ALEX DOMINGUEZ MAKES IT OFFICIAL; WILL RUN FOR PCT. 2

By Juan Montoya
What up to now had been conjecture became a fact with the Sunday Brownsville Herald announcement this Sunday that local attorney Alex Dominguez will challenge incumbent Cameron County 2 Precinct Commissioner Ernie Hernandez in the 2014 Democratic Primary.
Dominguez had one prior stab at a state representative position now held by Rene Oliveira.
A former teacher, agricultural worker, successful attorney, and all-around nice guy, Dominguez brings a nice breath of fresh air to the race. If there have been any skeletons in his closet, we know nothing about them.
The incumbent, however, needs a few closets to hold his, from double-rotations of his towing service while a commissioner with the city way back when, the shell game of his vending company which has been handed from one Hernandez to another to allow it to do business with the county, and the controversy that erupted when someone (no one is saying who) took the civil service exam to get his brother-in-law Roberto into the county payroll, the indictment of his administrative assistant Raul Salazar for his role in that debacle, to the ongoing Texas Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's investigation into allegations of vote harvesting by is wife Norma during his and his daughter's Erin Garcia Hernandez's elections.
There are a few other unsavory actions that we could throw in with that mouthful, but for now we'll simply say that there's quite a bit of baggage that Ernie is going to have to deal with if he decides he wants to take a stab at re-election. Over the time that he has held the office, Hernandez has used the county budget to eke out patronage jobs across his precinct through the Pubic Works Dept.(the old Road and Bridge precinct.)
If we remember correctly, Dominguez did sign the Citizens Against Voter Abuse pledge not to use paid politiqueras to harvest the mail-in and walk-in vote from adult day care centers and the BHA High Rise, places notorious for allowing politicians to harvest votes from the elderly and infirm, sometimes including illiterate voters to beat their opponents.
Hernandez, of course, did not, or could not, since this vote harvesting has been a part of his election equation. If Ernie (through Norma, his wife) can control from 200 to 300-plus votes through a team of politiqueras in day care centers and the poor barrios of the precinct, victory has been virtually guaranteed.

However, with the conviction of one of his stalwart politiqueras (Margarita Ozuna), the investigation of others and the latest federal indictment of another (Sonia Solis), who has been linked to the network associated with the Herandez's camp, their impact on this election may be minimal. The ongoing probes have made some of the more discreet politiqueras run for cover or desist from outwardly participation as they had
in the past.
(That's a photo of Norma harassing Begum supporters at the High Rise.)
The last time an Hernandez ran (Erin), the family pulled out all the stops. They had to make up some 500 votes by which Erin trialed Yolanda Begum for Justice of the Peace. Incredibly – through blatant hauling in of elderly and impaired voters and documented manipulation of the mail-in votes by Norma's team of politiqueras – the Hernandezes were able to pull it off, albeit leaving an obvious paper trail that is now leading TAG and FBI investigators to the source. An agent at the recent arraignment of Solis in federal court told a participant that the woman's indictment was "the tip of the iceberg."
In the colorful words of one agent, "It's going to rain indictments."
Ruben Peña, who ran against Ernie Hernandez last time around, will have to explain his role in the Pepe Villareal murder case when former (now convicted) DA Armando Villalobos assigned him as a special prosecutor in the case of Jose Alfredo "Pepe" Villarreal, whose half-brother was represented by San Benito lawyer Oscar De la Fuente Jr.
During the Villalobos trial in federal court, De la Fuente said that he had used the signing off on an agreement with Julio Villarreal regarding the money seized from the Villarreal family home as “leverage” to get a murder charge dismissed against Julio Villarreal’s half-brother, Jose Alfredo “Pepe” Villarreal.
De la Fuente testified that Villalobos had appointed Ruben Pena as special prosecutor on the Pepe Villarreal murder case to distance himself from possible backlash for having dismissed a murder charge.
The murder case was dismissed March 22, 2011. Former 357th state District Judge Leonel Alejandro signed off on the dismissal, federal prosecutors charged.
Some reports indicate that Peña is considering making a run at county judge and take on Democratic chairperson Sylvia Garza-Perez and Port of Brownsville commissioner Martin Arambula. Arambula has already announced, and Garza-Perez has not done so officially. However, the recent appointment of also-Port commissioner Carlos Masso to the vice-chair of the party seems to some like she's lining up her ducks as preparatory steps to facilitate her candidacy come January.
These type of scheming isn't sitting well with the Democratic Party rank-and-file, and the fact that the vice-chair who resigned so that Masso could take over was no one but Doroteo Garcia, the husband of JP Erin Garcia, Hernandez's daughter, points to the family having taken over the party machinery to enhance their political power.
Without the vote harvesting that has virtually assured the Hernandezes their victories at the polls, Dominguez stands a real chance of beating Hernandez come March.