Tracking Early Voter Turnout

Updated daily at the County Elections & Voter Registration Dept site.

For What Ails You.

Act now.
The first 100 patients get their very own ring,
engraved with the occupation of their choice.

CC Precinct 1 = Comical.

CLICK HERE FOR THE YUK-YUKS.

Herald Loses (1st Round?) Appeal In DA Election Ad Case.

THE Zavaletta ad.

'Member the one (or five)? In political circles across the land, it's since gone down in infamy for helping torpedo its author's chances at election; and subsequently reigning legal high holy hell upon a former District Attorney and two local newspapers.

Well, to their credit, the Herald updated its readers a couple of weeks ago as to the status of the criminal side of the scandal. The current DA can proceed in the prosecution of former DA de Leon.

But what of the civil suits filed against some/all of the above principals? Last folks had heard, Freedom Communications, Inc. had appealed the 357th District Court's denial of motion for summary judgement. No news since, until an obscure article at Courthouse News Service eked out into the innernets last week:

A Texas newspaper publisher must continue to fight a defamation claim brought by four men who were named in a campaign ad that accused the incumbent district attorney of being soft on sex offenders, a 5th (sic) Circuit judge ruled.

Read the appellate opinion here. (PDF)

Some highlights:

On appeal, Freedom argues that the trial court erred by denying its motion for summary judgment because: (1) the fair report privilege, as provided at common law and by statute, bars the appellees’ suit; (2) the advertisements at issue are substantially true; and (3) the appellees cannot establish the elements of invasion of privacy. We affirm.

On point (2):

Because an issue of material fact exists as to whether the advertisements at issue here are substantially true, Freedom has not established that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the basis of this affirmative defense. Therefore, Freedom’s second issue is overruled.

On point (3):

We conclude that Freedom did not meet its burden to establish that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the appellees’ invasion of privacy claim. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in denying Freedom’s motion for summary judgment on those grounds. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 166a(c). We overrule Freedom’s third issue.

Some legal eagles claim more opinions are reversed from the 13th Court of Appeals, by the Texas Supreme Court, than any other appellate court in the state. Will Freedom Communications, Inc press their luck at the next level or take their lumps where the mess was made, here at home?

When It Comes to Self-Promotion...

...I just don't understand what people were thinking sometimes.

City Election Results Overview

AT LARGE "B"	DISTRICT 3	DISTRICT 4
DR. ROSE GOWEN	MELISSA ZAMORA	EDWARD CAMARILLO
CARLOS AYALA	CARLOS CISNEROS	ARGELIA MILLER
ALBERTO VELEZ	MOSES SOROLA	ROBERT URESTI
ROMAN PEREZ

Of note:

- 6% voter turnout. SIX PERCENT. That's pretty pathetic and leaves little wonder why Brownsville's stuck with an asshat as mayor.*

- Carlos Ayala got 80% of mail-in votes; an incredible rate that prevented Gowen from winning outright. Color me paranoid, but 5 will get you 10 there were bought ballots there. Even a broken clock and all that...

- Argelia Miller with nearly 33% of the Dist 4 vote? I mean, Really?

- Sorola shocked many with his better-than-expected showing of 30%. How else does a 7-year incumbent get only 1/3 of the district vote?

*Sure, the charter's recall threshold was finally lowered to 10% (from 25%) of registered voters. And that'd help send Ahumada packing, if only one could find 8,000 voters to vote the same way. On anything. Fat chance.

Candidates for the May 9th City Commissioners Election

AT LARGE "B"	DISTRICT 3	DISTRICT 4
DR. ROSE GOWEN	CARLOS CISNEROS	EDWARD CAMARILLO
CARLOS AYALA	MELISSA ZAMORA	ARGELIA MILLER
ALBERTO VELEZ	MOSES SOROLA	ROBERT URESTI
ROMAN PEREZ

BISD Trustee Election Results (Unofficial)

Click on the table for BISD source data. This post serves as more of a historical place-holder than anything.

*But 68%. Wow. Guess life-sized cutouts really DO work. ;-)

**Maybe his opponent should've countered with several 4x8's of something along the lines of this?

BISD Candidates for November 4th Election

Position 3	Position 4	Position 5	Position 6 (Open)	Position 7
Otis Powers	Pat Lehman	Rolando Aguilar	Joe Cadriel	Joe Colunga
Catalina Presas-Garcia	Rick Zayas		Minerva Pena
			Moises Gonzalez

Yesterday, August 26th, was the filing deadline for candidacy in the November 4th BISD Board Trustee elections. When the elections were held in May, the filing deadline was 62 days prior. Now that they're held on the General Election day, it's 70 days out. I never knew that until today, FWIW.

