DOMINGUEZ OVERCOMES PRIMARY DEFICIT, UNSEATS RENE

By Juan Montoya
Incumbent District 37 State Rep. Rene Oliveira and his campaign team may not have known it, but by the time the polls opened Tuesday for election day, they were already 482 votes behind challenger Cameron County Precinct 2 Commissioner Alex Dominguez.

By the time the returns for the 45 precincts were counted, it became clear that Oliveria would not overcome the deficit and that he would get walloped in the election day vote by another 296 votes.

The final tally was 3,287 for Dominguez to 2,509 for Oliveira. That result ended a 34-year reign by the political heir of a pioneer Brownsville family in local politics.

Dominguez drew 2,131 votes in early voting compared to 1,530 for Oliveira. Oliveira out polled Dominguez in the mail-in vote 283 to 164. At that point, Dominguez was already 482 points ahead of the incumbent.

On election day, the voters filled in the oval 992 times for Dominguez compared to 696 for Oliveira. Any hope that Oliveira would have had of overcoming the deficit vanished with that result. Ater the early vote, the mail-in vote and election day votes were tallied, the final result was 3,287 for Dominguez to 2,509 for Oliveira, a 778 vote difference.

It didn't help Oliveira that he was charged with a DWI on April 27, a little over two weeks before the start of the five-day early voting period for the runoff.

Oliveira nearly walked away without a runoff in the March 6 primary, drawing 3,096 votes, or 48.44 percent of the vote. Dominguez had 2,329, or 36.44 percent of the vote. A third candidate, Arturo Alonso drew 966, or 15.2 percent of the vote.

Going into the runoff, Dominguez had to overcome a 767 difference. He prevailed with an eerily similar 778 vote advantage, almost identical to his primary deficit.

There are other unique circumstances in the Oliveira loss. With three candidates running in the Distrct 37 race in the March 6 primary, 7,391 voter were cast. In the runoff between Oliveira and Dominguez, 6,796 voters cast their ballot, only 595 less than in March. The total vote was 92 percent of the total primary votes cast in the March primary.

What weight did the DWI arrest and the ensuing publicity that surrounded it play in the Oliveira loss? It surely did, but there were other, more sordid facts surrounding the performance of the incumbent.

There were the Texas Monitor reports on his living large and lavish spending on food and liquor. He was named fifth in their rankings in terms of spending on entertainment and liquor of all the 150 legislators in Austin.

From June 1 through December 31, 2017, Oliveira said he spent $167,756.58 to get reelected. Then, in his next report, from February to May 2018, he said he spent another $126,107.70. That's $293,863, almost $300,000.

And the fact that he was ranked fifth in terms of seniority in the legislature got lost in the ensuing scandal surrounding the DWI arrest and the aftermath.

"The Demo kingmakers,

And his blogger friends

Couldn't put Rene Dumpty

Together Again..."

The Texas Tribune reported that Oliveira was one of two incumbent state reps who lost in the runoffs. Both Dominguez and Oliveira will serve until January 2019. Joey Lopez will take over for Dominguez at Pct. 2 and Dominguez will take over Oliveira's position in Austin.