CORONADO: TOKEN DEMOCRAT OR A MAGA FLORES PLANT?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

While all eyes have been fixed on front runners Democrat Dan Sanchez and MAGA Mayra Flores in the specially-called District 34 congressional race, supposedly democratic candidate Rene Coronado had flown under the radar.

Coronado is one of four candidates for the position. Apart from the two assumed front runners, Harlingen resident Coronado and the other Republican, Juana "Janie" Cantu-Cabrera, have not put up much of a campaign, refusing to buy signs or buy ads in local media. In fact, they have been non-entities in the race. (Cabrera is viewed as a loose cannon unmindful of outside counsel.) 

That is, until Coronado's name surfaced in relation the the anti-union statements contained in the City of Brownsville employee handbook – he's the city's civil service director – and that Cameron County  Democrat Party labor outreach representative John Shergold complained about before the city commission Tuesday. 

Shergold pointed out that the statements in the handbook – approved by the city commission in March– were stridently anti-union and reflected the standard Republican complaints against labor unions.

Until recently, local Democrats had not heard of Coronado. But after the anti-labor-union diatribe was discovered in the employee handbook, all eyes have been trained on this supposed Democrat. Is he a real Democrat, or a Republican Party plant to siphon votes from Democratic front runner Sanchez to benefit Flores?  

A cursory search of his voting and employment background would have revealed that Coronado – a military veteran and an officer in the Army Reserve – was hired as a field representative by former Congressman Blake Farenthold and worked out of the Corpus Christi office before the congressman left in shame for untoward behavior involving female aides.

Now the questions have arisen on the motives for his candidacy.

"Did fake Democrat and former Blake Farenthold aide Rene Coronado, candidate for Congressman, write the anti-union statements that were added to the City of Brownsville’s employee handbook,?" asked one commenter to this blog.

Coronado, who has a history of flip-flop voting in local primaries and elections was unknown to many Democratic Party activists and advocates. His voting record indicates that he has voted as a Republican in three out of four primaries since 2012. And if he is, as he has said at forums, an independent, why did he file as a Democrat?

"Until the obscure city worker appeared at the Secretary of State’s Office on the filing deadline for the Special Election for TX-34 with $2,500 cash in his hand, few had heard of him. 

"Now, he’s trying to make a name for himself by attempting to take votes away from Sanchez in his battle against MAGA Mayra," the commenter wrote. 

Farenthold hired Coronado to join his Corpus Christi District Office staff to serve as Coordinator of Veterans Outreach. He left after the federal grants that funded that position were depleted.

Some of Farenthold's former staff members here and in the Corpus Christi office vow that they always considered Coronado a true-red Republican and were surprised to see him enter the special election race as a Democrat.

"He is a Republican," said one. "Otherwise Blake would not have hired him."