A few notes:

• Obvious kudos go out to Colunga and Aguilar for avoiding opponents.
• There's a fresh face or two (at least to me) in Moises Gonzalez and Minerva Pena, both vying for the vacated spot against veteran trustee Joe Cadriel.
• Presas-Garcia is back and I guess either of her claimed residences should qualify for District eligibility this time around in her race against Otis.
• Rick Zayas, while ably chairing the BISD Bond Oversight Committee, presents a more-than-welcome challenge to Lehman.
• It should be noted that due to the movement of the elections to November and in an effort to more equally stagger the various terms, Position 4 (the one Zayas would occupy) is a 2-year term.

LiveBlogging the Joe Lee Rubio Hearing

With Leads Like These...

Harlingen Post had it first.


The civil shoe has dropped, too:
KGBT: Zavaletta, Former DA and Two Newspapers Sued in Defamation Case

The story fleshed out some more at The Harlingen Post.

Declined at Intake.(But Slow on Uptake.)

From the Herald article:

Zavaletta explained that he signed "a sworn victim/witness statement detailing how I came to be in possession of this information which at no time indicated that it was confidential or could not be disseminated to any third person."

While this may be true, there was an article published on 2/28, just two days after the Zavaletta campaign first ran the offending ad. In it:

District Attorney Armando Villalobos said the information contained in the advertisement is sent to Monica's House or Maggie's House. It is confidential and not subject for public viewing, he said, as the case files contain information about complainants and victims, which are protected by law.

Wasn't the DA's indication of the confidentiality of these names reason enough not to run them again?

Why did the Zavaletta campaign publish the SAME ad (both with full names of the individuals declined at intake and then with just their initials) OVER and OVER again?

Herald 2/26, A9 - original run of ad, with full names.
Herald 2/29, C3 - 2nd run of ad, with initials.
Herald 3/2, C5 - 3rd run of ad, with full names.
Herald 3/3, C3 - 4th run of ad, with full names.
Herald 3/4, C3 - 5th run of ad, with initials.

I struggled to comprehend how an attorney couldn't conceive of the confidentiality possibility before the first ad run. But then to run it multiple times again after he was effectively warned of the criminal (and not to mention civil) liability is just arrogant or asinine. Pick your poison.

John Reed for BND Board, Place 3

John Reed, a Brownsville banker and former chairman of BEDC, has filed for Commissioner, Place 3, on the Brownsville Navigation District Board. Place 3 is currently held by Luigi Cristiano.

His resume includes:

EDUCATION/WORK EXPERIENCE
1979 Graduate – James Pace High School
1983 BBA – Texas State University
23 years banking experience
Former Adjunct Professor of Business, UTB / TSC
Senior Vice President – Capital One Bank

CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS
Board of Directors – El Jardin Water Supply Corp.
Board of Trustees – Valley Regional Medical Center
Board of Trustees – Episcopal Day School Endowment Foundation
Advisory Board Member – Brownsville/SPI International Airport
Member – Brownsville Metropolitan Planning Organization
Former Chairman – Brownsville Chapter American Red Cross
Former Chairman – Rio Grande Valley Chapter American Red Cross
Former Chairman – Brownsville Chamber of Commerce
Former Chairman – Brownsville Economic Development Council
Former Chairman – Episcopal Day School Board of Directors
Former President – Brownsville Boys & Girls Club
Former President – American Cancer Society, South Cameron Unit
Former Board of Directors – Dean Porter Park Renovation Committee
Former Vestry Member / Treasurer – Church of the Advent Episcopal

Cameron County Returns - Republican Party

Download the source Excel file.
*Results not official until canvassed.

Cameron County Returns - Democrat Party

Download the source Excel file.
*Results not official until canvassed.

Live Blogging the Election Returns - Tonight after 7:30

Tired of the slow election returns updates at the Herald, KRGV and KGBT?

Let's see if the blogosphere can do it better and faster:

"Most ATYPICAL Political Ad" Award Goes To:

Judge J. J. Martinez in today's Herald:



I did a double take upon reading it, assuming one of his opponents paid for it.

Is this who you want for District Attorney, Cameron County?

Drowning victims are probably the most dangerous to try to rescue. In a panic, drowning victims are likely to claw at rescuers and climb to the surface at all costs. NEVER attempt a direct rescue of a conscious drowning victim without proper training.

- How To Rescue a Drowning Victim

Well, is it?

