AN OP 10.33 WHOPPER: TAKE CREDIT FOR WINNING RACES

By Juan Montoya
In light of a dismal political race win-loss record in local races, messianic millionaire Mike Hernandez III and his OP 10.33 minions have taken a page from George Orwell's 1984 and Russian revisionism and applied it to political races.
Now, instead of having a bush-league 0-5 record in the recently concluded Brownsville Navigation District and the Texas Southmost College, OP 10.33 is attempting to take credit for the victories (and losses) of the candidates listed on their Facebook page and bring it up to an acceptable 8-5 win-loss record (61 percent).
Among them are the usual homegrown suspects like the perennials Texas Sate Sen. Eddie Lucio, State Rep. Rene Oliveira, State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, as well as Pct. 1 commissioner Sofia Benavides, Pct. 4 commissioner Gus Ruiz, newly-elected Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, losing Democratic runoff candidate for county judge Dan Sanchez, Carlos Masso against Luis V. Saenz for District Attorney, and even Elizabeth Garza, a losing candidate for county judge.
In other words, in hedging their bets and contributing to all the candidates in these races, they can take claim when one of them wins.
If we remember correctly, the Lucios and Oliveiras have been the barnacles of Cameron County politics with the elder Lucio in public office for the better part of three decades, as has Rene. Benavides has been in office for the better part of 10 years as well. How OP 10.33's Hernandez has influenced their races is beyond comprehension.
But the kicker has to be their claim that their founder's contributions helped Pct. 2 commissioner Alex Dominguez win his race in May 2014. If we remember correctly, it wasn't until just late 2015 or early 2016 that OP 10.33 in the form of the yellow-shirted V-3 wing and led by the nose by Lucio III began to make their rounds to make friends and influence people to see things Hernandez's way.
One of those who paid his courtesy to a fellow elected official and heard out the Lucio III-led contingent was Alex Dominguez, the incumbent for Pct. 2, who was  given a presentation where their people outlined their goals. They also voluntarily left a contribution to his campaign fund even though his reelection (if he seeks it) was still more than two years away.
At that meeting, we have been told that Hernandez, Lucio III (OP10.33 consultant), Carlos Marin (OP 10.33 job developer) and OP 10.33 community organizer Jose Angel Gutierrez took their turn trying to impress the lofty goals of the organization to the commissioner. Before they left, they placed some $7,000 in checks for his campaign chest, with Marin magnanimously taking out his checkbook and filling it out on Dominguez's desk in Hernandez's presence.
Those checks, we have been told, remain uncashed or deposited. Depending on the bank, after 180 days they lapse and become void.
In fact, Dominguez said that those checks aren't the only contributions that he hasn't cashed, partly because he wasn't sure of the donor's intentions, and partly because he may have felt that in accepting and using the money the donor may have felt he had bought his support.
"Truth is I don't deposit all donations," he said. "Sometimes it's because there might be a conflict or if I don't know enough about the donor. Basically, I won't be bought but I do listen to good ideas."

So how, we ask, can OP 10.33's "founder" claim credit for Dominguez's victory in the Pct. 2 race?

If they had as much guile as Lavrentiy Beriya, a former head of the KGB, they would bring out old photos airbrushing out unwanted faces and showing Mike III with Dominguez, Saenz, and former Pct. 1 commissioner Lucino Rosenbaum way back in the summer of 2014. (OMG! There it is at left!)
The attempt by the OP 10.33 group to claim credit for Dominguez's win before they were even in the county struck a nerve with his former campaign manager and current Administrative Assistant Zeke Silva.
Silva pulled no punches and called their claim "lies" as it applied to the Dominguez win.
"..Don't post lies," Silva wrote. "You guys had nothing to do with him. Nothing. Don't take credit or involve him for credibility."
Well, just as Beriya under Joseph Stalin tended to do, Silva's statements were deleted and he was blocked from the OP 10.33 Facebook list of "friends." So much for inclusion and adherence to the V-3 Army for Good "values" which state that anyone who wants to join the group has to "Serve with Honor and Honesty, free from deceit, fraud, lies, and hypocrisy."
Hernandez did deign to meet with Silva next week when he comes to town, but the subjects for discussion will be limited to topics having to do with "philanthropy and a benefit to the citizens of Brownsville."
 Well, isn't taking credit for someone else's work and political victory slightly skewered in the values department?
As we see the Hernandez cadre go about their clumsy attempts to implement the OP 10.33 goals of abolishing poverty in Brownsville by October 2033, it is obvious that there is some disconnect between the leader and his minions.
For example, during the port race, his media purchasers bought billboard space for Rivera and Villanueva in Harlingen and San Benito along the expressway, well outside the boundaries of the Brownsville port district.
As Dominguez says, perhaps Hernandez and his crew do have good ideas to benefit the people, but their way of implementing them has left much to be desired. But as a philosopher once said, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.