IN JP 2-2 RACE, LIZ GARZA TRAILS HINOJOSA, BEHAVES BADLY

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Although Brownsville law firm manager Cyndi Hinojosa almost won the Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, Place 3 March 1 Democratic Primary outright with 48.9 of the vote, she has been campaigning full time as if she had been 10 points behind.

To win outright, a candidate must have garnered 50 percent plus 1 vote or go into a runoff. 

There's a reason the Hinojosa has not let up on her campaigning and block walking door to door. Loterias, social benefits events, endorsements from teachers, law enforcement, women's, professional groups, and well-attended campaign rallies fill her social pages.

Her opponent, Brownsville lawyer Elizabeth Garza, who got 28 percent of the vote, has been running a slash-and-burn campaign on social media filled with confrontation and innuendo in her efforts to gain ground on the front runner.

Take, for example, one of the the signs placed by Garza in the city. (In a comment on this post, she denied it was her who placed the sign, but does no disavow its content.) The sign claims that Hinojosa said she will collect $1.7 million in ticket citations. For her information, it is the law enforcement entities who issue the citations and the justice of the peace courts that collect the fines. At no time do JPs "make" ticket citations and the money goes into county coffers.

Since Hinojosa has not even been in office, to project her "making" $1.7 million in citations is clearly incorrect. In fact, county records indicate that the three Brownsville JP courts collected differing amounts for Fiscal Year 2020-2021. The top Year-To-Date collected for the JP courts are nowhere near the $1.7 million alleged by Garza.

JP Court 2-1 (Linda Salazar) collected $745,665.46

JP Court 2-2 (Jonathan Gracia) collected $640,250.94, and 

JP Court 2-3 (Mary Esther Sorola) collected $1,165,070.21, the top year-to date collections among the three. 

So where does the $1.7 million figure come from?

That is not all. When Hinojosa notified the president of the Democratic Women holding a candidate forum before the March 1 primary she would not attend because she had contracted COVID-19, Garza accused her of dodging her and still was not satisfied when they agreed to a debate by Zoom between them.

Among those supporting and block walking for Garza is none other than Norma Hernandez, wife of former Pct. 2 county commissioner Ernie Hernandez, who was forced out of office for abuse of his office. 

Hernandez was the county commissioner for Pct. 2 but agreed to resign in return for the Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz dropping six official misconduct charges stemming from the illegal hiring of his brother in law Roberto Curiel. 

Curiel is Norma Hernandez's brother.

Hernandez pleaded to a charge of coercing a public servant in an unrelated case and was given deferred adjudication for his plea.

Have voters forgotten and forgiven all these past peccadillos?

We think not. But the Garza style of politics seems to closely mirror that family's political tradition.

Early voting in the runoff starts today and continues until Friday, May 20. Election is Tuesday May 24.