ERIN AT JP 2-2 WILL FACE YOLANDA, JONATHAN GRACIA

By Juan Montoya
The expected second mano-a-mano between incumbent Erin Garcia-Hernandez and opponent Yolanda Begum for the Justice of the Peace 2-2 race will have another challenger, political newcomer Jonathan Gracia, a local attorney.
Although neither Begum nor Gracia have officially announced their candidacy, their supporters say that they will enter the race against Garcia-Hernandez, daughter of Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez and currently under a cloud of suspicion that she sold illegal waivers to couples so that they would forgo the state-mandated 72-hour waiting period between the time they got their marriage license and the performance of the wedding ceremony.
That allowed her to marry the couples who arrived at her office immediately and pocket the between $150 to $250 JPs charge for performing the ceremony.
Currently, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz is awaiting an opinion from the Texas Attorney General's Office to determine whether he will present the documentation of the profiting from the illegal waivers to the grand jury which subpoenaed the JP's marriage records.
Likewise, her father commissioner Hernandez is likewise being investigated for his role in the illegal hiring of his brother-in-law Robert Cadriel, Erin Garcia-Hernandez's uncle. Cadriel is the brother of Norma Hernandez, the commissioner's wife.  His administrative assistant Raul G. Salazar is awaiting sentencing on his conviction on two counts of abuse of office by a public official and tampering with a government witness in the same case.
Begum, who ran on her outsider image and on her years of community service helping low-income students in the colonias, has indicated she will run against Garcia-Hernandez again. In their first encounter during last year's Democratic primary, Begum beat Garcia-Hernandez by more than 500 votes, only to have a torrent of illegal mail-in votes cast for Garcia-Hernandez give her the go-ahead votes by about 150.
One politiquera associated with the Hernandez vote-harvesting machine has already been indicted in federal court and has cut a plea-bargain deal with prosecutors. The on-going joint state-federal investigation into the braze hauling in and the mail-in ballots of elderly, mentally disabled and even illiterate voters from adult day care centers is focusing on those votes.
Gracia, whose family has roots in the Southmost area, is a licensed attorney who worked with the Cameron County District Attorney's Office from October 2009 to March 2012 as the felony second chair, He was assigned to the 107th District Court and prosecuted murder, burglary, sexual assault, drug and aggravated offenses. This is his first stab at elected office.
Before that – from March to October 2009 – he was the Asst. DA misdemeanor first chair at county-court-at-law 1, 2.
For three months in the summer of 2005, he served as an intern to federal judge Hilda Tlagle following his internship as a legislative assistant to former U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz from 2003 to 2005.
He is a graduate of the UT-Brownsville's Institute of Public Service with certification in Public Management, has Bachelors of Art in Economics and Political Science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a law degree from the University of Texas-Austin where he served as editor-in-chief of  the Texas Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy.
A Begum supporter said he welcomed the entrance of Gracia into the race.
"The more the merrier," he said. "We know we beat Erin the last time. We're ready to do it again, this time without the illegal politiquera votes that she used to win last time."
For their part, Gracia's supporters are hoping that a new face not associated with the existing political factions will attract the voters.
"We're going to offer the voters a choice," said one. "Jonathan is someone who is not associated with any voting bloc and we're hoping this will resonate with an electorate that's tired of the nasty campaigns of the past."