OUR PORT OF BROWNSVILLE PICKS AND WHY WE MADE THEM

 

PORT OF BROWNSVILLE

Ralph Cowen (inc.)

Raul Villanueva (banker)

Pick: It is too bad that Villanueva felt he had to run as a ticket with fellow traveler Ed Rivera running against Tito Lopez. He is running on the OP 10.33 ticket at the behest (and control) of millionaire and self-anointed messiah Mike Hernandez III who targeted Cowen and Lopez as "detrimental" to the growth of the port. This flies in the face of the port's record-breaking year in cargo and value-added contributions to the region. If anything, these two races will be the litmus test for this organization made up of the shadow government United Brownsville supporters and a leadership that expects the rest of us to follow like lemmings in the direction that Hernandez and "job developer" Carlos Marin dictate. Granted, Cowen is not a dynamic leader, but he has proven in the time at the port that he can make decisions based on the well-being of the district. We already had a banker, Fred Rusterberg, on the board of the port's Brownsville-Rio Grande Railroad, and he managed to sell this profitable operation to a Denver-based consortium for a song. Bankers like profiting from other people's money, and one was enough. The fact that OP 10.33 contributed $10,000 "in kind" to both Villanueva and Rivera and then another $10,000 in cash to each to defeat Cowen and Lopez makes us feel as though they will be indebted to take their marching orders from Hernandez and Marin. Thanks, but no thanks.        

John Reed (inc.)

No opponent (Ed Rivera switched)

Pick: It's unfortunate no one ran against Reed in this election because we probably would have gone with his opponent. OP 10.33 pulled Rivera from his position and told him to run against Lopez. If they were really serious, they would have realized that the stevedore company belonging to Reed's brother-in-law, Mark Hoskins, of Gulf Stream Marine, single-handedly busted the local longshoremen's union and lowered their hourly wages to the lowest of any port in the Gulf Coast and the Eastern Seaboard. If OP 10.33 had really wanted to improve wages and opportunity, they could have targeted Reed as a message that they were against the slave wages for workers at the dangerous and heavy jobs that they perform for Hoskins and other stevedores who have profited like thieves as a result of Gulf Stream Marine's breaking of the local longshoremen union. To his credit, Reed has come out in support of his fellow trustees Cowen and Lopez. A vote for or against Reed won't really matter. We'll just pass on this one.

Tito Lopez (inc.)

Patrick Anderson (anti-LNG)

Ed Rivera

Pick: Lopez has a personal stake in making the port profitable and seeing it succeed. He employs literally hundreds of truck drivers, mechanics and other workers who make sure that cargoes get from there to Mexico and vice versa. His opponent Rivera has none of this, although he claims he is a master of manufacturing and logistics. Trustees don't manufacture anything out there. Professionals like Lopez do. Let's face it. This port is symbiotically attached to northern Mexico and its mode of production. As goes the northern Mexican economy, so does the fortunes of the port. What's worse, even as OP 10.33 preaches the virtues of sincerity and honesty, they turn a blind eye to the fact that Rivera borrowed his girl friend's address in order to run because he lives outside the district in Laguna Vista. His homestead exemption is there and the TSC website indicates he lives in Laguna Vista. In fact, when he went to replace a lost voting card, he had them issue him on with the address 22 Harbor Town, in Laguna Vista. 

Anderson, is, as far as we know, a decent, righteous candidate. He started as a one-issue candidate but later clarified his stand and his platform emphasizes economic growth with a concern for environmental protection and sustainable growth. Those are worthy planks and we tend to agree with him. However, Lopez's experience and his being a known quantity make him, we feel, the best candidate at this juncture. 

Whether you agree with us or not, those are our reasons for our picks. And we know that this year, especially, going to vote has become a repetitive act. But voter fatigue aside, these two elections are important for the districts and for the region as a whole. Please vote.