"JOE CAVAZOS MUST BE TURNING IN HIS GRAVE"

By Juan Montoya
Well, it seems like Robert Lopez will have a Republican opponent this November in his run as the Democratic nominee for the Constable, Pct. 3 race in the November general election.
On the last day of the Aug. 25 deadline for the Republican party to name a nominee to go against Lopez November 4, none other than the other son of the late Joe Cavazos, Roel, filed as the challenger for the GOP against Lopez.
"His daddy must be turning in his grave," said a longtime San Benito resident. What it does say about the younger Cavazos is that he had not voted in the Democratic Party primary. To run as a Republican in November, it was not necessary to have voted in the GOP primary.
The Lopez-Cavazos debacle started about three years ago.
In 2011, the Cameron County Commissioners Court decided to eliminate two constable positions. One of them was Pct. 4, which covered Rio Hondo and Arroyo City. Lopez was the Constable of Pct. 4 and was left without a jurisdiction. 
The commissioners consolidated it with Pct. 3, a huge precinct stretching across the middle of the county.
The reduction left Lopez and Pct. 7 Constable Cesar Diaz without the benefit of incumbency if they chose to run for the new consolidated precincts.
Lopez, in fact, did run.
But realizing that his Rio Hondo and Arroyo City constituency could not compare numerically with Joe Cavazos' in Precinct 3 in San Benito, Lopez  decided to run as a Republican in November 2012 and took on Cavazos after the incumbent there had defeated Frank Robles earlier that year in the Democratic Party primary.
In November, Cavazos beat Lopez 7,289 to 4,126 votes in the general election.
Following his defeat, Lopez was hired by Pct. 2 Constable Abelardo Gomez and became a familiar face as he worked security at the entrance to the Cameron County Courthouse's Judicial Wing.
The term of office for Texas constables is four years. However, when vacancies arise, the commissioner’s court of the respective county has the authority to appoint a replacement to serve out the remaining term.
Unexpectedly, Cavazos died January 26, 2014, and his son Rolando Cavazos was appointed by the commissioners court to fill his unexpired term ending January 1, 2015.
Since Cavazos death came after the deadline to file for the Democratic primary on March 4 this year, Rolando Cavazos was not on the Democratic ballot in March.
According to the Texas Election Code, it is then up to the precinct chairs in the Precinct 3 Constable's jurisdiction to vote and decide who will appear on the November ballot.
They, however, handed the cosntable an unpleasant surprise. After six voting precinct chairs interviewed the potential candidates, instead of opting to give him the nod, they chose Lopez, his father's Republican opponent in November 2012.
During the voting to choose their candidate, there was a bit of partisanship demonstrated by Democratic Party Cameron County Clerk-elect Sylvia Garza Perez when she berated some of those present because she had seen a car with a Carlos Cascos bumper sticker. Cascos is the Republican county judge incumbent who will face current county clerk Joe Rivera in November.
The intra-party jockeying didn't stop there.
At the time, appointee Rolando Cavazos looked at the option of running as a Republican, but, alas, he had voted in the Democratic primary and was ineligible to run as a Republican candidate in November.
Now, Precinct 3 is a combined JP and Constable Precinct stretching from the Laguna Atascosa area in the northeast to to the banks of the Rio Grande in the southeast corner, including, coincidentally, the old Cavazos ranch along Military Highway. In fact, it cover all of San Benito, Rio Hondo, Arroyo City, Lozano, La Paloma, El Ranchito, Treasure Hills, the Rangerville area and surrounding areas.
Now, smarting from the snub by the precinct chairs, Rolando Cavazos considered running as a write-in candidate in November, a long shot by any measure.
Instead, it seems that Rolando will be satisfied now that his brother Roel got on the GOP slate.
Gven the roller-coaster ride that Lopez has endured these past three years he will now have to face a Cavazos again in November to assume the Pct. 3 cosntable's position.