YZAGUIRRE OUT AT TAX OFFICE, EDDIE IN: GARZA OUT AT SHERIFF, MANNY IN; GRACIA TROUNCES CORTEZ IN D-37

 DISTRICT 37 RESULTS 

AND CAMERON COUNTY RESULTS:

OF 220,000 REGISTERED VOTERS, LESS THAN 10,000 (4.49%) VOTED

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Cameron County voters sent mixed messages with their votes in the runoff elections for Texas House District 37, the Sheriff and Tax Assessor-Collector's departments.

In all three contests, the candidate who came in second in the primaries came from behind to win the runoff.

In the Texas House race, a massive media campaign supporting Jonathan Gracia based on vast documentation that showed Ruben Cortez – a former Brownsville Independent School District and Texas School Board member – had racked up a record of self-serving acts that had resulted in million-dollar payoffs in lawsuits against the district, turned the tide and carried the one-time J.P. to victory.

In the Tax Assessor-Collector's race, Eddie Garcia's simple slogan that 36 years in office were enough apparently resonated with the voters and overshadowed the accomplishments Tony Yzaguirre touted in his campaign and his endorsement by virtually all elected officials across the county.

That and dark references to the 40-plus charges levied against the him and five other tax office

employees years ago – despite the fact that they were all acquitted – appealed to the "throw all the incumbents out" momentum and carried Garcia to victory. 

That and a determined cadre of political allies across the county nurtured by his sister Gaby, a district judge, worked to Garcia's advantage.

In the sheriff's race, Primera Police Chief Manuel "Manny" Treviño overcame a second-place finish in the May 4 Democratic primary and bested incumbent Eric Garza by nearly 1,000 votes in the early voting from which Garza never recovered.

So while voters opted for new blood over more than 30 years experience in the tax assessor-collector's race, they also chose the experience as a lawman (more than 30 years) of Treviño over Garza for the sheriff's position. 

It didn't help that Garza's management missteps triggered turmoil, resistance, and lawsuits over alleged political retaliation in the sheriff's department from the day he took office.

From there on, it was a civil war between factions in the department and which set Garza at odds with the county commissioners, especially after the U.S. Marshal's Service removed federal prisoners from the county's jails at a cost of some $3 million a year to the county.

Treviño's campaign emphasized getting along with the commissioners court and fashioning a cooperative attitude with state and U.S. authorities to return the federal prisoners. After the tumultuous three years with neophyte lawman Garza at the department's helm, a promise of stability and experience there apparently appealed to the voters who darkened the oval next to Treviño's name.

Garcia at the tax office might do well to take a cue from what happened to Garza and not come into the tax assessor-collector's office determined to overturn its recognized efficient operations and make wholesale personnel changes if he doesn't want to disturb the revenue flow to taxing entities which could generate a similar backlash there four years from now.

They talked the talk, and now we want them to walk the walk for their constituents.