THE DEMO LINEUP: WHO'S ON FIRST? (PART 1)

By Juan Montoya
It took us a while to get the ballot placements for the candidates in the Cameron County Democratic party primary March 4, but we finally tracked it down through friends of friends.
Demo chairwoman Amber Medina said she hadn't gotten around to posting it on the party site but had sent a copy to Pct. 62 chair Teresa Saldivar from where ewe lifted it.
Already, the strategy in this 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:

County Judge
1 - Joe G. Rivera
2 - Martin Arambula
3 - Ruben Pena
4 - T. Rivera

(Joe Rivera – after 36 years as county clerk – has a definite name-identification advantage. But that also carries a detriment since he might be painted as associated with the maladies that county government has gone through in those years. These, after all, were the years that Ray Ramon and Gilbert Hinojosa made their mark here and Joe was in the thick of it. Somehow, he managed to convince voters countywide that he deserved their trust. Martin Arambula also has an albatross around his neck named Solomon Ortiz who made him the manager of his security company which had the contract with the Port of Brownsville. It was through Ortiz's munificence that Arambula was given the position of records manger with the Brownsville Independent School District, which he still holds. But it was his vote to approve the settlement with Dannenbaum Engineering that glossed over the $21 million lost in the Bridge to Nowhere that he will have to explain to the voters. And how will Arambula campaign these last three months if he has to work for a living? And expect copies of his letter of recommendation for Rosenthal will be gracing hojas sueltas and newspaper ads if he gets into a runoff with the others. Ruben Peña is counting on his upper county support and his relationship with the Vela family (Fil and Blanca) to get him into a runoff with Rivera. To his credit will probably go his support for the Citizens Against Voter Abuse that was organized to expose the voter fraud in the 2010 Pct. 2 commissioner race foisted upon the electorate to win the election. He, too, has to explain his role as a special prosecutor under Villalobos that set a murderer free. And Travis Rivera, a local bail bondsman many see was thrown in to confuse Joe River supporters, might fill a role as a distant spoiler)   

To say that the candidates for the position of Cameron County District Clerk being left vacant by an absconding Aurora de la Garza have big shoes to fill would be an understatement. Aurorita, as her little friends called her, dominated the patronage at the county. Virtually every department has a de la Garza relative or protege on the payroll. Those faithful lemmings had elected her to office every four years without fail.  The candidates for that position will appear in this order:

District Clerk
1 - Neida Ruth Soto-Grantland
2 - Rosie Sotelo
3 - Enrique Escobedo, Jr.
4 - Eric Garza
5 - Elvira Ortiz

(Soto-Grantland is touting her decades at the BISD where she would have you believe she rose from cleaning lady to superintendent on the basis of pulling herself up by her bootstraps. Alas, we know the politics of the BISD and while we admire her pluck, we know that it takes a certain tact for subservience and boot licking to rise through the ranks there. To her credit she got an education and bettered her situation retiring as head of Human Resources, a powerful position in a district with a $500 million budget and 7,000 jobs. Rose Sotelo has 28 years as a manager at the district clerk's office where she retired last year as civil cases manager. That's right, the position where the Solis-Rosenthal cash cases were funneled to Limas' court. The FBI interviewed her several times and she emerged unscathed. Count on someone bringing that up. Escobedo is the board president of the BISD where he has incurred the wrath of several constituencies. Throw in the disputed title of medical doctor and he's got some work to do to convince voters countywide to give him the nod. Eric Garza has the same problem Sotelo has that he was a de la Garza protege. He is the manager of the criminal cases at the clerk's office, with all the baggage that entails. Ditto for Elvira Ortiz, who along with her husband former Elections Administrator Roger Ortiz, have lived off the public weal for the majority of their adult lives. Elvira is serious and hardworking, but can voters overlook her living under the de la Garza umbrella or her husband ignoring the brazen voter fraud under his watch?)

We come to the county clerk position being vacated by Joe Rivera to run for county judge. As soon as they heard that Joe had left for greener pastures (actually, not really because the county clerk's position pays more than the county judge's post) candidates came out of the woodwork. Their names will appear on the ballot in this order:

County Clerk

1 - George Kowalski
2 - Don Deleon
3- Sylvia Garza Perez
4 - Letty Perez Garzoria
5 - Arnold Flores, Jr.
(Kowolski has nothing but his work as his brother's bail bondsman and the name recognition of his pioneer family. That might go a little way among Old Brownsville, but how that will translate countywide is questionable. De Leon, who has offered his candidacy for everything from port commissioner to congressional candidate has yet to make a mark in local elections. HIs father, Ernesto de Leon, was a city commissioner and a loyal supporter. How the young constituency he attracts will serve him is to be seen. Garza-Perez has to explain how – in the short space of 18 months – she went from Demo county chair to candidate for county judge and then candidate for county clerk. She bring her own baggage with her as an ambitious social and political climber. Was there unconditional support included in the deal she cut with Rivera and the Hinojosa camp? Why Flores, who is the head of the county's human resources, threw his hat in the ring is beyond us. As a full-time employee of the county, will he have time to battle the four other contenders for the throne? And with the restructuring going on in the department after the Robert Cadriel-Raul Salazar-Ernie Hernandez illegal hiring debacle, can he really devote this time to running a countywide campaign hoping his former boss' coattails – Eddie Lucio's – will do the trick?)
(Next installment: Commissioner Pct. 2, Pct. 4, County Court-at-Law 1, County Court-at-Law 3, JP 2-2, and JP 2-3)