WARNING TO DEMOS: SIT BACK AND TRUMPUDOS WILL TAKE OVER

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Everyone agrees that city (and BISD, Port of Brownsville, TSC, etc.) are labeled as non-partisan elections.

That is, there are no parties running, just the candidates. Everyone follows the rules and things move along smoothly But when blatant political partisanship of a candidate shows, especially those blindly loyal to former President Trump, it becomes all too clear that this right-wing splinter group of elections deniers is now trying a new tack: infiltrate local governments and try to gain control of the various  governmental entities.

They've tried it with running their candidates for secretaries of state, elections administrators, and even local poll watchers trying to suppress the minorities' votes. It doesn't matter whether their voters is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Like their leader, the rules don't apply to them.

There has been persistent talk in social media that At-Large A candidate Susan Ruvalcaba has been one of the most strident Trumpistas and that her candidacy is the the spear point of the group targeting city hall to achieve their goal.

She was there cheering on the former president when he sought (and lost) the presidency to Joe Biden.

She posted  a photo of the huge billboard Trump ad on the frontage road and ridiculed former congressman Filemon Vela when the applauded Biden's efforts to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, crediting Trump – who denied the virus existed and delayed action until Americans started dying by the thousands. 

It was a collaborative effort that continued through both administrations to make the vaccines available to the people who needed it, but Ruvalcaba would have none of it. She ridiculed Vela and Biden in a post she glossed over Trump's abject performance and gave all the credit to the former president. She said "You Democrats are seriously unbelievable.

Likewise, when the Nomorecheezmeh social page posted that "with everything that's occurred, I'm going to say (my opinion) that's it's probably best that he doesn't come," Rubalcava said that responded that the former president has a lot of supporters here and welcomed him. Obviously she supported her claim that the Democrats had stolen the election. See how quickly this partisanship appears.

Now, remember that this was just six days after the Trump insurrectionists attempted to stop the certification of the presidential election her hero had lost. People died, the people's house was vandalized and property destroyed, policemen and capital police died as a result, and this country's democracy was on the verge of being destroyed. It was not, as a GOP House member said, "a normal tourist visit.” More than 1,000 defendants have been charged in federal court, most have been convicted or agreed to a plea bargain. 

 

Rules don't seem to apply to people like this candidate. Take for example, the oversized signs that are appearing along the frontage roads. The city ordinance says signs can have no more than an effective area no larger than 36 feet and have can be no more than eight feet in length.

Now take a gander at the signs she is placing around town. Obviously they violate the city's political sign ordinance as we read it. Has she and her campaign staff been brought up to speed on the ordinance that guide the city? Or do they know, but are counting on the city code enforcers to turn the other way as they have done in some past elections under ex-city manager Noel Bernal. After all, his protege Helen Ramirez is now at the city's helm.

As we said at the top of this post, city elections are non-partisan affairs, but in Ruvalcaba's case, her red colors are showing, and her apparent disdain for the rules is evidenced in her actions. So far we haven't seen this type of behavior exhibited by her opponent Tino Villarreal. If Democrats sit back and allow candidates with these type of attitudes to enter local government, it may not be too long before they gain control and shape policy guided by their extremist ideals.