PART 3: DEMO LINEUP; WHO'S ON FIRST?

By Juan Montoya
Already, the strategy in this Democratic Party March primary race seems to be that whichever candidates distance themselves from the judicial (and administrative) racketeering and corruption scandal associated with the Abel Limas-Jim Solis-Armando Villalobos-Marc Rosenthal cabal might have a better chance with an electorate fatigued with screaming headlines and squalor. But that cuts both ways because nearly everyone of the candidates (except for a scant few) were part of county government during the Limas-Vilalobos years. It's up to these respective campaigns to spin their way clear the corruption brambles and make their opponents appear to be mired in them.
There is a rule of thumb that if you draw the first place on the ballot it means an automatic 10 percent of the vote from the get-go. That may or may not be true. In our experience, current political situations often have an impact negating that advantage. On the other hand, there is another rule of thumb that if you want to win a race in South Texas, the best thing to happen to your candidacy is to have your opponent indicted. The threat of an indictment coming down before the voting starts is a very real possibility with some of the candidates on this ballot.
The candidates will appear on the Democratic ballot in this order:

JP 2-2
1 - Yolanda Teran Begum
2 - Erin Hernandez Garcia
3 - Jonathan Gracia
(If we have anyone to thank for the current joint state-federal investigation into the vote-harvesting machine in Cameron County and resulting indictments it has to be JP candidate Yolanda Begum. After she won the primary, she was leading Erin Garcia-Hernandez by almost 500 votes. Now that's a lot to make up in a runoff and the Hernandez vote-harvesting machine pulled out all the stops. The packing of elderly day-care center clients into vans and herding them a la PRI to the polls was brazen and witnessed by many onlookers as was the manipulation of mail-in votes, including some from people who could neither read nor write. Mentally incapacitated people were taken to the Cristo Rey early voting place, for example, and within sight of many, the drivers of the vans were handed a number of blank ballots by precinct poll workers which they helped the disabled mark on behalf of their paymasters. Begum, along with collaborators from CAVA, volunteers, and paid professionals formed a dossier showing how the mail-in votes and walk-ins hauled in by Hernandez paid politiqueros and politiqueras decided the outcome of the race, often without the voters knowing who they were voting for. This documentation – in the form of taped voter interviews, statistical analysis, photographs of the perpetrators, and mail-in vote documentation were given to the Texas Rangers, the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys. THe DA then, Villalobos, ignored it. However, this time around, with two politiqueras aligned with the Hernandezes indicted and pleading guilty, observers are hoping that the intense scrutiny on these paid ward heelers will put a crimp on their activities.
In other words, they know people will be watching very closely. That said, the new wrinkle in the mix is Brownsville attorney Gracia, a newcomer to electoral politics. We doubt that he'll run on Erin's "Legal Experience You Deserve" since that didn't turn out as well as anyone thought it would. Gracia also has to answer questions about his stint under Villalobos as second felony chair and his testimony from the stand in federal court to explain his role in the investigation into racketeering and corruption in the local judiciary. But, like we said before, if an indictment from a grand jury looking into the issuance and sale of waivers for marriage ceremonies by Erin comes through before the March election, that could doom her chances of making a runoff, much less reelection. Much depends on the opinion to be issued by the Texas Attorney General in regards to the waivers. We're holding our breath on this one.    

JP 2-3
1 - Mary Esther Garcia
2 - Albert Garcia
3 - Minerva Pena
4 - Pete Avila, Jr.
(For a while there, Mary Esther was the lone candidate for the new JP 2-3 position that will be established in Brownsville. Then Avila – who lost his constable position to Abel Gomez in the last Demo primary in 2012 – jumped into the fray. After that retired DPS and BISD trustee Minerva Peña decided that making some money off public service would suit her fine and signed up, too. Garcia, a bail bondsman, jumped in at the last moment to make it four. Mary Esther, whose mom Sofia Benavides is a popular commissioner in Pct. 1, is the prohibitive leader in this race. Avila may force the race into a runoff, and the some of the lemming vote will probably go to Peña. It would be to Peña's advantage for BISD to delete access to the board's televised meeting because frankly she comes across like an airhead. Why she decided to jump into this race eludes us. But hey, her entrance into this race proves the maxim that anybody is entitled to run for office. Perhaps she will attract the pom-pom girl vote from her glory days as one at Porter. Avila, at 71, is a tireless campaigner who still puts on the cleats and takes a swing or two in the fast-pitch geriatric leagues in tournaments across the state. No le ayuda el cuerpo, as he says, so it will be a grueling race between him and Mary Esther into the late innings.  

JP 4-1
1 - Juan Mendoza, Jr.
2 - Luis Gonzalez
(What can we say about the JP race in Los Fresnos. Gonzalez is one of those idealistic young guys who has put in his dues in chis community and believes that the public will recognize that and help him oust Mendoza. On the other hand, Mendoza is an old hand in politics who comes from an established political power base there. Thrown in his law-enforcement contacts in the sheriff's and constable departments and he'll be hard to beat. As they say about politics in the rural areas like LF, they eat each other's kids there, so the battle will be pitched as the community takes sides. And just as Gonzalez is studious and serious about his candidacy, one can always count on Mendoza to pitch in with humor. Remember way back when former sheriff Conrado Cantu was caught on tape denying he had paid a women $30,000 to keep quiet about an alleged fellatio encounter in return for a job at the jail? When Mendoza heard about that he quipped that one of the top brass at the department had said: "You paid her $30,000 for a BJ, sheriff? Man, I would done it for $5,000!"