ANONYMOUS HOJA SUELTAS: SMEAR WE WILL; TARGETS BEGUM AND PENA WHO TOOK POLITIQUERAS TO COURT

By Juan Montoya
While many voters are still confused about what elections are going on now, some smear artists have already jumped the gun to start distributing those infamous hojas sueltas against some of the candidates of choice.
Some folks who went to vote in the Brownsville Navigation District and Texas Southmost College boards election were even more confused when someone handed them a flier having to do with candidates for the runoff elections for the Democratic Party's county judge and justice of the peace place 2, precinct 2 races to be held May 27.
As we know, the two candidates running in the county judge runoff race are current county clerk Joe Rivera and attorney Ruben Peña. The two candidates in the JP 2-2 runoff are Yolanda Begum and attorney Jonathan Gracia.
The Spanish-language flier targets both Begum and Peña and derides their efforts to get to take the local politiqueros and politiqueras to court to try to get to the candidates who hired them and overturn the tainted results.
One entire side is dedicated to snippets of news stories reminding voters of Peña's handling of La Paloma farmer Rex McGarr in the early 1980s, some 35 years ago.
However, the writer's main thrust seems to be that both candidates went to court to try to overturn the results of the elections in which Peña sued former disgraced county commissioner Ernie Hernandez and Begum his daughter – embattled JP 2-2 Erin Hernandez-Garcia – over fraudulent mail-in ballots in their respective races.
Peña's election against Ernie Hernandez was in 2010 and Begum's against his daughter was in 2012.
In it, the writer asserts that both are sore losers, that they hired attorneys to fight their cases, that they bothered elderly voters at their homes and subpoenaed them to go to court, and that those included some who suffered from diabetes or high blood pressure or were otherwise disabled.
The writer also accuses the pair of lacking the capacity to fill the positions, that they lack the "profile" (?), and that they were psychologically affected when they lost.
This reminded us of the rumors that were circulated against Begum by Erin Hernandez-Garcia supporters in the 2012 race. They whispered that she was an alcoholic, bipolar, couldn't speak English, and was a front for the Mexican cartels. That still didn't deter the voters from giving her the majority of the votes in the primary, only to have the massive manipulation of the mail-in ballots in the runoff give Erin Hernandez-Garcia the win.
This hoja suelta, however, did have a name to it to give it some credibility. It lists one Adrian Delgado, of 1531 Milpa Verde, as the one who paid for the printing of the flier.
We called two numbers associated with that address and one was disconnected. The other turned out to be a telephone in another address, not on Milpa Verde. A woman at that number said that no such person – a 41-year-old man named Adrian Delgado listed as a registered voter there – lived on Milpa Verde.
We checked the voter registration list and found that one Adrian Delgado listed as living on 1531 Milpa Verde was 41 years old and had registered in 1995. His claim to fame – besides having his name listed on the flier – was that he has never cast a vote in all that time. In other words, he may be a registered voter, but he has never exercised that right in almost 20 years.
There is something that rankles this obvious fraud.
In Peña's case, even though the judge in the case admitted that fraudulent votes had been cast, he declined to throw out the votes or order another election, giving Hernandez the nod. In Begum's case, the judhe ruled that not enough time was left for Erin Hernandez-Garcia to appeal his ruling in case she lost, giving her the nod.
As a result of the facts coming out int the Peña contest, the Texas Attorney General's office gained a plea-bargain conviction of politiquera Margarita Ozuna in Janet Leal's court. And as a result of the Begum contest, the U.S. Attorney General got a plea-bargain conviction of Sonai Solis, who cast five illegal votes for voters lsited as disabled, including one for her son.
If anything, the writer (whoever it really was) should have thanked them for ridding us of that scourge on our democracy.
We contacted Peña's opponent Joe Rivera and he disavowed any connection with the flier even though any negative vote against Peña would benefit him primarily. We were unable to reach Gracia, but doubtless he, too would have probably disavowed any role in the affair. But both now know that someone who supports them are out there distributing this scurrilous flier and both should move to make them stop.