SOME THOUGHTS ON JUAN MONTOYA AND ZEKE SILVA'S PORTRAYAL OF ME AS A "TETREAU SUPPORTER"

 

Blogger Juan Montoya

Juan Montoya, Brownsville's leading blogger with his implacable daily offering  El Rrun Rrun, recently ran an account about my running over to a Jessica Tetreau campaign event at the advertised time, only to learn that Tetreau planned on showing up an hour later.

In all honesty, I was going there to "cover" the event, not as a Tetreau supporter.

Juan ran Zeke Silva's gentle chastisement labeling me one of Tetreau's "biggest supporters," referring to me as "poor Jim Barton."

Blogger Montoya chose not to publish my response to Zeke, so I will post it here:

"Jim Barton

LOL! "Poor Jim Barton" is a bit condescending, but I can easily overlook that. As for "supporting" Tetreau, that ship sailed long ago, just after her first election victory, actually. She became my last political "endorsement" of any kind. Unfortunately, her District 2 rivals were not much better; Zarate, Ahumada, Presas-Garcia, etc., but my "support" of Tetreau ended 12 years ago, just to set the record straight.

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• Zeke Silva

  Jim Barton you know I respect you Jim. I didn’t say it to offend you but to let you know that she’s not your friend or never was anyone friend. She uses people and when she has no need for then anymore she turns her back on them. She is crazy and always will be a puppet. You protected her for years and this is how she repays you. No respect for you or Nena. It was always ABC Anybody but Charlie Atkinson. We celebrated getting Charlie out. Jessica was only a tool we used to prove we could get Anybody, which is what we did. We got a nobody to prove a point."

I assume Zeke meant me no "disrespect," not respect, but, yes, we're longtime friends.

Zeke was in the hospital with family when Nena passed away and asked permission to "pray over her" and that permission was granted despite my agnosticism.

Others are free to correct my recollection, but just over a dozen years ago I attended a Zeke Silva campaign event to jumpstart his run for District 2 City Commissioner with Craig Grove as campaign manager.

Zeke was running for a position held by Commissioner Charlie Atkinson with whom Craig Grove had engaged in a contentious tussle at a city commission meeting weeks before.

We quickly learned that Zeke Silva's campaign was terminated when it was learned that he had a couple DUIs treated as felonies.(Others have run for office with DUIs because there were designated misdemeanors.)

Quick on his feet, Grove found Jessica Tetreau as a replacement for Silva, but running as a write-in because of the last minute nature of her campaign.

Grove quickly tired of his role in the Tetreau campaign, explaining to a few of us that he simply couldn't work with someone who "won't answer or return my phone calls."

Mary Helen Flores took over leadership of the campaign and, I believe, experienced some of the same frustrations as Grove.

Anyway, just to set the record straight, my first wife and I saw the same thing many of you observed; a young woman, elected to public office, whose head soon swelled with whatever prestige and power can be associated with serving on Brownsville's city commission.

Many Brownsville residents took umbrage with the young commissioner bragging on Facebook about the latest piece of jewelry she'd received from her husband, Art Kalifa.

That sort of behavior, the "showy display of one's means of life," is commonly the work of the nou·veau riche, those folks once poor who've suddenly acquired wealth.

A few days ago I ran a bare bones report quoting Tetreau about her family's "200 years in the cattle business," which reminded me of the Ewings of Southfork Ranch on the TV program Dallas.

I ran that article simply quoting Tetreau without commentary and some viewed it as evidence of my endorsement.  LOL!

Nena always told me that my feeble sense of humor was not appreciated in Brownsville and I'm certain she was right.