TWO RACES HANG IN BALANCE FOR TUESDAY: RANCID GRAPES FROM WOULD-BE KINGMAKERS

By Juan Montoya
While the majority of the focus has been on the four-vote difference in the election between Linda Gill-Martinez and Jose Hector Chirinos for Place 7 on the board of the Brownsville Independent School District, there is another race that is hinging on one vote that will also be decided by the provisional- and military mail-in votes.
That is the race for Precinct 1 constable where incumbent Constable Horacio Zamora leads challenger Pete Delgadillo by only one vote. Cameron County election officials say the results from the provisional and overseas votes won't be released until next week. Already, both candidates who came in second in their respective races say they are looking into a recount.
However, until the totals are released next week, we  won't be able to know which one of the four will ask for one. If the votes favor those who are curently behind, it is highly unlikely that the winners will ask for one. In the case of the BISD race, it will take about $4,000 for the loser to pay for a hand recount, a hardship that Gill-Martinez is unlkely to afford.
Gill-Martinez beat Chirinos 14,709 to 14,705.
On the other hand, Chirinos, who retired from the BISD (some say was forced to retire), left commanding a $100,000-plus salary and would not be hard-put to fork over the dough. In case he was to prevail, he would join the other two who ran on the same ticket – Otis Powers and Minerva Peña – to form a loyal minority opposition.
The ticket's fortunes plummeted when the other member, Butch Barbosa, lost by more than 3,700 votes to incumbent Caty Presas-Garcia.
Now, with only a third member potentially winning if Chirinos' fortunes improve in a recount, the best they can hope for is to entice majority member Enrique Escobedo to join them and break up the Presas-Garcia, Lucy Longoria, and Dr. Saavedar bloc. May observers think it is highly unlikely unless the issue at hand is one that afects Escobedo's economic interests or those of his family and supporters.
Barbosa did not hide his disppointment with the voters' choices, lamenting the fact that the district will be deprived of his style of leadership. That was nothing compared to the sour (no, rancid is a better word) grapes that a supposed kingmaker from Austin displayed openly in his Internet page.
Erasmo Castro, the Head Cheez of Cheezmeh who openly admits that he controls all the content that goes into his Facebook page, made no bones that he was targeting Presas-Garcia during the campaign and before. When the electorate ignored him an local blogger Jim Barton, of Mean Mister Brownsville, Barton continued to post unflattering photos and unfounded allegations of her being a "puppet" for Dallas Accion America president Carlos Quintanilla. Quintanilla has been a favorite whipping boy for Barton, a fledgling would-be newshound. Although Barton stopped short of denigrating the voters, Castro made no bones what he thinks of the BISD electorate.
One thing to be said for Barton is that he doesn't hide his bitter disdain for the person that local voters chose over his admonitions. Erasmo (AKA Nick, et al) makes no bones that he thinks BISD voters are "stupid" and that the BISD results indicate that in "Cameron County...bullshit reigns."
This, too, we imagine, will pass.