GARZA-PEREZ: A PIN PRICK IN A BALLOON CONVENTION

By Juan Montoya
Now, that's gall!
That's what the few remaining guests at the Ruben Peña political function held last night at the Galaxy Bowling Center on Pablo Kisel said to themselves when they saw a well-known politiquera advocate step into the room handing out her pushcards.
As we all know, Peña is running for the Democratic Party's nomination for county judge. He is also a supporter of the Citizens Against Voter Abuse (CAVA).
That's why it was such a surprise to those left at the function when none other than Sylvia Perez-Garza, the candidate for Cameron County Clerk, former candidate for county judge, and recent resignee as county party chairman – aside from championing politiqueras – traipsed in ready to campaign de corva.
Ow, we've all heard of candidates who take advantage of social occasions to hand out cards. Weddings, quinceañeras, baptisms, dances, service club functions, are all fair game to ambitious candidates.
Hell, some even show up at funerals and hand out campaign cards.
Some of those strategies backfire when families grow upset at seeing their functions – especially funerals – invaded by politicians. A little respect, por favor.
What made Ms. Garza-Perez's cameo at Ruben's function so incongruent was because during the 2010 trial where he attempted to show that current Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez had stolen the election through the use of politiqueras and illegal mail-in votes, she played a part in spoiling the efforts to uncover the voter abuse in that contest.
People present at the trial recall Sylvia telling witnesses whose votes had been stolen by Ernie's politiqueras that they should go home and not wait for the court to call for their testimony. She and others allied with the Hernandezes were successful in convincing a number of the uninitiated elderly Hispanic voters to go home and thwart the proceedings.
In time, people caught on and Peña was able to show that the Hernandez politqueras, indeed, had distorted the results through illegal votes and gave Ernie the win. As a result, Peña could not get the requisite number of challenged ballots to overturn the election.
So ti was some surprise that the woman who went against Peña to halt voter abuse thought it proper to attend a political function for Ruben without any qualms. To Irma Peña's credit, Garza-Perez's efforts to glad-hand her at the function went ignored.
"Verguenza no tiene," muttered a Peña supporter who was there.