SHADES OF EPSTEIN! GUERRA RELEASES, WITHDRAWS, AND RE-RELEASES CAMPAIGN REPORT

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Last Friday was the deadline to submit the candidate/office/holder campaign finance report for the period covering July 15, 2025 to January 15, 2026 for candidates running for the different county and district races.

For the most part, these reports are a boring and mundane listing of contributors, political sign makers, etc., who have felt compelled to pitch in to a candidate for federal, state, county, and local district races to remain in the good graces of the various contenders. This year – apart from the above-mentioned races for party primaries – there are there are the local non-partisan local district such as Texas Southmost Junior College, the Brownsville Navigation District, etc. 

It's a dreary business to comb through the reports that are prepared, supposedly, by the candidates' treasurer and filed with the campaign officers at the various entities. So-and-so gave so much to so-and-so, etc., until you run into something "different."

Such was the case when we checked the reports posted online for the candidates running in the Democratic Primary for Cameron County Judge against incumbent Eddie Treviño. The two other candidates include Brownsville Navigation chair Steve Guerra and former county sheriff Eric Garza. The State of Texas require you to list your contributions, expenditures, amounts, and the identity and address of the contributors and/or vendors. Boring.

That is, until we perused the initial report posted by Guerra where, in 12 pages listing some 40-odd contributors Guerra reported that he had received approximately $56,000 in cash from his admiring benefactors. It wasn't a great number, or unusual, for that matter. The others' reports also dutifully listed their campaigns' numbers.

What stood out like a sore thumb was that someone – his treasurer Samuel Guerrero, maybe? – had redacted every address of every contributor, although the law requires candidates to list not only their  name, amount, date of contribution, occupation of the donor, but also their address. The State of Texas insists on the candidates being transparent of these details.

We were miffed. Why would anyone black out the address of the contributors, we wondered. So apparently did everyone else. Treviño didn't. Neither did Garza. Since it was Friday afternoon and the government offices were closed, we couldn't inquire of the public election officials but it still gnawed at our curiosity. And today it's a national holiday. That curiosity, apparently, was shared by others and we sought some answers.

Would you believe that the next time we looked that afternoon, the redacted (blacked out) report had been removed and another, with all the addresses listed, had been posted in its place?

Guerra's minions had apparently been alerted to the growing interest in the blacked out information and – in a fit of forced transparency – had removed the redactions and handed in a complete report as required by state election law. Had he done the same thing in previous reports where he had been a candidate for the port? We looked, and he hadn't. So why now? Only the Shadow knows.

Oh, by the way, in case you're wondering, Trump wasn't on the list.