ROMAN PEREZ, ONCE A CONTENDER, GOING OFF DEEP END?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

The stories about former City of Brownsville District 1 commissioner challenger Roman Perez are mounting.

There are whispered accounts of him trailing the supporters of some candidates in the District 1 race and trying to convince his neighbors not to display their signs against incumbent Ricardo Longoria.

First  came the celebrated break with most local Republicans, including some of his closest associates like Tad Hasse who made an impressive run for the District 2 Texas State Board of Education. Then he turned on Adela Garza, currently a Texas Southmost College trustee.

The  came the break with Morgan Graham, the chair of the Cameron County Republican Party.

"He was calling people upstate to convince them not to vote for me," Hasse recalls. "I was helping him trying to be delegate to the state convention but nobody wanted him because all he did wasa cause trouble and didn't have a track record of doing anything for the party."

Get thus: During the break with Hasse, Perez started demanding on social media that he return his $1 contribution.

Since then, Perez has trolled in the farthest fringes of social media to harass and denigrate his growing list of "enemies."

Now, this  die-hard Republican far to the right of the Tea Party is publicly supporting his thrice former nemesis Rick Longoria against his challengers that include Southmost resident Michael Rodriguez, former city commissioner William Garza. and real-estate attorney Nurith Galonsky.

In one instance, Galonsky's supporters say he stormed out of his house and followed them down the street. It didn't help that a photo taken by one of Galonsky's supporters made it appear as if a Galonsky sign on a fence line adjacent to his home was on  his property.

And Perez's dislike for John Cowen appears to be rooted in the fact that he is Hasse's relative.

Granted, the contest for a seat on the City of Brownsville's city commission is nonpartisan election, but in deep South Texas, Democrats know who are Democrats and the Republicans know their ilk. And money follows money, period.

Perez, in breaking with that  mold, fits none of the above.

"He is well on his way to become a total failure," quipped the acerbic Hasse. "He is struggling for relevance and now considers himself Rick (Longoria's) ace supporter and his right-hand man."

So many stories about Perez's eccentricities are making the rounds that Rodriguez, the other Longoria challenger, for example, keeps Perez at arm's length. And the stories about his abhorrence of germs - a full-blown germaphoia - like Howard Hughes', are legion.

"If you look at the dashboard of his car you will see piles of baby wipes where he has used them to sanitize it every time he climbs in," said an acquaintance. "If he sees a dropped Band-Aid or a spent condom on the street, he is horrified and will stay at least five feet away from it."

It would be easy to laugh away Perez's deviances from conventional thought, but the fact remains that people are shying away from him and his vaunted political support.

"Let me put it this way," said a political operative. "When the priest at the Cristo Rey Catholic Church (on Southmost) bans you from the church grounds for misbehaving there, that's something not quite right about that."