ETA: There's a VERY enlightening reader comment on the article's page:

The ad that Zavaleta(sic) ran was completely disengenuous(sic). Most of those names were from divorce cases in which one of the parties accused the other of child abuse. What "declined at intake" means is that the case was duly investigated and found to be baseless. However, in running that lie of an ad, he published the names of the accused, which now means that all of those kids' friends know all about it now. Zavaletta had a duty to protect the identities of thse(sic) kids, but in his dash to lie about the current District Attorney, he showed that it is he himself who doesn't care about the children of the Valley. he showed that he's perfectly willing to sacrifice the innocent in order to get elected. Because knowingly breaching that confidentiality is a likely violation of the law, now the current DA has little choice other than to investigate his opponent during an election campaign. This kind of thing could only happen in the Valley. Has anybody actully(sic) bothered to look at Zavaletta's professional credentials? I doubt it. He is a civil attorney, not a criminal one. To my knowledge, he has never even handled a single criminal trial. What can he know about the running of the Office of district Attorney? Nothing, that's what. Not only does he not understand the office he's running for, he even doesn't understand the criminal system.

MOST are divorce cases? Who knows if that's accurate, but what if just ONE of them was a divorce case? Just one. You know, an ugly one; where unfounded accusations are flung from one of (or even both of) the parents. And law enforcement has/had NO CHOICE but to investigate it. And they found bupkis, nada, NO proof of abuse.

If that's the case, what's Peter done with his 2/26 ad? If that's the case, he's recklessly published the identities of FOLKS HERETOFORE PRESUMED INNOCENT AND UN-INDICTED. And he has the unmitigated gall to label Villalobos as "against our children"?

What. bizarro. county. do. we. live. in?

Tuesday, March 4th, folks. That's Primary Election Day.
Once could even say that it's INTAKE day for the DA position.

I urge each of you and all voters in our county:
DECLINE PETER ZAVALETTA AT INTAKE.

"The Closing Argument"

Union Endorses Non-Union Benefactor

So the Brownsville Union Coalition "endorsed" Zavaletta. Did they know, or even care, that their chosen one received campaign support from a firmly non-union company?

The International Longshoremen's Association is a coalition member of B.U.C. and it can be argued that the ILA's member wages have directly suffered for over a decade due to Gulf Stream's non-union stance.

Chalk it up to another case of Zavaletta's hypocrisy; this time emanating from both sides of his pro/anti-union mouth.

The Rest of the Story...

Click on the image to view the entire 3-page document in PDF form.

BH District Attorney Debate - February 11, 2008

February 11, 2008

The Shot Heard 'Round the Pizza Hut

Click here for an account of bribes, lies, partial lies, polygraph challenges, checks, audiotapes, & "prior commitments".

Cause# 88-CR-827-C

Click on the image to download the 33-page case file in PDF format.

District Attorney Candidate Forum - February 6, 2008

District Attorney Candidate Forum
Hosted by South Texans for Good Government
Brownsville Public Library - February 6, 2008

Full Disclosure Worth a 1,000 10 Words.

My apologies for not originally including proper linkage to the PO's blog in the right hand column. An oversight since corrected.

Turnabout Is Fair Play.

444th District Court Candidate Forum - January 16, 2008

444th District Court Candidate Forum
Hosted by South Texans for Good Government
Brownsville Public Library - January 16, 2008

445th District Court Candidate Forum - January 16, 2008

445th District Court Candidate Forum
Hosted by South Texans for Good Government
Brownsville Public Library - January 16, 2008

As Good a Cause As Any

What: Chicken Plate Fundraiser
When: 11:00AM to 2:00PM, Sunday, January 13, 2008
Where: Mi Cocinita @ Lopez Super Market, 2818 International Blvd.
Price: $5/plate (signatures on recall petition welcome, too)

Disingenuousness Du Jour

Photo graciously submitted by anonymous "political outsider".

“I have not hired any politqueras(sic) and will not hire any politiqueras,” Zavaletta said.
Brownsville Herald, November 3, 2007

Rolando Olvera445th District Court Announcement

6,943 days late and $1 short

"I could’a been a contender. I could’a been somebody, instead of a bum -- which is what I am."
- Terry Malloy, On the Waterfront

If you blinked, you would've missed it. For just a few hours today, Texas Monthly Senior Executive Editor Paul Burka blew the whole Peter Zavaletta indictment WIDE OPEN.

19 years after the fact.

