POLITICAL PRIMER: HOW TO BUY A BPOA ENDORSEMENT

By Juan Montoya
As the political races get going into full gear, expect the candidates to hawk up the fact that they have been endorsed by this group or the other.
Candidates to the school board will list teachers groups' endorsements. Those for city council will seek out public work groups such as fire and police departments. And others will list groups that command some influence on the respective fields.
Those running for district attorney seek the endorsement of cops, lawyers, etc.
So when the local police union (Brownsville Police Officers Association) gives its endorsement to  one of the candidates (Luis Saenz), one imagines that the group and its officers have interviewed the candidates and after careful consideration tossed in their support to their choice.
That's the way it's supposed to work, anyway.
But the announcement that the BPOA (a local branch of CLEAT) was supporting Saenz raised a few eyebrows in local law enforcement and political circles.
To begin with, there was no vote by the officers in the department and the only ones who voted were the board members. The president of the BPOA is none other that Robert R. Tyler, an officer with the P.D.'s bomb squad.
Tyler also appears on candidate Saenz' campaign expenditure report, as does the BPOA.
Here's how.

The BPOA donated $1,000 to the Saenz on Nov. 20, 2015.
Just a little over a month later – on Dec. 21, 2015 – Tyler is listed as having received a $2,000 payment for doing "polling" work for Saenz on Dec. 21, 2015 by his company Centurion Solutions."
Then, to no one's surprise, the BPOA endorsed Saenz for DA over his challenger Carlos Masso.
So what if that is the way the sausage is made in local politics? Not many would know that there was business conducted between the BPOA board and the DA candidate, potentially influencing their endorsement.

What makes the endorsement so incongruous was brought to light by a mass mailer sent by a victim's group who say that Saenz has allowed dangerous criminals to walk and cited the case of Wilfred Chaloux, charged with Assault Against a Public Servant. http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_cd6c6ff4-6ef7-11e5-829e-b32b80a337b5.html
In the victim group's mailer, they ask how it was possible that Saenz went along with the recommendation that Chaloux be given probation at his sentencing since it involved an attempt to murder a police officer.
The same might be asked of the BPOA endorsement by Tyler.
How will it go over with the rank and file to see their organization endorse a candidate who was content to see someone who attempted to kill one of their own get probation?
And that, as Paul Harvey used to say, is the rest of the story.