RIVERA FILES FOR COUNTY JUDGE, SYLVIA, COUNTY CLERK; CASCOS GETS AN OPPONENT, GARCIA TO RUN IN THE GOP

BREAKING NEWS...UPDATE...BREAKING NEWS...UPDATE
By Juan Montoya
Amber Medina, the chairperson of the Cameron Cameron Democratic Party has confirmed that County Clerk Joe Rivera has filed his candidacy for county judge with her office.
Additionally, she also confirmed that former Cameron County Democratic Party chair Sylvia Garza-Perez has switched from running for county judge to file for the position Rivera currently holds, that of county clerk.
With Rivera's announcement, that makes four candidates who had filed for county judge before the  deadline.
They are:
1.) Rivera
2.) Ruben Peña
3.) Martin Arambula
4.) Travis Rivera (a bail bondsman, no relation to Joe Rivera)

And with the entry of Garza-Perez to the county clerk candidate pool, that makes four declared candidates. They are:
1) Garza-Perez
2.) Don De Leon, local businessman
3.) Jorge Kowalski
4.) Arnold Flores, currently Cameron Countyr HR director
5.) Letty Perez-Garzoria

And for Cameron County District Clerk:
1.) Civil cases manager Rosie Sheldon-Sotelo
2.) Criminal cases manager Eric Garza
3.) BISD board president Enrique Escobedo
4.) Elvira Ortiz, chief deputy district clerk

As far as the JP 2-2 position, we learned that there will be three candidates. They are:
1.) Yolanda Begum, local businesswoman, artist
2.) Jonathan Gracia, attorney
3. Erin Garcia-Hernandez, incumbent

In the JP 2-3 race, there were three candidates. They are:
1.) Maria Esther Garcia, paralegal
2.) Pete Avila, former constable, firefighter
3.) Minerva Peña, retired DPS, BISD trustee
4.) R. Rodriguez

She said that county treasurer David Betancourt had not filed for any position and neither had Lali Betancourt or JP 2-1 Linda Salazar.
And we heard that local attorney Dolores Zarate has filed for County-Court- at Law 3 Judge David Gonzalez. Also, a third opponent has reportedly emerged against Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez apart from Alex Dominguez and Gary Linnan. He is reportedly Leo Lopez, the husband of 404th District Judge Elia Cornejo Lopez.
A surprising twist of events occurred as the filing deadline approached. Oscar X. Garcia, who had announced he would run as a Democrat for the 357th District Judge with Juan Magallanes and Gloria Rincones, instead filed to run for the same position as a Republican.Garcia said that he did not think that a runoff campaign would be brutal and decided to wait for the eventual winner in the November elections.
Republican sources indicate that incumbent Carlos Cascos has a Republican opponent in that party's primary. We have not learned of the man's identity as we post, but understand that he is a white candidate from the northern part of the county.
(We will update the filings on Wednesday.)