He was gently prodded of his tardiness in the comments section ("What an outrage!") and has since removed the post, replaced it with a retraction and named his article source... Dannenbaum Engineering! (My current employer, if you believe the hot-air).

This Day In History

Tired of the same old political news? Bored with the endless speculation over who's announcing for what judge's bench or how to sue the feds over a wall? Well then, time for a little diversion.

CB presents - This Day In History:

740 - An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death.
1774 - The first Continental Congress adjourns.
1905 - Norway becomes independent from Sweden.
1940 - The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.
1944 - World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends.
1947 - The British Military Occupation ends in Iraq.
1951 - Boxer Joe Louis comes out of retirement to fight Rocky Marciano. However, Marciano would win the fight in eight rounds.
1984 - John D. McCollum shoots and kills himself after spending a day listening to Ozzy Osbourne records; a lawsuit is later filed by his parents over the song "Suicide Solution", but the case is eventually thrown out.
2001 - The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

oh... and in 1988, Peter Zavaletta, future District Attorney candidate, is indicted in Brownsville.


Looks like the Herald had the same proof-reading problems back in the day, too. "Tony Zavaletta"?

Cameron County DA race

Better said elsewhere.

A race without a finish line? 444th District Court

As mentioned elsewhere, David Sanchez has announced for the newly-created, as-yet-unappointed, and unfunded 444th District Court seat. CB was there to cover it. (CB's sound set-up sucks, though. So bear with the weak audio or crank up your computer speakers)


David Sanchez - 444th District Court Announcement

More Candidate Hypocrisy or Merely Chronic Forgetfulness?

So Candidate De Leon says he never have raised PUB bills before, a repeat of his claims in a Brownsville 2020 sponsored forum. Unfortunately, City Commission minutes show differently(pg. 6).

More evidence that the topic of increasing PUB rates is simply a political football (settle down, Chucky) to pander to the electorate.

Sent From the "Mouth of the Lion"...

5/10/07 UPDATE:
Robec Garcia hit's the editorial nail on the head in today's Herald.

To Dr. Sandra Garcia: Shame on you for your response when questioned about your problems with the law. If you think that we will accept that every if not most of the charges against you were cases of “false accusations,” you are mistaken...

You want to represent the people of Brownsville and yet you dishonor the police officers, the investigators and our court system. They saw fit to file the charges based on the information that was available. When they arrested you for public intoxication and saw the red, glassy eyes and noticed the slurred speech they were falsely accusing you?...

Filing for expungement speaks for itself. It is an admission that something merited action on your part, conveniently, nine days after your filing for office; it screams of an attempt to cover up these facts before any of your opponents got a hold of the information on their own and used it for their own gain...

Received Wednesday, May 2, 2007 at 11:01AM:

Dear Christopher Davis please post to your website,

This is Why people do not run for office. The negativity and misleading information hurts us all. I do not have any convictions of any kind, and do not have any cases pending as you ensinuate (sic). A filed police report does not mean an arrest and it does not mean it's the truth. "Envidia" and "Compadrisimo" hurts us all. Try to remember, there are those that don't want change in Brownsville and they will do whatever is needed to continue to suppress our people for their own gain. Don't forget that we as individuals need to be responsible for our actions and have God given and legal rights. The Disregarding of my rights as a person and legally by way of the expunction, shows a blatant disregard for that. I have the God given right to defend myself and I will...
It also takes bravery to go into the mouth of the lion...

Sincerely,
"Dr." Sandra Garcia
for City Commissioner "A"

And here I thought the orange "spring jumper" suited you rather well.

If anyone is misleading, it's you, Sandra. Expunction or no, our paper of record legitimately obtained reports of your arrests. SIX ARRESTS. If you assumed “that means like if it’s disappeared", I'd say you were mistaken. You can't just WISH THEM AWAY.

I'm only INsinuating that based on your published history with the law, you're either a slow learner or morally indifferent (or both). Neither one a trait we need more of on our City Commission, wouldn't you agree? What may be worse, you're a coward who sought expunction of your adverse legal history a mere NINE DAYS after filing for candidacy. I may not agree with Pat Ahumada's platform much, but at least he had the guts to admit his legal mistakes. Why can't you? Too expensive to list them all in a Herald ad?

With 2 weeks to go, your window to re-build trust with the citizenry of Brownsville is vanishing. As it stands, they never needed your defending (woe unto them if they did). They do that very well on their own.

Lastly, "Dr.", only a fool goes "into the MOUTH of the lion". If it's dark in there, it's due to your refusal to shed light on your apparently sordid past. What's worse, you can't even see the lion's jaws closing behind you.