MCHALE: BISD DONNYBROOK AND VERITABLE COIN TOSS

By Dr. Gerald F. McHale-Scully

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

With less than two weeks left until the filing deadline, the BISD board races promise to be entertaining. Four incumbents face reelection and all may have multiple opponents.

"This is going to be a donnybrook," says a longtime educator. "In the port and junior college contests we had approximately 6,000 come to the polls, including Port Isabel and Los Fresnos. With the presidential elections, there may be as many as 20,000 voting and three quarters of these citizens have no idea who the BISD candidates are.

"Then we have the role that Mike 'El Moco' Hernandez's OP 10.33 intends to play. After arguably going zero for six in the port and junior college elections, Hernandez intends to vet and endorse. He and his right-hand, Carlos 'El Mago' Marin, salivate thinking they could control a $550 million budget and 8,000 jobs if they can manipulate a majority of four.

"El Rrun Rrun's Juan Montoya has already reported that the greedy Marin has cut a $500,000 deal with the district and is seen wining and dining various trustees. Will Hernandez influence the results to the degree that he will allow the cancer that is Marin to metastasize? There have been boards in the past that have put the special interests of generous individuals ahead of the general interests of the employees and students.

"Another major challenge facing the BISD concerns the charter schools that are bleeding the district of students and state funding as a result. Superintendent Dr. Esperanza Zendejas has made impassioned pleas to her employees that they need to keep their own children in the BISD or they risk costing themselves or their colleagues their jobs. As of yet, the board has not devised an effective strategy to counter the pupil drain."

Joe Rodriguez, Cesar Lopez and Carlos Elizondo's terms don't expire until next cycle. They are a voting block and support the superintendent wholeheartedly. They led the charge to give Zendejas a questionable extension and raise. Unlike past boards, the entire seven have kept differences among themselves and off the front pages of the Brownsville Herald.
The McHale Report is not going to render a play-by-play account of the potential rivals until the dust settles. The filing deadline is August 22 at 5 p.m. and the aspirants will pick for positions at 6 p.m. Candidates can change positions until the last minute and the pundits expect a flurry of activity as the candidates measure the opposition and jockey in order to improve their prospects.

Businessman Otis Powers is the incumbent in Position III. Former board member and lawyer Philip Cowen has announced his intentions to go mano-a-mano with Powers. This will be a battle and both of them may find themselves struggling for survival if the mercurial Caty Presas-Garcia decides to jump from her present Position V and vies against this pair. As a Hispanic woman against two Anglos, an ignorant electorate may feel a natural sympathy for her.

With the possibility that Presas-Garcia may move, Laura Perez-Reyes, a county court-at-law administrator (with lawyer Rick Canales as her treasurer) , is making her inaugural foray into politics. Erasmo Castro, a blogger and cancer research specialist who has run in both the city and county, has indicated that he is intrigued by this slot and has promised that he will extirpate the malignant tumor that is Marin from the district.

Minerva Pena, a desk-job relegated law enforcement veteran (who mutters a God Bless You at every second phrase) , is the incumbent in Position VI. Retired BISD administrator Kent Whittemore has announced his opposition. This is the latter's initial entry into the political arena (but his fingerprints were all over the Tony Juarez vs. BISD case). Again the question rises: When an ignorant electorate has no knowledge of the players, will a Hispanic woman have a natural advantage over an Anglo male?

Hector Chirinos, a retired BISD administrator, is the incumbent in Position VII. There are some doubts about his intentions, but should he throw his hat into the ring, he will meet a formidable foe in Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, an ex-BISD administrator who is currently Rio Hondo's ISD's assistant superintendent. Gadfly Orlando Trevino will play a cameo role in this scenario.

"Predicting the future in these races is akin to peering into the fog and trying to discern a figure in the distance," said Scott Steinbeck, The McHale Report's managing editor. "Will Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez compete? She has filed and nobody wants her as an adversary. The critics are wrong when they say that she marches to her own drum. She marches to her own band!

"'Slick' Rick Zayas believes he has Rodriguez's blessing to run, but nobody has forgotten his dismal spell on the board when he and Ruben Cortez fired a superintendent because he wouldn't approve the health insurance contract for Johnny 'Caliche' Cavazos worth millions. God has since punished Cavazos for his excesses by removing his from this orb. Presas-Garcia won't forget Zayas either as she accused him of making improper advances on her.

"And nobody has assisted more politicians than fireman Rigo Bocanegra. The political activist is running, but he is having a difficult time deducing which post offers him the best chance of prevailing. There are several other names mentioned as possible participants, but we're not going to comment further until we know for sure which horses are in which stalls.

"Nevertheless, with campaigns officially beginning on the filing deadlines, we will have two-and-a-half months of intense competition. With crowded fields and only a plurality required to win complicated by thousands of citizens merely guessing when they are marking their ballots, the final figures may offer more than a few surprises."

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