Scattered Thoughts: Erasmo, Debbie Portillo, United Brownsville, John Villarreal, Rose Gowen, Estela Chavez-Vasquez and Tony Martinez

Erasmo Castro, Cheezmeh High Priest

Erasmo Castro Dragustinovis, the Royal Highness of the Cheezmozo cult made his semi-annual pilgrimage to Brownsville yesterday.  One of his first orders of business was to pay a visit to representatives of B.U.C. who were out working for local candidates.

What was the purpose of Erasmo's visit?  Was he trying to extend an olive branch to the group he described on his web page as having "pathetic endorsements" and told to "go fuck themselves."

This sort of trying to rebuild bridges he has burned is typical Erasmo.  Last year after criticizing nearly everything about Yolanda Begum, her accent, hairstyle, makeup and dress, he called up before the runoff saying "let's work together."

Some of the best bits of information appear in the form of comments to this and other blogs.  One commenter recently raised a question involving city commission ethics that made sense to me.  The anonymous commenter asked:  When the question of funding United Brownsville comes before the City Commission, shouldn't any commissioner who is also on the United Brownsville board recuse themselves from the vote to approve funding?  This question of ethics would effect John Villarreal, Rose Gowen, Estela Chavez-Vasquez and Tony Martinez since they are all on the United Brownsville board.  It seems to be a clear conflict of interest for them to vote on funding an organization where they hold membership.(BTW, Tony.  You said before your election two years ago that a new ethics code would be the top priority of your administration.  What happened?)

Debbie Portillo

Here's another question that surfaced in a comment on the article about Debbie Portillo's campaign contributions from corporations:  Why should anyone contribute to the campaign of a City Commissioner if they do not live in the district that candidate is running for?  I can quickly think of some exceptions, like perhaps the parents or relatives of a candidate, but, all in all, this question makes some sense.  What would an outside corporation, for example, have to gain from contributing to Debbie Portillo, who is running to represent the interests of District 3?  There may be a good answer, but, at the moment, I can't think of one.