500 Mail-In Votes Ordered for Run-Off~Watch Out for Erin, Masso and Gomez!

Roger Ortiz, Election Administrator

Don't forget the strange statistical anomaly in the primary with three candidates getting a nearly identical number of write-in votes, despite having very different actual vote totals;  Carlos Masso, Abel Limas and Omar Lucio.  Even Election Administrator Roger Ortiz admitted: "They must have used the same politiquera or group of politiqueras."  


We can't do anything about Lucio.  He wins the primary without a runoff.  Erin Hernandez Garcia had  only 20 mail-in votes in the primary.  Expect this to change drastically.  Remember 2010 when Ruben Pena led in the primary, then led in actual precinct votes by 162 but got killed by Ernie in mail-in votes, 240-34.  According to CAVA, 500 mail-votes have been ordered for the run-off.  How many of those will go to the crooked Hernandez's?


As reported in the "Brownsville Blues" blog:   


"Mary Helen Flores, the founder of Citizens Against Voters Abuse (CAVA), is reporting that Roger Ortiz's election office has responded to approximately 500 mail-in ballot requests.
"Ortiz is running a shoddy operation," continued the same source. "He has never implemented any strong measures to eradicate the buying and selling of votes by the politiqueras. In the election for county judge he allowed former Cameron County Democratic Chairperson Gilberto Hinojosa access to the ballot boxes the night of the election while he went dancing. Much like the rest of the corrupt and incompetent Democratic Party, Ortiz doesn't inspire much confidence."

Please note the highlighted figures below:

                                                         COUNTY ATTORNEY

Carlos R. Masso                     8,072                        35.86                      192

Luis V. Saenz                          7,766                        34.50                        47

Maria Urbina De Ford             6,672                        29.64                        33

                                                               SHERIFF

Joe Cisneros                            6,107                        26.02                        55

Terry Vinson                            3,268                        13.92                        25

Omar Lucio                           14,096                         60.06                      191

                                                    CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 2

Juan S. Torres                         2,348                         27.45                        13

Roel Arreola                               893                            8.54                        7

Pete Avila, Jr.                          3,952                         37.78                        27

Abelardo "Abel" Gomez, Jr.     3,267                         31.23                      191

State of the Blog~Mean Mister Brownsville's First Fifty Days

by Jim Barton on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 3:39pm

     The plan was to recap this blog's first 100 days, just as John Fitzgerald Kennedy's first 100 were chronicled back in the day.  As you may recall "Mean Mister Brownsville" did "The First 100 Days of Tony Martinez as Mayor of Brownsville", detailing Tony's accomplishments so far in a very short article.  The editorial staff of "Mean Mister. . " discussed the advisability of waiting the full 100 days to do a recap of blog accomplishments.  The consensus was that the blog would not likely last 100 days, so it might be best to cut that time frame in half and do a quick self-congratulatory piece before the blog died entirely.
     Before boring you with readership data, accolades, etc., it may be appropriate to mention the honor "Mean Mister Brownsville" feels in working alongside, learning from and plagiarizing three future, first ballot Blogger Hall of Fame blogs in our town:  "Downtown Browntown", BROWNSVILLE VOICE and "El Rrun Rrun".  These three pioneers, trailblazers have broken the barriers, fought the fine fight, dealt with the abuse as the local establishment has sought to stifle, stymie and squelch their first amendment efforts on behalf of our community.  MMB would simply not exist today without them.
     The three legends deal with the proverbial writer's block, dry spells and slow news days in uniquely personal ways.  El Rrun Rrun's Juan Montoya may simply pull off the top of the stack of donor articles he has received unsolicited and publish one or rework an old article, adding a new twist to make it current.

Bobby Wightman-Cervantes of BROWNSVILLE VOICE may get a late night comment from his favorite numbskull Carlito that will get his creative or defensive juices flowing.
 Downtown Brownsville's Jerry Mchale just needs a picture.  One of Jerry's first record album purchases was "Every Picture Tells A Story" by Rod Stewart.  All Jerry needs is one pic.  He closes his eyes and knows instinctively what happened including exact quotes.
     My list of mentor publications does not include the Brownsville Herald.  The Herald contains a key ingredient not found in the blogs:  cowardice.  It is not widely known but the Herald faced extinction this past spring barely escaping a ban by a mere 30 percentage points.  I'm told that one of the 30 Mexican businessmen participating in the downtown photo-op sponsored by mayoral candidate Edward Camarillo was hit in the face by a stray Herald blowing in the wind.  The businessman stuck his $150,000 investment back in his pocket, got in his Mercedes and went back to Matamoros.  To save face a Camarillo aid suggested The Herald be included in the green initiative.  Customers of Pet Smart and PetCo, Brownsville locations only, would pay $1.00 for bird cage liner OR, at their option substitute one of several tightly wound, yellowing Bargain Book papers likely on their front lawn for The Herald.  The Brownsville Herald itself would be banned from its primary use.  But Camarillo lost, having his Facebook default photo removed.  We dodged a bullet.
     Now, as to the state of the blog:  The first 50 days of operation garnered 10,000 page views.  If we had been advertising at 3 cents a hit, that could have generated $300 per advertiser.  But, Carlos Masso never returned our phone calls and Burma Shave is out of business.  We have to be content with a primary United States audience with Great Britain in second, Mexico in third and the surprising Russians in fourth.  Google lumps all the former Soviet Socialist Republics into one big country, sort of ignoring the status of Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Estonia, etc.  The most popular article  was "More on Erin and Yolanda Including Raul in the Precinct 2-2 Justice of the Peace Race" with over 400 hits the first day.  There were 59 total articles written in the 50 days.

