What will be under the tree this Tuesday for some of our local political stars?
If you're Chuck Mattingly, who lost to Luis Saenz as Cameron County District Attorney this last November, you're hoping that your stocking will be stuffed with a judicial appointment by your friendly state governor Rick Perry.
Mattingly represented the Republican faithful in the last go-round but came up short. However, that doesn't preclude his appointment by Perry who has a history of appointing local judges only to see them lose when they run for the position on their own. Witness, for example, Rolando Olvera, a true-blue GOP who was twice appointed to local courts only to lose in an election.
If and when Mattingly gets the nod, all he has to do is switch parties near the end of 357th Distrct Court term left vacant by Leonel Alejandro and take the Democratic pledge. Worked for Rolano O. Why not for Chuck?
However, Chuck may be disillusioned and find a lump of coal in his stocking if the gov'ner decides that his role in letting convicted killer Amit Livingston walk out of the courthouse with his boss DA Armando Villalobos and Chuck looking on may backfire on his own political fortunes. The honorable thing would have been to resign on the spot and accumulate the accolades that might have resulted in an election win. Instead, Chuck took the easy road and costaed along. He paid the price.
There are, it is said, a handful of candidates on the GOP side whose supporters might have the governor's ear aside from Chuck.
If you're Pct. 1 Constable Horacio Zamora, you are hoping that all you ducks are in a row and that the reestablishment of the Cameron County Parks Police will mean a safe harbor for your political ambitions until Pete Delgadillo messes up somehow in the next four years and the way may be open for a next run at the position. The parks police was a kind of musical office for candidates and supporters of defeated candidates in the past.
And now that we're talking about vacant seats on the bench, how about the Barack Obama administration's choice for the federal judgeship being left vacant by federal judge Hilda Tlagle? Rumors are out there that there would be nothing more welcome to the Tony Martinez household than to have Trey Martinez be handed that plum in consideration for the political and financial support his father has shown the Prez in his primary battle against Hillary Clinton four years ago.
Of course, the fact that Trey has been ambulance chasing to file suit against the AFT and the Department of Justice's Attorney General Eric Holder for the Fast and Furious weapons that might have resulted in Jaime Zapata's shooting death in Mexico might throw a wet towel on the idea.
If you're his dad Tony Martinez you might want to search around the city to recruit opponents for your colleagues on the city commission who may suddenly have second thoughts crowning him Emperor of the Realm on the Border, by the Sea. Now, it appears that everytime there's some revelation about the free and easy way Hizzoner spends the people's money Martinez believes that there is a conspiracy of leakers who have it in for him. In private law practice there is no such thing as a Freedom of Information Act or other pesky bothersome sujetos trying to find out what elected officials are doing behind the scenes.
If you're Juliet Garcia, this might well be the Winter of Our Discontent after a fearsome year when all your dreams of empire and manipulation came to naught. Try as she might with the help of her overpaid underachieving cabal of schemers, she couldn't force a majority on the TSC board to give away the community college and all its assets to the UT System. In the process, she showed the Regents that she couldn't deliver the goods and the reorganization that had been placed aside was dusted off and brought back as Plan B.
Now the administration of the combined health school (to be finished in bits and pieces by sometime in the year 2100 or so) and UTB-Pan-Am will be moved to Hidalgo County, the redundancy in administrators will be a thing of the past, and Juliet will have to live on her measly retirement after making ends meet with a paltry $350,000 annual salary.
But wait! There is still hope for our precocious Julia. There is, the golden parachute of educational consultant for United Brownsville, the phantom government structure created by her lender and bud from way back Fred Rusteberg. Even if Juliet signs on for 10 or 15 hours (a la Armand Mathew) at say $200 per hour, that still leaves a little candy money. Yeah, that's the ticket.
At the other end of the spectrum, things go well for Ernie Hernandez, the perennial cat of nine lives who has risen from political death so many times that he is a feature character of the Walking Dead episodes so popular on commercial television. Now with daughter Erin at the JP 2-2 and political ally on Linda Salazar at the other court, he has established the stage for political patronage and favors that he so long desired. Need a favor with a judge? Call Ernie. Need a job shoveling dirt in the mess that's going on with the colonia program at Cameron Park? Call Ernie. Need someone out of jail? Call Ernie.
This will be a banner year for the Hernandezes if the feds' cleaning up of the judicial system doesn't spill over to the way elections have been controlled and manipulated by the vote-harvester machine the family operates. But until then, keep taking while the giving is good.
