Are Cameron County Democrats Reenacting the Battle of Palmito Hill?

Brownsville school children know the story.  AFTER the Civil War had ended, the two warring sides met for yet another skirmish March 12th and 13th, 1865 along the Rio Grande River at Palmito Hill(Palmetto Hill or Palmito Ranch).  Poor communication was blamed for the conflict and one more battle at Columbus.

Judging by the content and spirit of comments to this blog following our story about the selection of a new Cameron County Democratic Chair, Ms. Amber Medina, the skirmishing between the Gilberto Hinojosa and Sylvia Garza-Perez- Ernie Hernandez-Tony Martinez camps is far from over.

Here is a small sampling of comments to this blog illustrating the sharp divide of opinions within the local Democratic Party about the results of yesterday's vote for a new county chair:

This comment corrects my numbers(I was told the vote was 19-18), implies that those voting for Amber Medina typically did not attend party meetings.  The commenter also links Medina to Hinojosa.

"the vote was 13 to 12 and of medina's voters only 3 had ever attended any party meetings since being elected, about 9 of masso's were regular attendees ---now to all Sylvia's critics out there, you now have a chair who has never attended a Democratic Party meeting, works for Juan Magallanes, and his basically Gilberto in a dress ----well done morons"

This commenter laments the fact that Tony Martinez was not allowed to vote as Precinct 38 chair, saying he would have created a tie vote with his vote for Masso.

"mayor martinez would have been the tie vote, but was illegally prevented from voting in violation of the Texas Democratic Party rules --page 9 sec. 5 vacancies (c) (d) read it for yourself"

"illegally prevented?"

"'Illegally prevented' ???
How about he was illegally representing precint 38 hence not allowed to vote.... Helloooo!!!"

A commenter who was happy with the vote

Finally gettingt rid of these tyrants. Slowly but surely,Sylvia Garza Perez, Ernie Hernandez, and Erin G. Hernandez will be a thing of the pass. Kudos to every single person that had the courage to dismantle the Garza Perez-Hernandez corruption cell. Now I am starting to feel proud of being a Democrat. The people above mention will not win the upcoming elections.

The other side

You're a stupid ignorant asshole. Gilbert is a crook and that new unknown Democratic chair is Gilbert's puppet and uses his wife as an informant to do his dirty work at these meetings. It's the same dictatorial reign they practiced when they were in charge. They don't care about democracy unless it serves them personally. Get it? Get a life, loser.

Perhaps an explanation as to why Tony did not get to vote

"Some of us arrived way before this meeting began, therefore we were able to eyewitness the developments of such. At the beginning Tony Martinez tried to intervene, but was promptly rejected, then the discussion centered in whether he was able to vote (for Masso) as Precint 38 Chair, it was determined that he could not; this did not set very well with Garza-Perez, as it also came to light that many Precint Chairs do not live where they perhaps once did, and many were NOT elected, but rather "appointed;"

Jared Hockema

Interestingly, Jared Hockema, who was vice-chairman under Gilberto Hinojosa, was approached about taking another position within the county party.  He declined, saying that in his defeat at the hands of Sylvia Garza-Perez, the "voters had spoken" with regard to his role as a party official.

Carlos Masso was named Vice-Chairman.