For yellow-dog Democrats, it was the worst of times.But for the smattering of Republicans and Independent Democrats, it the Fall of 1988 was the equivalent to a Cairo Spring.
Brownsville native Tony Garza was running fro county judge on the Republican ticket. Before he switched to go after that spot, he had announced he was running fro district attorney.
Young, erudite, and son of a well-known gas station operator, Garza got his law degree from Southern Methodist University. He switched to run fro county judge after Jack Goolsby died in office and the Democratic Party precinct chairmen vote to endorse former county judge Ray Ramon to succeed him.
That did not sit well with at least three of the county commissioners on the court. Over at Precinct 1, Lucino Rosenbaum had just been appointed commissioner when incumbent D.J. Lerma was tapped to serve as county judge. Lerma abd Rosenbaum had battled it out in the Southmost barrios and Lerma respected his opponent and chose him to finish out his term.
Ramon had just been acquitted of charges that he had tried to arrange a contract killing of Pct. 3 commissioner Dolph Thomae, his longtime political nemesis. Thomae signed up with Rosenbaum and Lerma and endorsed Garza publicly in newspaper ads across Cameron County
The result was that a Republican was elected county judge for the first time in history.
But that was not to be the end of Ramon. Partly as a form of revenge, Ramon filed to run for Rosenbaum's position and in one of Cameron County's most famous recounts. Rosenbaum was nine votes ahead of Ramon after the Democratic primary election. After the recount, Rosenbaum was declared the winner by six votes.
Garza was re-elected in 1990 when voters turned out and gave him nearly 60 percent of the vote.
Garza was to serve as county judge from 1989 to 1995, when he left to become then-Gov. George Bush's Secretary of State and later was tapped by "W" to be the ambassador to Mexico when he became president.
In the years that followed, only Carlos Cascos repeated Garza's feat, winning reelection twice, the last time in 2014, before he resigned and left to also become Secretary of State just as Garza did so many years before.
Those were heady times when Southmost residents were surprised to see First Lady Barbara Bush being escorted down Carolina Street admiring the oleanders by Secret Service agents while her son waited for her at the Rosenbaum Flower Shop chatting it up with the likes of Jerry McHale and others.
Will we ever see the likes of those days again?
6 comments:
Garza and Cascos have joined paws and moved out of the Valley. Cascos will be named ambassador to the Republic of Patagonia. Garza will retire to sunny Atacama.
It's possible, not probable.
Sooner or later, Brownsville voters will wise up and realize the crooked Democrat machine is not their best choice. They have generations of tradition from which to break loose, but maybe it will happen.
If this happens, then you will see those days again.
Then, choose the party of the lesser of two evils.
Naw, it was Naco Spring.
and now Lucino Rosenbaum is upset at the world because District Atty Luis Saenz closed down his Eight liners and did his job. something the Sheriff Dept could never do because of the friendship.
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