ERIN GARCIA-HERNANDEZ HINTS AT RUNNING FOR 445TH

By Juan Montoya
In March 2014, voters in the Democratic Party primary told Erin Garcia Hernandez they didn't want her to continue holding the Justice of the Peace 2-2 position at the Cameron County courthouse.
Presiding over a tenure that included investigations into charges that he had sold fraudulent (and illegal waivers to the state-mandated 72-hour waiting period between the issuance of the marriage license and the performing of the ceremony, and that she and her staff had taken money in return for issuing favorable decisions in small claims cases, Hernandez-Garcia left the office under a cloud.
Some of the women caught up in the favors for cash charges eventually were tried in court and accepted plea bargains for their role in the schemes. For some reason that court observers cannot understand, the JP was never charged.
And at least five women associated with the Hernandez vote-harvesting machine (Ernie Hernandez and wife Norma) were indicted as a direct result of the harvesting of votes during the 2012 Democratic primary and runoff where Garcia-Hernandez snatched victory from the jaws of defeat through the abuse of mail-in ballots of the elderly and impaired.
(In the photo at right, Erin can be seen with her father, former Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez and former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos. Both were indicted for different offenses. Hernandez was indicted on seven counts of official misconduct and agreed to resign from office in return for the dismissal of seven counts. Villalobos completed his second term as DA and was convicted in federal court for racketeering and taking bribes. He is now serving a seven-year prison sentence)
Now it appears that Erin and her supporters (she still has some?) want to impart her the Hernandez type of governance countywide by hinting that she will be running for the 445th District Court seat left vacant by the appointment of Rolando Olvera to the federal judiciary.
There were two candidates in that race in the Democratic Party. They were Oscar X. Garcia and Gloria Rincones.
Garcia – citing the financial cost of running a countywide race – opted not to run in the primary. That left Rincones the sole Democratic candidate for her party's nomination.
If so, whoever wins would be facing Rene De Coss, the Republican appointee to the court left vacant when Olvera left got greener federal pastures. Whether Garcia would run against De Coss, her friend, is speculative because it's doubtful that she'd make it to November.
We hear that Erin's close relatives (Ernie, Norma and her husband Doroteo) have been reaching out and touching their contacts among the Cameron County bar and putting out feelers for support for  her candidacy.
Last time we checked with Amber Medina, the chairperson of the Democratic party, Garcia Hernandez had not filed. But then again, others haven't either. We wish the Cameron County Democratic Party would list those candidates who have filed for office on their hopelessly outdated website so we didn't have to bug Amber.
But we digress. If and when Erin files or announces, she shouldn't be surprised to have her past conduct become an issue in the race. The tracks lead right up to her door.