Something I Totally Missed

     The lady on the left in the above picture is Herminia Becerra, perhaps the most notorious and effective politiquera in the city of Brownsville, Cameron County.  The picture was taken at a political rally for Erin H. Garcia, a candidate for Justice of the Peace, District 2-2 and the daughter of County Commissioner Ernie L. Hernandez, Jr. 
     What escaped my notice until now was the wording on the red neckband holding the two plasticized, laminated I.D. cards:  "VOTE ERNIE 2010".  I cropped the original picture and enlarged it just enough to make that readable.  Of course, this should not be a surprise to those who have followed the escapades and statements of Mr. Hernandez.  In 2003 he told the Brownsville Herald:  "There is nothing illegal about paying people to solicit votes."  As for Ms. Becerra, she was one of a select few wearing the official badge of the Erin H. Garcia campaign at the meet and greet.  It should be noted that she also wears the I.D. tag for the "Honorable" Linda Salazar, currently Justice of the Peace, District 2-1. 
     Brownsville voters will have to decide if they want to continue to support candidates who use politiqueras.  It helps to understand how politiqueras operate, how their influence taints an election.  A two-time candidate for city office enlightened me:  "They have friends throughout the city that they have used for many years.  The politiquera performs simple acts of kindness, like bringing some sweet bread or making a social call from time to time.  At election time the "friends" know what's expected and vote as directed.  The politiquera knows roughly how much the votes are worth.  They will not deliver more votes than they get paid for." 
     Local businessman Dino X. Chavez understands the problem, but states:  " Jim, I am 110% against the use of politiqueras to illegally collect votes for a candidate! However, just to play the devil's advocate, what should an honest candidate do to have a chance in a close race when going against a candidate who c...hooses to use politiqueras to harvest votes?
     Should they do like John Villarreal did and just hope for the best? Should they use their funds to hire private investigators to follow the opposition, or the opposition's contracted politiqueras? Should they file a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission? Should they file a suit alleging wrongdoing?
Candidates have been on the losing end of close races for decades because of the use of politiqueras! All of the above as been tried and been proven futile."
     Mr. Chavez is right.  Dishonesty has frequently been rewarded in our community.  In the 2003 mayoral election during which Ernie Hernandez gave the quote above, there were three candidates.  Henry Gonzalez and Hernandez openly used politiqueras.  Robert Uresti did not, stating his opposition to the practice.  Uresti finished third.  Curiously though, the last runoff city commission election bucked this trend.  If a disproportionate amount of mail-in votes indicate the use of politiqueras, winners John Villarreal and Estela Chavez prevailed despite not using them.
     One thing the election office can do was mentioned by Kimberly Dale:  "What the election office should do is have a signature expert match the signatures of the mail in votes."  This sounds like a great idea, but Election Administrator Roger Ortiz has great difficulty simply counting the votes, let alone matching signatures on mail-ins. 
     Let's state the obvious:  If a candidate uses nefarious means to get elected, will they serve us honestly?

"There is nothing illegal about paying people to help you solicit votes,'' Ernie L. Hernandez, Jr(2003)

     The quote in the title above is from Ernie L. Hernandez, Jr. in 2003 when asked about the use of politiqueras in his campaign for mayor.  Interestingly, Robert Uresti, also a candidate for mayor at the time was asked the same question:  "Hell no! I think it's wrong to pay somebody money to bring in votes,'' Uresti said.  The lady pictured above with the Erin H. Garcia for J.P. badge is Dona Herminia Becerra, probably Brownsville's most notorious politiquera.  In a 2003 interview with the Brownsville Herald, Ms. Becerra claimed that she and Doa Lochita Hinojosa, another politiquera, were responsible for at least 2000 votes.
     Politiqueras would as soon reveal their methods as a magician would explain his tricks.  It is known that they visit nursing homes, prevailing upon the elderly, infirm ones to vote for their candidates.  They also have many "regulars" in the community who appreciate their "kindnesses" during the year and are most cooperative come election time.  Politiqueras are not as candidate-oriented as they are survival-oriented.  They frequently play one candidate against another to up the ante for their services.
     How can you tell who is using politiqueras?  Without an eyewitness, the best barometer is the number of write-in votes received.  For example in the last run-off election for city commissioner district 4 both candidates, John Villarreal and Tony Zavaleta claimed they did not use politiqueras.  Villarreal won the election, but Zavaleta had nearly ten times the write-in votes, 97-10.