TO DA SAENZ, ET AL, ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS SMALL SPUDS

By Juan Montoya
By now the story involving the thousands of dollars in alleged illegal contributions has deteriorated into a he-says, she-says account where the principals who could throw light into the matter are keeping mum.
Is it true, as District 1 City Commissioner Rick Longora's former paramour claimed when she caught him consorting with another girlfriend, that the commish was the recipient of money from Ambiotec's Carlos Marin and American Surveillance Jaime Escobedo?
Both have done extensive work for the City of Brownsville, the school district, the Port of Brownsville, and just about every entity that requires environmental studies or security for their entities.

Julie Olvera, before she became disenchanted with Longoria, Brownsville's version of Lothario, the unscrupulous seducer of women, said he had told her of receiving thousands from these two gents. They kept the money (at least $4,000 that she remembered) in a dresser drawer at his home on Carolina Street not far from where she grew up with her parents.
When she walked in on Longoria and "the other woman," she grew livid and returned wsith the police to claim "her money." Instead of the $4,000, however, she said that she could only recover $1,300, a sum which Longoria allowed her to keep in a fit of generosity.
We understand that when Longoria was asked where the money came from, he told the cops it was fro campaign contributions.
There have been investigations launched for less than this.
Just as Olvera has gone silent of the claims involving Marin and Escobedo, she has also gone mum on the $240 she says she saw Mariano "Bean" Ayala hand Longoria at the front of his house when she was present.
We examined the contribution reports the Friday after Olvera reached out to bloggers and made her accusations and could find nothing reported in them.
With a babbling witness, a public official involved, and the potential for election campaign violations influencing the outcome of the District 1 election, any other prosecuting attorney in the State of Texas or the United States would certainly have launched a probe to either get to the bottom of the sorry mess, or put the matter to rest.
In Cameron County, we shouldn't hold out breath. It doesn't matter how much semantic or mental contortions anyone makes to justify the insertion of illegal donations from vendors doing business with the city or from public officials in their employ, the stench of a serious conflict of interest lingers.
But then again, when Baltazar Salazar, the general counsel for the Brownsville School District was hired, he promised in his contract that he would not make any gifts or money to any of the board members or public servants.
 In fact, the last election campaign report of the BISD's November 2014 election indicates that he gave incumbent Cesar Lopez $4,000 in campaign contributions despite that clause.
And getting closer to the marrow, numerous county residents who were there, have told us of contributions made to the sitting DA that were never reported in his campaign reports. Some of these people were involved in the bail bond business or in the operation of eight-liner arcades, a target of the DA's Office after he was elected.
The only negative feedback so far is that Saenz should not expect financial support from these quarters in his reelection campaign.
In the current runoff between Longoria and challenger Roman Perez for the District 1 seat, it is obvious that the local daily is going to turn a blind eye to the obvious: that vendors doing business with the city and public officials are buying candidates with illegal campaign contributions and its no skin off their nose – or the DA's – as far they are concerned.