PSST! EDDIE: NEGATIVE ADS ALWAYS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

By Juan Montoya
We had the opportunity to speak with one of the candidates involved in a judicial race runoff recently.
As you know, early voting in the runoff races for both the Democrat and Republican parties starts  Monday and continues until Friday of next week. Election day is Tuesday, May 24.
We asked that particular candidate whether there would be negative ads pointing out the opponent's association with principals in the judicial corruption trials that left a judge, a district attorney and a few lawyers doing time in various prisons around the country.
The answer we got was something like:
"We though about that, but we decided against it because it's a double-edged sword. Some people don't like negative ads and it turns them off. We could end up losing as many votes – or more – as we would get if we did."
That is very true, and in looking at the half-page ad placed by runoff candidate for Cameron County Judge by Eddie Treviño against former county commissioner Dan Sanchez in local newspapers and in mass mailings, it's easy to see why.
Treviño leads off with a picture of Dan snoozing at his commissioner's chair probably during the time a particularly boring issue was being discussed. (We remember that we first ran that photo in this blog, but where Treviño's people got that from is anybody's guess. They certainly didn't ask us for it.)
One of the issues raised by Treviño is the fact that Sanchez reported receiving the bulk of his campaign contributions from contributors outside Cameron County, in fact about four-fifths ($200,000 out of $250,000).
That, to the ad writer, makes no sense.
Well, we wonder why Treviño didn't raise the issue with his pals Ed Rivera and Carlos Marin last Saturday when they were seen riding around together checking the precincts during the Port of Brownsville and Texas Southmost College runoff elections. After all, Rivera received $20,000 in cash contributions from Dallas-based Michael Hernandez III in his race against Tito Lopez.
In fact, so did his running mate Raul Villanueva, who challenged Ralph Cowen for his seat on the port board. If Eddie didn't have any objections about candidates taking outside money (Dallas is even father than Hidalgo County) in those races, why should he object to Sanchez receiving it as well?
Another issue raised in the Treviño ad is the fact that Sanchez missed a lot of meetings. That could be a fact that Sanchez will have to explain to the voters. But Treviño doesn't give the numbers for the other commissioners and county judge. Without a comparison, the charge loses some of its impact. Did any of them miss comparable times, or more?
Two of those meetings, Treviño says, involved the passing of the county budget FY 2015 and FY 2016. As someone who was involved in county budget planning process knows, the details of the budget are worked months ahead of the public vote. By the time the budget goes to the commissioners for approval, they are all well aware of its contents. If there are no objections, a majority of three can pass it.
The there are the non-votes.
Treviño says that Sanchez abstained from voting on the SpaceX tax abatement deal in 2014. If you look at the land out in the mud flats, you know that there is nothing worth taxing out there. The real value will come – if it ever does – when something actually gets built out there. But without potable water and the construction of the launch pad delayed by years now, that abstention is probably meaningless.
Treviño also brought up the issue of Sanchez's absence from the meeting where tax abatements for the LNGs that
want to do business at the Port of Brownsville was to be voted upon by the commissioners. Well, guess what, no vote ever took place. The issue was tables on the grounds that it was premature to grant (or withhold) the abatements before they cleared the permit process by the state and federal government.
As for the charge that Sanchez is against the West Rail Hike and Bike trail, well, so it appears, are the rest of the commissioners court. That is, they haven't decided what should go on there. What had been planned for the last 15 or so years was the construction of a West Park Boulevard to relieve congestion and spur economic development there. The majority of the commissioners court (with whom Treviño will have to get two to agree with him on his hike and bike trail idea) seem to favor some kind of compromise that will see both sides getting something, but not everything they want. That's what usually happens and we shouldn't be surprised to see that happen here. That decision has not been made. One thing that won't fly, however, is the construction of a toll road, an idea that Treviño seemed to espouse along with his friend Gilberto Hinojosa and Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority CEO Pete Sepulveda, now the county judge. back in 2006.  http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2016/05/who-really-said-what-on-west-loop-toll.html
See what we mean about double-edged swords?
We really don't know where the ad battle will lead, but we could see where Sanchez's people could point out that it would have been a good thing if Treviño had missed a few city meeting himself when he was the mayor of Brownsville as the time when he pushed to give Carlos Marin's Ambiotec  $1 million to put together the Imagine Brownsville plan that went nowhere but which spawned the shadow government known as United Brownsville controlled and steered toward the OP 10.33 group by its architect (and Treviño's pal) Marin.
And PUB ratepayers would have loved Treviño to have been absent from the meetings when he advised PUB board members (including Mayor Tony Treviño) to go ahead and encumber them with a $325 bond issue to pay for the Tenaska gas-powered electric plant and to pay it with utility rate increases from 2013 to 2017. Even after the rate increases, we no find out that the timetable for the construction has been delayed indefinitely because there is a glut of cheap electricity on the grid and the private company will not turn over a shovel of dirt until it finds customers for the 600 MWs it owns besides the 200 MWs that belong to the PUB.
The ratepayers, however, still continue to pay the increased rates, enough, apparently, to have the PUB pay Treviño's law firm $1,395,000 from 2013 thru 2015, not including 2016.
We won't even touch on the Treviño- Abel Limas connection that came out during the judicial corruption trials.
As the other candidate said, Eddie, negative ads are a double-edged sword.