LUCIO III PERSONALLY INVOLVED IN COUNTY CLERK'S RACE

By Juan Montoya
We've now heard from more than one source that some county voters are getting personal calls from Texas State Representative Eddie Lucio III asking his constituents that they vote in favor of Cameron County Human Resources Director Arnold Flores who's in a runoff with Sylvia Garza-Perez for the Cameron County Clerk position being vacated by current clerk Joe Rivera.
Now, this doesn't bode well for Garza-Perez since the Lucio family (Eddie Jr. is the state senator) holds the political franchise in Cameron County. In fact, Lucio III ran unopposed in the Democratic Party primary last March and still garnered 6,017 votes.
His campaign contribution list reads like a who's who of lobbyists and special interest Political action committees who chipped in with $387,471.00, including $55,000 from Texas Republican kingmaker Bob Perry in the 2012 cycle.
Garza-Perez, as one of five candidates, garnered 4,974 votes, or 30.68 percent of the vote. Flores got 3,794 votes, or 23.40 percent. That leaves a hefty 44 percent of the vote that was divided by the other three candidates.
Our informants tell us that Lucio III has called them and asked them to vote for Flores and to call 10 more people to do the same.
It should come as no surprise to many to learn that Flores at one time worked for both Lucio III and his father Eddie Lucio Jr.
Flores worked for Lucio in 2007 as a district administrator and as a staff person for the House State
Affairs Committee, which maintains jurisdiction over matters of state policy, administration of state government, and regulation and deregulation of electric utilities, telecommunications, and energy production.
Two years later, in 2009, he began working as the district director for Sen. Lucio Jr.
In 2013 he was appointed Administrative Services Director for Cameron County, responsible for the oversight of the Human Resources/Civil Service Department, the Information Technology Department, and the Building Maintenance Department.
While that may sound good, it is also a double-edged sword. The recent scandal involving cheating by sheriff deputy candidates who were able to use cell phones to transmit the questions on the civil Service exams and which resulted in the firing of eight of them happened during his watch. It helps little that a proposal by Flores to appoint one member of his staff full time to prevent this type of occurrence was tabled by the county commissioners court.
And even the senator's support is not sterling. Lucio was responsible for the Port of Brownsville switching engineers for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere from Brown and Root to Dannenbaum Engineering which resulted in more than $15 million in unjustified charges. The senator was paid a "consultant's" fee by the company. His other consultant gigs for private prisons for other corporations have also not ended well, with several Willacy County commissioners indicted and convicted after they switched companies at Lucio's urging and were caught taking bribes.
On the other hand, Garza-Perez is also seen as part of the old-time political machine of the county who sides with politiqueras being used to haul in voters from adult day-care facilities and to gather mail-in votes from the elderly.
Her association with the likes of discredited former Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez who agreed to resign his office or face prosecution for the illegal hiring of his brother-in-law and the Hernandez vote-harvesting machine does not sit well with many voters.
In addition, her flip-flopping on what position she would seek – first the county judge's office  and then, after a deal was cut, for county clerk – disappointed many local residents.
Who to vote for in this one? Depends on what political machine you adhere to.