Friday, October 25, 2013

New Cameron County Democratic Chair, Treasurer Move Quickly to Resuscitate Local Party

Amber Medina, Cameron
County Democratic Chair
Newly elected Cameron County Democratic Chair, Amber Medina, moved quickly to reorganize the local party in her first meeting as party chair.  Ms. Medina handed out printouts showing 60 vacancies among the 109 precincts in Cameron County.  That number was later reduced to 59 vacant precincts as the precinct chair for precinct 73 identified himself and proved he lived in the precinct.  The meeting was held at El Mercadito in a two room office beneath the historic Majestic Theater on Thursday, October 24th.

Ms. Medina had organized a Recruitment Committee that met the Friday before to devise a strategy to fill the empty precinct chairs. That committee is made up of Medina, Sergio Zarate, Teresa Saldivar, Jeff Duvall, Martin Sarkis and Mrs. Courier.

After opening remarks by Medina, Vice-Chair Carlos Masso raised the issue of precinct chairs he said had been illegally prevented from voting in the election of a county chair at the last meeting on
Carlos Masso, Vice-Chair
October 11th.  Masso was referring to Mayor Tony Martinez, who evidently had been the Precinct Chair in Precinct 38 before redistricting, but now lived outside the current precinct.  A young woman(Cindy Hinojosa?), who identified herself as a notary public in the law office of Gilberto Hinojosa, stated that she had informed Martinez before the meeting that, according to the VAN, he did not live in the precinct.  She said Martinez told her that "he would rather be sitting at home anyway."

Masso also mentioned a San Benito man, he thought might be named "Juan Ortega," who was in the same position as Martinez, wrongfully prevented from voting.  When informed that the man had not attended the last meeting, Masso agreed.

When Letty Perez-Garzoria asked Masso directly what he intended to do with his contentions, he said it was "up to the two gentlemen to challenge the rulings and he would leave that up to their discretion."

Next, the new treasurer, William Skaggs, informed the attendees: "People, we are broke.  We have $3,200 in the bank and I don't know what bills have been paid.  With 100 years of operating in this county, I was given only 6 bank statements.  I have a phone bill for the Democratic Party and a utility bill for Rudy Perez.  I will not pay any bill not directed to the Democratic Party."

At this point, former Chair Sylvia Garza-Perez, who arrived about 20 minutes late, said if the bills did not get paid "the phone and lights will be disconnected.  We've been paying these bills out of our own pocket.  P.U.B. would not allow the bill to be to the Democratic Party.  It had to be in someone's name."

Skaggs emphasized that he was instituting stricter controls, even stating that the bill from the Cameron County Election Office would be scrutinized for "bill stacking."  "I can assure you it's a different ball game," Skaggs stated.

Next, the new treasurer, spoke of the need to raise funds.  He suggested a surcharge of 20% of the filing fee for all candidates running as Democrats and a mandatory 10% donation from fundraisers back to the local party.  "They can't win without our support, so they need to support the party." Those proposals were accepted, provided they meet party rules and are worded appropriately.

Next, Medina raised the issue of a new meeting place.  "At least for a few months, until we get our affairs in order, we need a free venue.  This office costs us $375 per month.  Congressman Vela and Senator Lucio have offered us free space in their offices.  It was decided to use Lucio's office in a shopping mall on FM 802 as temporary meeting quarters with a view to finding a permanent office.  The idea of rotating the party meetings to various locations in the county was also discussed.

Sergio Zarate, President Obama
Chairperson Medina closed the meeting by naming Sergio Zarate as Sergeant At Arms and Mr. Matta as Outreach Coordinator.  The Cameron County Democratic Party's future monthly meetings will be held the first Saturday of each month at 10:00 AM.  The next meeting will be November 2 at the Office of Senator Lucio on FM 802.  There will be a fundraiser December 7.

Medina expressed the goal to have a complete list of Precinct Chairs by the next meeting, each with a picture and contact information.

16 comments:

  1. Those are old photographs. How about taking photos during the actual meeting or is that restricted due to national security issues? Also, if I am not mistaken, Lucio's office is paid for by ALL the tax payers of Texas. As such, why should the Democratic Party be allowed to use it for free? And, if it is OK for them, then lets have AA meetings, boy scouts, Elks Club, etc. meeting there for free.

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  2. You don't need the first two commas in your first sentence.

    Rey

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    1. Dipshit, (comma) there are no comas in the first sentence. Get a fucking life. All the other commas are correct. If you want to make a comment, (comma) address the issue at hand.

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    2. Oh, really? I saw them: "Newly elected Cameron County Democratic Chair, Amber Medina, moved quickly to reorganize the local party in her first meeting as party chair."

      You must not know what a "comma" is, you infidel!

      REY IS RIGHT!

