ANTI-SOROLA PAC'S VERSION OF DYNASTY: 5 WHOLE YEARS

By Juan Montoya

Have you received your mailer from a heretofore unknown Political Action Committee called the
South Texas Citizens for Ethical Government?

In it they (I say they although only the name of its campaign treasurer a Mauricio Gonzalez appears) accuse Louis Sorola, a Cameron County Ass. District Judge and a candidate for the 404th District Court of being part of a political "dynasty" that has a "ugly stranglehold" in Cameron County politics."

It then erroneously inflates his salary from $120,000 to $160,000.

"Dynasty" is defined as a line of hereditary rulers of a country.

We have never heard of this PAC or of treasurer Gonzalez, but we would venture to say that since Sorola has only been married to his wife (the former Mary Esther Garcia) for only five years, their definition of dynasty seems a bit far-fetched and dramatic.

In fact, when she ran for office she didn't use her mother's last name (Sofia Benavides), but ran under her married name. There was no leaning on the "dynasty" when she ran. After she married Louis, she changed her name to Sorola and ran, and won again, the last time unopposed.

We tried to call Mr. Gonzalez to inquire about the use of the term by this PAC and to ask when it was formed and who made up its members, but a machine answered. The number is listed on the TEC page as (956) 897-1745. Maybe you'll be more lucky.

The GPAC report on file with the Texas Ethics Commission says the PAC had no money from January 1 to January 23 and has received no contributions or made any expenditures, so we'll keep checking to see the next one. http://204.65.203.5/public/100774658.pdf

This reminds us of the PAC that was formed to beat former Brownsville Independent School District board member Caty Presas-Garcia. That PAC, the Brownsville Taxpayers Political Action Committee also sent thousands of mail outs and had a Facebook and turned out to be fake front for her political opponents.

The address listed was an empty lot on Iowa Road. In the case of the anti-Sorola South Texas Citizens for Ethical Government PAC, it turns out to be in a more swanky neighborhood – the Brownsville Country Club – at 15 Villa del Sur.

A PAC can be formed by anyone to either support or oppose any candidate, and the mailer says that it "was not paid for any political candidate running for office." But since there is only one other candidate in that race, it makes things curiouser and curiouser.

In the end, the only contributor to that PAC turned out to be a local attorney whose vacant house in Houston was listed as the treasurer's second address.

Legal chicanery is alive and well, it appears.

Well, all semantics aside, when the residents of Precinct 1 voted to elect Benavides to office the last time, she almost won the primary outright garnering 49.22 percent of the vote against three other opponents. She then went on to win a runoff by 53 percent. She has gone to them on several election cycles and they decided she was doing a good job for the precinct regardless of her late-husband's name.

And when Mary Esther Sorola ran the last time in 2018, she ran unopposed in the primary and drew 5,741 votes (100 percent) in the general election, again unopposed.

Since it was her second term, obviously the voters approved of her performance as they did of Benavides. They didn't need a quickie PAC to tell them who to vote for. Ultimately, it is they who decide who they want to represent them, isn't it?