ERIN PLAYS THE UNLIKELY ROLE OF A VICTIM OF POLITICAL INTRIGUE

By Juan Montoya

Coming to a cybertheater near you: Erin Hernandez Garcia, heir apparent of the Hernandez political empire- in-the-making is now playing the victim of her nasty political opponents who dare question her entitlement to any position Daddy Ernie and Mommy Norma think she deserves.

Believe it or not, that is the gist of her rambling postings on her page. Erin does not only feel that she has been targeted by the supporters of her opponent in the runoff for JP 2-2 Yolanda Begum, but that, geeze, Louise, she is just an honest lawyer trying to do good.

She then goes on to say that even though her election slogan is "You Deserve Legal Experience," we shouldn't take this to mean that she considers having a law degree makes her more qualified than a non-lawyer to hold the position. In other words, simply because she is a lawyer, no one else can perform the functions of the office better than she can.
Or just what does she mean?

"I was running not only because I feel that I am qualified for this position, but also because I feel that I can make a positive difference in our community and judiciary," she states.

Well, now, if making a difference in your community and judiciary means that you will use your legal education and skills to subvert the democratic process by defending your father's use of politiqueras to harvest the votes of the old and infirm and wrest an election from your opponent, yes, some lawyer could argue you have made a not inconsiderable contribution.
And while Erin criticizes Begum's use of the slogan “Integrity for a Brighter Future,” and says she is above political dirty tricks and skulldrugery, she doesn't hesitate to charge that Begum "uses 3 local bloggers to criticize, insult and defame my family on almost a daily basis. My opponent allows her supporters to post and make comments about my marriage and my children on Facebook."
Now, who controls who on postings on cyberspace?
In fact, the three bloggers she speaks of include Jerry McHale, Jim Barton, and myself. Since when do any of us three take marching orders from anyone? As far as the comments made of the candidate and her family, the Hernandez's have earned every bit by their actions. You reap, it is said, what you sow.

Did Erin herself not use her vaunted legal skills to "play a shell game" with the vending business contract her family holds with the county in spite of the blatant conflict of interest involved? Did she not also serve as a political campaign treasurer for a city commissioner when the Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits judges (alternate municipal judge in Primera) from engaging in political campaigns?

She then goes on to say Begum "publicly accused me of cutting up her signs."

As far as we know (and we saw the coverage and saw the broadcasts), Begum never accused Erin of doing any such thing. But let's be logical. There are only two candidates in this race. Unless we actually think that Begum would deface and steal her own signs after paying good money to have them made and placed throughout town just to cast the blame at poor Erin and her minions, is it too far fetched to think that supporters of her opponent were behind this?

"The guilty flee when no man accuseth..." the Bible says.

And while she complains of attacks on her family for corruption, she doesn't hesitate to cast aspersions on Yolanda's son Alex who – unlike Erin – is a successful and accomplished lawyer who actually walks into the courtrooms and wins cases.

From her own lips she says that: "She (Begum) campaigns from party to party speaking of how corrupt my family is when in fact it is HER SON, ALEX BEGUM is currently being sued in Bexar County for barratry (ambulance chasing). Alex Begum is accused of engaging the services of his mother-in-law to sign up potential car accident clients at local chiropractor clinics."

Begum has answered that canard in a previous post so we won't repeat the Big Lie and let it go at that. She then goes on to question their motives and predicts that the Begum family is investing money in her opponent's campaign because Yolanda will funnel cases to her son.

"There must be a reason or financial gain for someone to invest so much money in this type of race. Perhaps he would like to have a judge that can funnel him or his business partners the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who are filing “car accident cases” in this “small claims court” that my opponent, Alex Begum’s MOTHER wants to run," Erin charges.

"She wants to be the person to award the amount of damages to an injured party. It simply makes me wonder."
And after this kind of a diatribe of baseless allegations predicting some imagined future criminal act by her opponent she still wonders why people would question her credibility and integrity and that of her family's?  

As far as we know, no one in the Begum family has been investigated of trying to pervert the Civil Service rules to get their brother-in-law employed by Cameron County as Ernie has. And neither do we know of any Begum relative charged with murder and molestation as at least one of Erin's relatives has been.
And when she doesn't get the endorsement she wanted from the city's firefighters, does she take the fact gracefully?
How about this: " I am very proud to have earned...endorsements on MERIT and not because I cut a deal with a few firefighters over a bucket of beer at the Vermillion or because I wrote a check…"
Even in her wildest dreams, Begum says she never thought someone could be driven to such depths of invective and spite driven by naked ambition to win a political position.
"Suddenly, instead of a friendly contest, I was faced with a confrontational, combative rival whose actions indicated that she and her family felt they were somehow entitled to any public position that they desired," she wrote the local daily.
" My campaign signs were defaced and stolen and removed from homes whose owners had asked me to put them. A campaign of slander soon surfaced where my opponent's workers (politiqueras) would suddenly appear where we were campaigning and start screaming at the people that she was better qualified, that I had no education, and that because she had a law degree, they should vote for her. She and her mother would start taking pictures of my supporters in an attempt to intimidate them and the voters.

People who supported me are being subjected to slander and a campaign of lies impugning their reputations.

There started an  underground rumor campaign where her workers are telling voters that I am bipolar, an alcoholic, that I can't speak English, that I was from Mexico, and that if they elected Erin, an attorney, she could provide them with legal advice when they went to court. The people who heard them say this will willingly confirm this and identify my opponent's supporters who told them this.

I never in my life imagined that any candidate's ambition for political office could drive her (or her supporters) to such depths of behavior.

We have all heard of  her father working the mail-in votes to win political office and of the use of his position as county commissioner to cow county employees and their families from openly supporting me. Hopefully, Mary Helen Flores and her Citizens Against Voter Abuse's (CAVA) offer of $5,000 reward to denounce this kind of abuse will counter this threat to our democratic process and the results in this election.

I was hoping that my opponent would denounce these type of activities on the part of her paid campaign workers, but from the looks of it and by her participation in some of them, it appears that she is willing to live with them.

Granted, I am new at this. But is this type of behavior acceptable to the voters of this county? I am betting that they are not."

So are we, Yolanda. So are we.