BROWNSVILLE'S MAYORAL FIELD GETS CROWDED QUICKLY

 It's tempting to lead this article with a political cartoon featuring a "crowded field," because there are many such cartoons.

But, it's not that we already have a field of five in the Brownsville mayor's race, but that each of the candidates seems deeply flawed.

Former Mayor Pat Ahumada

The "blast from the past," Pat Ahumada, is certainly a known quantity, the self-described "quarterback" who views the city commissioners as merely his "blocking lineman."

Pat is not without ideas, like the Brownsville/Matamoros reservoir project and was one of the few who saw through the Tenaska and United Brownsville scams early on, but his abrasiveness is hard to navigate and ends up crippling and sabotaging the possible good he could accomplish.

Then, there's the matter of his depositing a $26,139 check intended for a vendor into his own account, then spending roughly $6,000 of those monies before being confronted by Police Chief Garcia.

Ahumada was also on the verge of signing on to a phony airlines deal proposed by convicted RICO con artist Carlos Quintanilla, an upside down deal the City of Brownsville almost fell for, but for the brave opposition of citizens Craig Grove, Dino Chavez, Teresa Saldivar and others.  

District 2 City Commissioner Jessica Tetreau is also a known quantity, originally replacing the disqualified Zeke Silva to run against the abrasive Charlie Atkinson.  Tetreau won as a write-in candidate with the help of the Brownsville Cheezmeh group.  

Since that initial victory, Tetreau has garnered enough support to win the seat two additional times against strongish candidates like Sergio Zarate, Pat Ahumada and "Caty" Presas-Garcia.  

Now, after 12 years as City Commissioner, the City Charter seems to prohibit another run at that position, something Bobby Wightman-Cervantes disputes.  That leaves a run for mayor as Tetreau's only option if she wants to stay in city office.

Honestly, Tetreau has actually worked as commissioner, some say having "grown into" the role, but is she someone the voters will decide should represent the entire city?

Self-awareness, that is seeing ourselves as others perceive us, comes into play here and we'll leave it at that.

Another, almost perennial candidate, is Erasmo Castro.  Erasmo is in William Garza territory in terms of running for office.

If you applauded Erasmo's service as BISD trustee, then perhaps you support him as mayor.

My most recent interaction with Erasmo was sitting alongside him for a year or two on his podcast.  

Those "interview" sessions with local candidates and office holders were frustrated by Erasmo's need to dominate the microphone.

Would a Mayor Castro be a good enough listener to incorporate the ideas and support of the entire City Commission?  

That's something I would question.

Uncle Ralph Cowen Introducing John Cowen at Cobbleheads

Ralph Cowen told me a couple years ago that his nephew John Cowen had done a "wonderful" job managing the family business.

"He's made us all a lot of money," explained the elder Cowen.

I have no reason to doubt that, but what always worried by about John Cowen is his timidity, his seeming lack of assertiveness in public.

Now, I've been out of the loop for a while, not even observing John's chairmanship of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, the 4A entity entrusted with spending 1/4 cent of every dollar of sales tax revenue on economic development.

Of course, I've long maintained that politicians, city commissioners should NEVER serve on such a board.  The whole point of creating 4A and 4B boards was to SEPARATE economic development support monies from politics.  

Anyway, the coming candidate forums will give me a chance to observe John to see if he's developed the assertiveness to lead our city as mayor.

Jay Nagy

Twenty-six year old Jay Nagy, a SpaceX employee, has taken to social media to announce his candidacy for mayor, careful to separate himself from the "other candidates."

The lad promises to "fix the potholes," something he says previous mayors have been totally inept at doing.

We'll see how the young man presents himself at candidate forums.