CAMPAIGN SIGNS: FOR PETE AVILA, AFTER AND BEFORE

By Juan Montoya
They say that holding political office invigorates some politicians.
In other cases, such as Bill Clinton and George Bush, for example, the weight of their office visibly aged them, regardless of their outside recreation.
Locally, we used to laugh when office holders like Cameron County Joe Rivera and commissioner Lucino Rosenbaum Jr. ran for re-election and their campaign signs showed images that seemed to have come from their high school yearbooks. Now, politicians being what they are, this much was to be expected. But the pics that Pct. 2 Constable Pete Avila is using seem to have been pulled from his previous lifetime.
We were sitting around a coffee table in a local greasy spoon with the likes of Rivera, Avila, Cameron County Treasurer David Betancourt, and Pct. 1 Supervisor Gabino Vasquez among others.
When the subject of old pictures came up, Avila took the ribbing good-naturedly and said he already had the picture on hand so he used it instead of spending more money for a professional photographer.
"I was much older than," he said as the others broke up laughing.
 Now, we have seen others use photographs that date back a few generations, including Betancourt. However, the prize for using old pictures would have to go to former Cameron County Judge Ray Ramon. Ray's pictures never changed. Even after years in office, his photo never seemed to change.
"Ray was ageless," said a wag around the table. "You can probably find an old sign bearing his picture somewhere out in some forgotten corner of the county. Hell, Pete looks like an old man compared to some of the ones Ray used."