to see whether Mando will ask his protege Maria DeFord to step down from her position in his office while she is running for office. And we also wait with bated breath to see whether he will ask Special prosecutor and magistrate Luis Saenz to vacate the premises while he makes his run for the same position.
In fact, his old rule that anyone running for a position six months before the election (March 4) has suddenly been voided as far as we can tell. He has been coy about telling the voters whether he will run for the newly-created Congressional Distrct 34, even though he has had an exploratory committee in place for a few months and hew has been pushing hard for DeFord even while he has yet to confirm that he won't run for DA himself.
Meanwhile, now's the time to see Smiling Israel if you have pending matters before the JP 2-2. Strike while the iron is hot!