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    3. Suddenly everyone is an English teacher.....sounds like Norma Linda Castellano bragging about her "expertise" in English. Sounds like the Democrats are making a "PR" play to give the impression that things are changing from "corruption" to "sainthood". Never happen. Gilberto Hinojosa has his hooks in to this party and it will never be rescued from corruption and partisanship.

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    4. The first sentence contains an appositive, so yes, the commas are correct.

      RGV, the annoying blog dipshit that NEVER adds
      any bit of substance to
      any post he comments
      on, needs a couple of
      commas shoved up his
      arse.

      Delete
  3. 6 bank statements?! The Democrat Party treasurer is required to file reports regularly with the Texas Ethics Commission. Interestingly these reports are all online here in a searchable database and there are some surprising expenditures from our local Demos.

    For example, on October 16 2008 the Cameron County Democratic Party executive committee payed Ernie Hernandez $600 for "operation of vans" during early voting (hey feds/AG, the smoking gun! lol) and another two hundred bucks for stationary. In the same report they payed Sylvia Garza Perez several thousand for contract labor and multiple high dollar payments to a Bright Ideas and Signs company based at a residencial address in VICC, then more payments to the same VICC address to woman for contract labor. Also of note a woman whose name has been seen on mail in ballots also on the Democrat payroll. In this period the Democrat party received $2,200 in contributions and reported $24,900 in expenditures (yikes!). That report is here: http://204.65.203.5/public/389726.pdf

    In a recent filing through January 2013 it appears the contributions are low but the debts still run high, as Sylvia Garza Perez reimburses herself from the Democrat Party account and reimburses her husband as well. See: http://204.65.203.5/public/559165.pdf

    But times haven't always been so tough for the Demos. Last year in 2012 the Demos received over $81,000 in contributions while reporting less than $18,000 in expenditures. The majority of that was a $75,000 "contribution" (?) from Jared Hockema in Harlingen labeled "cancellation of loan to self". Here : http://204.65.203.5/public/538990.pdf

    The complete list of CCDP Executive Committee filings: http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/filer.php?acct=00055995CECS

    Another great feature of the Texas Ethics Commission site is you can search by name, candidate, and even payees who were being paid from politician's accounts. http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/main/search.htm Is anyone surprised to see names of politiqueros on the payroll.

    Glancing through those old reports one encounters some bizarre expenditures, like in a report where the Demo Party had only two expenditures, one of which was a $400 payment to a woman in Los Indios for $400 worth of "charcoal". Seriously?

    Anyhoo, if I were the new treasurer Mr. Skaggs first order of business would be to request copies of all the checks, income and disbursments from the bank or banks that have held the CCDP account(s) going back 10+ years. And hire a private, independent auditor. Time to clean house. Best of luck to new CCDP Chairwoman Medina.

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  4. Huge number of loans!! The Democratic party bank account was privately loaning thousands out around 2007. Most of these loans matured in 2011. But did they ever collect them back?

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  5. good summary of democratic party traits. quick on the draw to surcharge and tax. financial idiots. no ethical problem with sucking the public teat.
    when do they start learning the Limas Cantu Villalobos secret profit procedures?

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  6. "financial idiots"

    Yup! Since the paper trail not only indicts but is decades long. Paying politiqueras and hiring Hernandez vans to haul the mentally retarded to the polls, ... most interestingly, the Democrat Party profit/loss margin is so severely in debt it's amazing anyone lends them a dollar much less donates any money to this money pit.
    All of those reports show a loss of tens of thousands of dollars nearly every cycle. Except when the CCDP Treasurer is cancelling a personal $75,000 loan from a broke party he is managing solo, is that even legal? Borrowing, overspending to pay politiqueras, and making loans to mystery people at 0% interest that may not have even been collected on. Looks more like a racket.

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  7. "surcharge and tax". Seriously what kind of an unintelligent idiot is the new treasurer? Democrats can not get elected without them?????? Apparently they do not get elected with them. You dummy! Do not believe this, just ask the republican who is the County Judge! Your Democrats did not support their candidate, did they? Surcharge! Get off you behind and raise some money by simply asking Gilbert Hinojosa to fill your piggy bank. Mr. Skaggs who are you..........................................

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    1. I have to agree. The Democrats have proven their own worst enemy.

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    2. ha Ha! Yeah, Cascos got elected while the Demos were too busy asking for money to squander

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  8. The commenters are misreading the statements. The party was not loaning to anyone, I lent money to the party, and then subsequently converted the loan to a contribution by canceling the loan. Also, when comparing contributions and expenditures, you have to consider the balance of contributions maintained from the previous reporting period. Typically, there are one or two fundraisers in a year, but the expenditure of those proceeds may occur over several reporting periods.

    Finally, one of the reports that is listed is my campaign report, not the party's. Again, I lent money to my campaign, and then converted it to a contribution by canceling the loan.

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  9. PENDEJO democRATAS LMAO LMAO

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