TEAM SAENZ TAKES THE BIG ONE; SO MUCH FOR "KINGMAKER"

By Juan Montoya
In the final days of the general election, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz and his brother Mario made it clear that they were supporting four candidates: Rigo Bocanegra in the school board, Republican Victor Cortez in the county sheriff's race, Leo Lopez as a write-in for tax assessor against indicted taxman Tony Yzaguirre, and made a $100 contribution to Erasmo Castro in the school board race as well.
Unfortunately, all four went down to blazing defeat.

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all was the fact that Yzaguirre, facing trial in Corpus Christi in January on charges filed by Saenz in Cameron County, garnered 49,799 votes, well above the 36,111 straight-ticket (palanca) Democratic votes cast here. That means that another 13,688 voters filled in the Yzaguirre oval on the ballot on top of the 36,111 who pulled the palanca.

Bocanegra, who posted photos of himself with Mario and Luiz in the closing days of the voting period, came in third in the Position 7 election behind Dr. Sylvia Atkinson and incumbent Jose Chirinos.

Cortez, in his charge-the-windmills race against five-term winner Omar Lucio for sheriff, got 30,146 to 59,099 votes for the "old man." A major emphasis of the Cortez camp was Lucio's age and charges that he no longer had the energy to perform his job. Cortez used to be the chief of Saenz's Public Integrity Unit and Saenz had Cortez tag along with him in apparent support since late February during the Charro Days parade. El chicle no pego, apparently.

Lopez, who ran a futile write-in campaign against Yzaguirre, had to split the write-in votes with Randy Gonzalez. The pair pulled in some 15,973 votes together, no match for Yzaguirre's 49,799.

Team Saenz is probably fortunate that no more local elections are on tap until 2017 when the City of Brownsville commission holds its elections. Until then, they might want to scrutinize their strategy to become "kingmakers" in Cameron County.

Or DA Saenz might simply want to put politics aside for a spell and try to get some convictions in his criminal cases.