Tuesday, July 25, 2017

OLIVEIRA'S CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION WAYS GO WAY BACK

By Juan Montoya
We have grown inured to the predictable gutter sniping from small people over some of our posts.
By now we have gotten used to have others piggyback on our posts under the guise of literary criticswhen they can't come up with their own ideas for news stories.

Carl Sandburg said of Lincoln that a tree is best measured when it's down and some rival social media outlets that appear and disappear like smoke seem to view us in that light. They can't stand us, but write about our work on a daily basis.

That happened again when we wrote about the wining and dining by our District 37 State Representative Rene Oliveira.

We wrote that the Texas Monitor listed him as the fifth (out of 150) state reps that have lived high off the hog on campaign contributions.

Representing, as he does, the poorest community in the United States, his ostentatious ways indicate a disconnect with his constituents that, if not shameful, is an exhibition of conspicuous consumption worthy of a Gargantua or a Marie Antoinette sniffing what the peasants can do: "Let them eat beans."

As a rule, public officials and politicians have a lower expectation of privacy that normal folks do. Since it was them who sought the public's attention and political support, they should expect to be scrutinized, not lionized by media types. Now, we know that Don Duncan over at the Brownsville Holler always laughed at the new guys who just got out of college and were put under his tutelage.

"You say you're a journalist?," Duncan would guffaw. "A journalist is a newspaper man out of work."
Yeah, old Don had a way of bringing you down to earth real quick.
In politics, as in business, there are no friends. It's a dog-eat-dog world and everyone knows the rules. It's downright foolish to expect something different.
But we digress.

Oliveira has not only been in the sights of investigative reporters in Austin (as in the Monitor), but also of his own staff who way back in 2011 warned him of his obvious bon vivant lifestyle at the expense of the PACS and high-end contributors. Small contributors make up about 18 percent of the total in his contributions. The other 82 percent are special-interest groups (electric companies, tort reform groups, insurance companies, etc) with a vested interest in keeping him there.

Way back then, even his chief of staff J.J. Garza warned him in an internal memo dated July 12, 2011, that he should be preparing answers to the questions that could come from reporters once they started looking over the expense report filed covering the period from January 1 to June 30, 2011. Six years later, the leopard has not changed his spots.

Oliveira reported that in that period back in 2011, he had spent $40,063 and had received no contributions. However, he also reported that he had $159,519.27 left in his war chest for the coming primary election in 2012.
"I think you need to develop a satisfactory answer to the following facts of the (expenditure report)," Garza wrote.
"In the 181 days (your account) paid for meals and/or drinks for supporters and/or constituents almost 200 times (actually 197) for a total of more than$13,000 (actually $13,360). In some cases these expenditures occurred as many as four times in a day, and make up one-third of your total expenditures.

"Fifty six of those times were Valley establishments – 50 times during the regular session and six times during the special session. This means that you entertained supporters and constituents in Austin about 150 times during the 140-day regular session. Considering that often the Austin week is less than a full week – the House met in session just 101 of those 140 days – that means means you were entertaining supporters or constituents an average of 1.5 times per day the House was in session.

"Over the 181 day reporting period, you average almost $74 per day in entertaining expenses.
"Why do you need to spend so much, when your Valley colleagues are spending as little as 10 to 20 percent of what you are spending on supporters and constituents?," Garza asks in his memo.
"I think you should prepare yourself for heavy criticism from them and their readers," Garza warns the festive rep.
How far out of touch has Rene gotten from us, his constituents?

Read the following from Wikipedia:
"The median income for a household in Cameron County was $26,155, and the median income for a family was $27,853. 

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't Rene Oliviera the reason behind why UTB never paid TSC their backrent?

Anonymous said...

Rene Oliveira = lobbyist puppet

Anonymous said...

I think that was Sucio and Turd or are they saints now that they pay for Jerry McHale's bar tab?

Anonymous said...

The best place for rene oliveira to work after he is replaced will be Stilletos where he can try and stare up the dancers skirts. He doing that all day and all night as representative is disgusting. He is a cheap man. He has no class and has done nothing for our area

Anonymous said...

Rene Oliveira is WRONG. Sincerely Donald Trump

Anonymous said...

Even I am not voting for Rene Oliveira. He is very unethical and a bad man. Yours Truly, Ernie Hernandez

Anonymous said...

Tt was The Texas Monitor, idiot, not the Texas Tribune.
Stop drinking.

Anonymous said...

Oliveira looks like he is standing holding in a bowl movement financed by lobbyist dirty money

Anonymous said...

Mr Montoya, we are from Dallas Texas and we are grateful to you for exposing Rene Oliveira because we see how pac influence controls his votes. His bad votes even disturb our economy North of your area

Anonymous said...

Pray that Rene Oliveira is not re elected. Please God

Anonymous said...

Rene Oliveira has destroyed the future of at least half a dozen young women by leading them on

Anonymous said...

Who piggybacks? Name them.

Anonymous said...

He is not even worth the time it took to write and read this article. Nasty ass man who can't keep his pecker in his pants. Ewwwwww!!

Anonymous said...

This guy was a mommy's boy and has been getting into and hiding behind skirts his entire life. He has pulled the wool over the eyes of countless dumb broads, and has promised them the moon in order to ravish them , both in Austin and the Valley. He will be reelected owing to our dumb electorate.

Anonymous said...

People, Please wake-up. Oliveira is a bad man, please people wake-up, he is really, really a bad person. We pray to God that you wake up.

Anonymous said...

What was her name?
LUPITA!!!

Anonymous said...

There is a similar report about the Lucios.

Anonymous said...

Please do not blame the mother, this pos is an adult who makes his own decisions, to the detriment of us, the constituency.

rita