CAMPAIGN DECALS ON HIS TRUCK LEAST OF ERNIE'S WORRIES

By Juan Montoya
Over the course of the last two or three months we've received photos of the truck depicted on the right where the sender complains that Pct. 2 Cameron County Commissioner is using a county-provided vehicle to conduct his political campaign.
We looked at the matter and found out that – unlike the obvious conflict of interest that popped up in other issues – this time there is no issue there at all.
Apparently, that is his personal truck.
The fact that he places a side window decal on it announcing that he is the commissioner of  precinct 2 on it is his choice. He is a county commissioner and that is his truck.
That someone may interpret that to be an official vehicle is just a consequence of him displaying the decal on it. If someone interprets that to be him flaunting his public position while plastering a campaign sign on the back window of the truck, that, obviously, is something he can live with.
Ernie is not out not the woods in the case of the illegal hiring of his brother-in-law Roberto Cadriel and the conviction of his administrative assistant Raul Salazar for his role in the matter.
Neither has he been given a clean bill of health into the grand jury investigation into the matter. Nor is he over the hurdle on the little matter of his family's vote harvesting machine being looked at by a joint state-federal vote-fraud task force. Or his daughter Erin's possible indictment for issuing illegal waivers to marry people.
Those issues, we're sure, probably keep him awake at night more than the campaign stickers on his truck.