IN THE JP 2-2 RACE, DARKEN THE OVAL FOR CYNDI HINOJOSA

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Longtime readers of third blog won't remember the last time we endorsed a candidate in the local races. 

If we did – like in the past Texas Southmost College board races that defied Juliet Garcia is her bid to give away some $200 million of the community college assets to gas-and-oil rich University of Texas – it was because we believed that our community needed to have educational opportunities and accessible tuition rates for local students.

Therefore, we fully supported the election of the Fab Four, Adela Garza, Trey Mendez, Rene Torres and Kiko Rendon who faced huge pressure from Garcia and UT supporters to change their minds. At one point there was even a march demanding Mendez change his position on giving away the college or be "destroyed personally and professionally."

Mendez, as did the other three to their credit, stoically bore the slings and arrows (and brickbats) of the outrageous mob and successfully protected the college and participated in bringing it back to its original mission of providing affordable education to those who most needed it and could not afford the university-tuition levels imposed by Garcia and the former board.

Much the same thing is happening in the election for JP 2-2. Knee-jerk reaction to Cyndi Hinojosa's candidacy for justice of the peace is usually cloaked in terms of her being married to former County Judge Gilbert Hinojosa, currently Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.

In Exodus, chapter 20, it states that "For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons..."

Just as that is patently unfair, so is visiting the sins of the husband upon her spouse, in this case, Cyndi Hinojosa.

The same could be said about Javier Reyna, who retired as Captain of the Cameron County Sheriff's Office with his brother Gus, who was the chief deputy for the late Omar Lucio. The scuttlebutt said that it was the Reynas who were controlling the department and blamed them for any number of sins, including Gus involvement in episodes under the influence of alcohol.

In fact, Reyna's mail outs peg his law enforcement experience (28 years) as a major point of his candidacy. But is it really? 

Think about it. Put yourself in the shoes of a defendant charged with some traffic violation that you don't feel is justified, or was the result of overzealous enforcement by sheriff department and Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Will Reyna be able to overcome his loyalty to his fellow cops and be a neutral and impartial judge? Or will the inertia of his nearly three decades of law enforcement lean him toward the side of the "thin blue line" when all is said and done? What do you think?

Fact is, Reyna will remain a cop and think like one as a judge. It's in his DNA.

(By the way, when Javier was battling a debilitating disease, we stood by him and supported him. But those days are different and we're happy he survived his battle, but our vote is still with Cyndi.) 

Remember when a federal lawsuit was filed by a former jailer (Jose Calvillo) against Omar Lucio, Edgar Rivera, Cameron County, Texas, and Joe Elizardi and the department? Inside its pages, there were accounts of how Reyna initiated an investigation to prosecute people he thought had leaked a video to the Eric Garza camp allegedly showing a guard beating an inmate. 

That lawsuit could not tie the policy maker (Lucio) to the allegations raised by Cavillo and  a local federal judge dismissed the suit. Calvillo could not afford to appeal the case to a higher court and just walked away. It was never proven that he had committed the leak, but rather than continue fighting just gave up, lost his job, he moved on.

He and his attorney John Shergold vow that the alleged First Amendment violations occurred, but his client's financial condition prevented them from pushing it further.

Reyna's politically-motivated persecution of Calvillo goes to prove the point that once a cop, always a cop. In fact, his mail out show nothing but pictures of his days as a sheriff deputy conducting raids and arresting suspects suspected of committing a crime. Once a cop...

With the state using its powers against a defendant, we ask again: Whose side do you think he will take? 

There are even some reports that he has parked outside houses where residents have placed Hinojosa's campaign signs and tries to get them to take them down and support his candidacy, a strategy bordering on intimidation.

 On the other hand, Hinojosa, apart from her husband, manages his law firm and is well-versed in the filing and preparation for litigation.  In other words, she is experienced in the day-in and day-out running of a courtroom.

Another of her opponents, Elizabeth Valdez Garza, an attorney, is pegging all her hopes to win the election on practicing law. But someone needs to tell her that the Texas Election Code does not require a candidate for justice of the peace to be a lawyer to participate in the election. In fact, most are not.

(We had a lawyer in this position before. Jonathan Gracia  now running for Texas Rep. District 38 used to make himself scarce when he was called at all hours of the night and the two Brownsville JPs had to shoulder his load because he was too busy...being a lawyer)

The last time she ran for office was for Cameron County Judge in 2016 Democratic Primary, she was in last place of the three candidates that included two other attorneys, Eddie Treviño and former county commissioner Dan Sanchez with 5,769 votes out of a total of 29,409.

And her response to a recent post of a semi-trailer crash with an SUV is any indication of her practice, she included her hash tag "#866LaLeona" (fights for you like a lioness?) on the post. Is this a way of soliciting potential clients? Just as Reyna won't be able to overcome his law enforcement bias, Garza will continue to be a personal injury lawyer ready to litigate in a courtroom, for a slight fee, of course.

We make no pretense in our support of Hinojosa. In fact, we have contributed in-kind ($250 monthly) of advertising on this blog since this race began. We are doing the same with Mary Esther Sorola's campaign for JP 2-3 in our support of progressive, qualified women. 

We believe she is competent, compassionate, and will provide fair and impartial justice as JP 2-2. This has nothing to do with her spouse, and it shouldn't, because she is running on her merits, not his.

Her campaign literature shows that she served as a counselor at La Esperanza Home for Boys, does volunteer work at Cameron Park's Catholic-Diocese sponsored Proyecto Juan Diego and was also a parole officer at the Texas Department of Corrections helping youths, adults, and those in need. 

The Proyecto's mission is "To Empower low-income families to be healthy and self-sufficient community members through educational programs, family activities and preventative health services."

Given her legal acumen, her service in the community, and her proven fairness and impartiality, we do not hesitate to endorse her in this race.