NOW THAT ELIA IS OUT, WILL THERE BE ANY FALLOUT?

By Juan Montoya
Let's see if our legal department has this figured out.
State District 404th Judge Eli Cornejo-Lopez was on the November 8 general election ballot as the sole candidate for that position after winning the Democratic Party nomination in the March primary.
She was also the only candidate for that office in that primary. There is no Republican Party candidate on the November ballot.

Then, at 4:58 p.m., on August 22 – two minutes before the filing deadline – she filed as as a candidate for Position 5 along with three others challenging incumbent Caty Presas-Garcia in the Nov. 8 Brownsville Independent School District election for the board of trustees.
Now, we've been told that the filing as a candidate in two elections is not permissible under the Texas Election Code and that the county elections administrators and the Texas Secretary of State would not permit that from happening.

Add a Texas Attorney Generals opinion that says it's against the law for a district judge to run for the board of a school district, and her candidacy was a non-starter.
However, the BISD officials – lawyers, the board's legal counsel, and the administration who are running the election –  including Lorenzo Sanchez, the BISD Chief Financial Officer, accepted it and for all practical purposes she became a candidate and drew for a place on the ballot.
Remi Garza, the Cameron County elections Administrator was instructed by the office of the Texas Secretary of State that Cornejo-Lopez could not appear on two ballots for different positions in the November 8 elections.

Did anyone advice Cornejo-Lopez about the illegality of her filing for the BISD board? Just a mere days before she was in the august company of the Demo Brain Trust that includes Cameron County Clerk Sylvia Garza Perez, Cameron County Democratic Party chair Amber Medina, and Cindy Hinojosa, wife of the Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, also a lawyer versed in elections matters and a former Camerou County Judge. During the Demo meet, Cornejo-Lopez made it very clear that she was going to announce for Position 5 of the BISD board. Did all these people play her and didn't raise a finger to warn her of the potential consequences? (See graphic above.)

Cornejo-Lopez then filed a notice that she was withdrawing from the race on Tuesday, August 23, at 5:04 p.m., exactly 24 hours and six minutes later.
However, there is no denying that for that period of time she had announced herself and was considered a candidate for a contested non-judicial race.
Enter the Canons of Judicial Conduct administered by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The applicable canon is 5 and stipulates:
Refraining from Inappropriate Political Activity 
(3) A judge shall resign from judicial office upon becoming a candidate in a contested election for a non-judicial office either in a primary or in a general or in a special election. A judge may continue to hold judicial office while being a candidate for election to or serving as a delegate in a state constitutional convention or while being a candidate for election to any judicial office."

Even if the Secretary of State denies to certify Cornejo-Lopez as a candidate for the BISD, a reading of the section on its face would seem to say that she effectively resigned her seat on the 404th the minute (4:58 p.m. on August 22) she field for a non-judicial contested election.
Since she is on the Nov. 8 ballot as the Democratic party candidate for the 404th, it would appear that she may not preside in that court until she is elected in November 8, the vote is canvassed, and she is sworn in January 1.

Until then, it would seem that she has no jurisdiction to make from any decisions or to issue orders that the bench.
And is the State of Texas and Cameron County bound to pay her salary and stipend during that time?
It's time for someone on the commissioners court to step forward and ask these questions. We have already become the laughing stock of the state over the judicial corruption prosecutions involving Abel Limas and Armando Villalobos and a gaggle of lawyers and their gophers. Are we willing to let this happen again?