WERE GARZA'S GAS GIVEAWAYS ILLEGAL CORPORATE GIFTS? MEXICAN RADIO SPOTS ALSO MISSING FROM CAMPAIGN REPORTS

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Despite the claim by Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, Place 2 runoff candidate and Brownsville attorney Elizabeth Garza that her vaunted "legal experience" made her more qualified than her opponent Cyndi Hinojosa, her acceptance – and failure to report in her campaign reports – of gas giveaways by an insurance corporation may constitute a felonious violation of Texas election laws.

Hinojosa garnered 48 percent of the vote in the March 1 primary, just shy of the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to win outright.

Garza – in recorded interviews aired over social media – publicly admitted that she had approved the $20 in gas giveaways by a local representative of an insurance corporation on behalf of her campaign at least five times during the period between the March 1 primary and the May 24 runoff election day in violation of the Texas Election Code.

That code specifically states that such contributions are prohibited.

Garza, who came in a distant second in a three-way contest in the March 1 primary for JP 2-2, repeatedly promoted the gas giveaways in her campaign postings on social media and posted that she was thankful to LadyRifas, a local representative of the Insurance Corner Auto Insurance Corporation, for the gift of $20 in free gasoline to potential voters.

Additionally, her failure to report these in-kind contributions by this insurance corporation on her behalf indicates that she lacks some basic knowledge of the law regarding corporate contributions to political candidates in Texas.

"For her to claim she is an attorney and is more qualified than her opponent because she has more than a decade of legal experience and then to admit publicly she was accepting corporate gifts and not reporting it in her campaign finance reports is basically an admission she committed a third-degree felony in violation of the election code," said an Hinojosa campaign supporter who supplied El Rrun-Rrun with copies of Garza's social media postings.

In them, she repeatedly thanks LadyRifas and Insurance Corner Auto Insurance Corporation (the Little Red Car) for giving away gas to potential voters on her behalf.

Additionally, a review of her required campaign finance report covering January 1 to May 16 makes no mention of the corporate in-kind gift in apparent violation of the Texas Election Code.

In that report filed by her campaign treasurer Cerise Reyna de Garduño, the only monetary contributions are a $1,000 from chiropractor Aaron Guerra of McAllen and another $1,000 from Cecilia Garcia (?) of Brownsville, who listed her occupation as "unemployed."

The failure to report her expenditures goes even further. 

Staff members of station 89.5 FM (La Mera Mera) – in Matamoros – confirmed  that she has been paying the broadcaster to run radio spots on their station for weeks now that have not been listed on the campaign expenditure report she filed. 

"How can she claim she has legal experience over her opponent and doesn't follow basic election code laws?," asked the Hinojosa supporter. 

And while Garza and some social media observers say that a lawyer is needed for that court, it is interesting to note that the only attorney of the three Brownsville JPs, Jonathan Gracia, has proven to be the least effective and has collected the least fines for county coffers. Figure that.  

Today is the third day of early voting in the Democratic Primary runoffs which continue through Friday. Election day is Tuesday May 24.