10 comments:
And a merry Christmas to Armando Villalobos. He has stayed on to receive his $125,000 plus salary and wil be vested in the retirement plan on Dec. 31, which means when he reaches retirement age he will draw over $3,000.00 per month for life from us taxpayers. And you wondered why he did not resign when all of his shenanigans and kickbacks drew him an inditement from the Feds. He could have quietly resigned and promised not to run for public office and the Feds would not have unsealed the inditement but he would not have vested in the retirement nor been able to continue to draw his salary . You may not have known that the Feds make deals like this but you can be sure the recent retirement resignation and some future imminent retirement resignations are part of the deal with the Feds. Happy new year! and us tax payers will continue to foot the bill.
el chucky might get lucky if he is appointed by governor perry to this judgeship at least for the next 2 years, no pos WOW, now that would be a big blow to luis (mr re-borned, turned over a new leaf)saenz. Chucky im praying for you guy, i turned on a st jude candle for you dude, hope you get it. as for Luis saenz in my books, once a trampa always a tramp i dont care how you slice it or dice it. ZS
Let's hope, too, that Aurora de la Garza gets a chunk of coal in her stocking for Christmas in the way of a federal investigation (and hopefully and indictement of her) for all the corruption in her office. Aurora de la Garza and all her family members should be removed from the County Courthouse.
Can a convicted felon (Villalobos) receive a public pension while in jail; or after he gets out of jail???????
If you're Juliet Garcia, this might well be the Winter of Our Discontent after a fearsome year when all your dreams of empire and manipulation came to naught. Try as she might with the help of her overpaid underachieving cabal of schemers, she couldn't force a majority on the TSC board to give away the community college and all its assets to the UT System. In the process, she showed the Regents that she couldn't deliver the goods and the reorganization that had been placed aside was dusted off and brought back as Plan B.
Now the administration of the combined health school (to be finished in bits and pieces by sometime in the year 2100 or so) and UTB-Pan-Am will be moved to Hidalgo County, the redundancy in administrators will be a thing of the past, and Juliet will have to live on her measly retirement after making ends meet with a paltry $350,000 annual salary.
Dear Juan,
Evidently your readers who believe in Santa also believe in the fairness of the feds to "clean up." Hah! The persecution of Rosenthal and everybody related was politically motivated. Hanin the fed judge should be the first to be investigated for not recusing himself from any action on the case. The feds are a sleeping giant who only act when the right parties hand it a sharpened ax. Justice? Ho, ho. hah!
I read that the CC Parks will be activated again with a 2 vote majority? That is BS! Dan Sanchez and David Garza should be ashamed of themselves for not staying in the meeting and discussing like it should have been done. I agree with CC County Judge Cascos that this is suspicious? Horacio Zamora did you use your bro in law Rick "Shyster" Zayas to get this done? You don't have that kind of pull in this county? Sofia Benavides, what is your gain in getting HZ his job? Then, it goes without saying that ERnie "CROOK" Hernandez would vote for it? Still can't believe with the Feds still investigating and possibly rounding up more, the corruption in CC continues?
Former County Employee, identify yourself. You do not know the facts surrounding this race nor the fiasco of a recount wherein over 40 ballots went missing. Horacio won the race and has done an outstanding job of cleaning up the drug infested Laguna Heights where drug deals were being conducted daily out in the open. Folks would not even venture out after dark. If you really wish to know the facts and discuss them rationally, do so, but do not post insinutations and innuendos. The facts are that Constable Zamora has and, will continue to do, his job to protect the citizens of the Laguna Madre area and insure that its citizens, including the children, are safe.
Blanca Zamora Garcia
Pobre BZG, You r in denial: 1. Most of d time when candidates win is because they have been planted with special interest n with politiqueras ilicit harvested votes. 2.if a candidate loses then a hush position is conveniently open to give him/her a job(like the female jailer that ran against Lucio last time and now she is a Lt). 3 Usually if there is a disgruntle candidate then they are either bullied, character assesinated or bought.
El He Dicho
Anyonymous, If I am in denial of actual facts, you are what? I cannot decipher a thing of what you posted that remotely relates to the over 40 ballots missing in the recount. Does this not bother you? This can happen to anyone. You win an election by a few votes, the loser pays for a recount and at the recount ballots go missing and the loser then comes up the winner. End of story. And you are okay with this? This should be your so called "El He Dicho" (whatever that means) regardless of who you supported. Regardless of what country you wore born and raised you should be on the side of justice. Oh, by the way, I am not pobre in the sense you are implying. I can read and write which are skills you lack pobrecito. Blanca Zamora Garcia c/s
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