AMBER AND SYLVIA: LA MISMA GATA PERO DIFFERENT TUNE?

By Juan Montoya
Many of us thought that when Amber Medina beat out Carlos Masso for the chairmanship (personship?) of the Cameron County Democratic Party though the days of favoritism by the chair toward certain candidates were over.
We had seen the outgoing chair Sylvia Perez-Garza (now running for county clerk) openly favor Erin Hernandez-Garcia over her opponent Yolanda Begum in their runoff race in 2012. She appeared with her at parties, campaign events and on her Facebook pages like they were great bods. The though that she had to show some impartiality toward all candidates seemed lost to her.
With Amber, we thought, those days were over.
Alas, it seems our conclusions were premature.
This time, we have been told that Amber has shown her lack of transparency and impartiality in the race for Cameron County Commissioner for Pct. 4 where incumbent Dan Sanchez is facing two opponents. Dan, however, drew the middle spot between Juan Roberto Kornegay and Dan Brewer. Many observers will tell you that you are better off either at the top or on the bottom of the ballot, but not in the middle spot that Sanchez drew.
Now, however, we have been told that although Kornegay's name is on the ballot where it should be (at the top), his first name (Roberto), was somehow changed to "Robert," the English translation.
We have also been told that when his supporters saw that at the Cameron County Elections Office they brought that to the attention of Administrator Chris Davis. Davis, they said, told  them that his office does not decide how the names appear on the ballot, but rather, that the party chairperson did.
In fact, eagle-eyed Davis had spotted the change in the spelling earlier and called Amber personally to inquire whether a mistake had been made and Amber assured him that there had been none and to put the name on the ballot as she had given it to him.
When Amber Medina was approached, she just said it was a done deal and said nothing could be done about it.
Now, if it were just a matter of someone making an honest mistake, it might be understood. But we're in Hispanic South Texas, and in fact, Pct. 4 is overwhelmingly so. When an Hispanic  voter walks into the booth, glances at the names and sees a Kornegay and a Brewer and then spots a Sanchez sandwiched in the middle, the tendency is to go for the Sanchez.
Then, if the voter thought that Esquivel might simply be a misspelling for Esquire, the title some hoity-doity lawyers use, the confusion would be even worse.
We wondered whether it had been a knee-jerk reaction on Amber's part to baptise Juan Roberto with the English first name so we sought out the appointment of treasurer form that all first-time candidates fill in with the election's office and lo and behold! the candidate had filled it out as Juan Roberto Kornegay Esquivel, not Robert. Then we sought out the campaign finance report and, again, there was no "Robert" anywhere, just Juan Roberto Kornegay Esquivel.
Why, then, the Robert on the Democratic ballot?
Unlike Dan, Juan Roberto has never gone by the Anglicized name, so why did the party chair? Is Amber truly opaque on the spelling of Hispanic names, or just deliberately so in this particular case?