MASSO VS. SAENZ 2016, NY TIMES DOES THE MAQUINITAS

"Mr. Saenz’s focus on eight-liners has cost him votes, led to a death threat against him and supplied him with his own gambling room, of sorts. About 100 slot machines seized in the raids sit in a brick warehouse. Roughly 500 others were sold to a company that paid the county $100,000. Mr. Saenz said environmental regulations prohibited him from destroying confiscated eight-liners.
“I wanted to steamroll them to send a message,” he said." NY Times, March 31

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/texas-slot-machines-ring-up-big-business-in-a-legal-gray-area.html?_r=0

By Juan Montoya

We know now that Cameron County District Attorney – despite promising to "steamroll" the maquinitas in front of numerous local, county, state and federal law enforcement officers – did no such thing and that he sold them to net $100,000 to augment his staff's salaries.

No one knows better than one of the representative of the buyers, Brownsville Navigation District commissioner and local attorney Carlos Masso.

Masso was typecast as the "heavy" in Saenz's bid for the DA's Office four years ago. That, according to Saenz's campaign workers at the time, was the only thing that they could find to besmirch his candidacy. Not that Masso himself was doing anything wrong with the eight-liner trade, merely that he had relatives who had been associated with eight-liner operations. 

As an attorney, they knew Masso was within his professional right to represent his clients. Nonetheless, the campaign focused on the eight-liner bogeyman.

Well, it's that time again and Masso is back for another go-round with Sanez.

After Saenz went back on his word on destroying all the confiscated machines and actually profited from their sale, many believe the tide against his anti-maquinita crusade has gone on far enough. As the New York Times article by Manny Fernandez indicates, the crusade has become a charade of cat-and-mouse between investigators and the Cameron County DA's Office.

Elderly retirees patronize clandestine eight-liner salons in Cameron County or go to the cities along the Hidalgo-Starr County line to play in communities who have found their operation a fiscal godsend and no longer have the stomach for Saenz's Operation Bishop. 

Saenz's claim that "environmental regulations" prohibited him from destroying confiscated machines belie the fact that the City of Brownsville – where Saenz's office is located – stages periodical recycling of electronic components for free. If he had taken advantage of the free service and recycled them there, of course, would have meant foregoing the $100,000 that he got from the sale of the 500 maquinitas he confiscated.

Still, his PIO claims that not one red cent of the $100,000 has been touched. But unless you have the serial numbers of the $100s they deposited in the account, we'll just have to take their word for it.

There are a lot of unhappy campers this time around who feel that Saenz and his chosen cadre of enforcers which include to ex-federal investigators have worn out their welcome and will be shown the door come elections in 2016.

People who contributed money, campaigned for him, and put up sings on their lawns have said they won't do it this time around. There has even been some talk that he is pushing for investigator Victor Cortez to tun against Sheriff Omar Lucio, a former ally.

And he gave only lukewarm support to former county clerk Joe Rivera who was running for county judge against Republican Carlos Cascos. He, in fact, administered the oath of office to Cascos before the latter resigned to take the position of Texas Secretary of State with new Gov. Greg Abbott.

Some say that Saenz will run as a Republican to garner the support of that party's loyalists and the economic infusion from the state and national GOP where his buddy (and former county judge) Cascos can pull strings for him.

Regardless, there are dark clouds on the political panorama of his reelection.