IS STAGE SET FOR SAENZ AND CORTEZ TO RUN AS REPUBLICANS AGAINST DEMOCRATS FOR D.A. AND SHERIFF? SAENZ BURNED DEMOCRATIC BRIDGES, SOURCES SAY

By Juan Montoya
For some time now, the talk around the county is that Cameron County District Attorney has been grooming his investigator Victor Cortez to run against Sheriff Omar Lucio.
Bu that is not all. Another embellishment of the talk has been that both Saenz and Cortez will join the Republican ranks and run against Democratic candidates.
That rumor has gained legs with multiple sources saying that Saenz has been introducing Cortez to local political activists as his candidate for sheriff.
And Saenz's cozy relationship with outgoing county judge Carlos Cascos was not lost on Charro those attending the Charro Days parade and saw them working the crowds together.
"Saenz helped Cascos more than he helped Joe (Rivera) in the last election for county judge," said a source close to the D.A. "As a Republican candidate for DA in Cameron County, he would draw big buck from his buddy Carlos as Texas Secretary of State. That would spill over to the sheriff's race as well."
As far as anyone can remember, this is the first time that a DA investigator has been seen working the crowds at the parade as Cortez did this past Saturday. (Well, maybe George Gavito did at one time, but definitely not on foot.) Saenz even posted a photo of Cascos and Cortez decked out in their Charro duds on his Facebook page.
Sources say that Republicans would embrace Cortez, a Brownsville native and former special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. has told local newspapers he was  kidnapped on Aug. 13, 1986, in Guadalajara, Mexico, and driven to a state police station, where he was tortured. He was one in an army of more than 1,200 officers investigating the Feb. 7, 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of 37-year-old DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena by a drug cartel based in Guadalajara.
Cortez was also a former Brownsville police officer, U.S. Border Patrol agent, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Internal Affairs officer, and firearms instructor at Quantico, Va.

Cortez is the chief of Internal Affairs and Public Integrity Unit of the DA's Office.Sources at the sheriff's office. The relationship between Cascos, Cortez and Saenz has not gone unnoticed by Lucio and his top officers Gus and Javier Reyna.
"A lot of people in the Democratic Party are angry at Saenz because he went back on his promises to them, especially those that gave him money," said a San Benito resident. "Instead, he turned on them. I think Luis knows the money is not going to be there from the Democrats this time around and it is convenient for him to seek the big Republican money instead. It makes sense."