Staff Writer
BROWNSVILLE, TX - The woman serving my coffee here this morning had plenty to say. She was both coy and flush with her comments. Politics swelled like bad pancakes inside the small, downtown cafe. I was here to wonder about the voter fraud alleged in connection with former City Commissioner Ernie Hernandez's closeasthis victory over opponent Ruben Pena in last week's run-off vote for the Cameron County Pct. 2 position. Yeah, how is this town taking it?
She said: "Ernie has never been - and never will be - a good loser. To expect anyting positive from him is to expect a miracle."
That sentiment, expressed without solicitation, fit right in there on my list of many questions to do with this particular election. Hernandez, shown at right in photo above, won the contest by 49 votes. His mail-in ballot countings far outdistanced those received by Pena. "Therein lies the rub," a good friend had said a day earlier. "That's what the court is looking into now. That's where the evidence of voter fraud is, or isn't."
And we have been rather surprised to see nothing from Hernandez, other than hear him say he is the winner on a mid-week TV news report. His media backer - ElRrunRrun.com - has stopped mentioning its advertiser (Hernandez) and has not bothered with the charges of fraud lodged by Pena or the decision by a state district judge to impound the mail-in balloting.
Both non-reactions, from Hernandez and the Blogger Juan Montoya, are graceless.
The investigation should render a result soon. It's not that many ballots that have to be scrutinized. And it will be interesting to see how Hernandez reacts.
We all know ElRrunRRun will blare the news if it's positive for Hernandez and go hide if it isn't. As of this morning, Montoya had removed Hernandez's Ad from the Blog. Yes, the contest is over and Hernandez perhaps has gotten what he bought from Montoya.
But taken in combination it all smacks of bad huevos rancheros. The cheap ploy is not good for the community. It is yet another example of a politician buying "Blind Obedience" support. Hernandez purchased Ads in other media venues, but we know others did not give him the deal Montoya offered.
Still, we shall wait and see. There is a good, deeper story in all this. It will be told sooner or later. But, Goddammit, we do wish Juan Montoya would tell it. That would go a long, long way toward us accepting him as a journalist. At present, he comes across as what the Mexican barrios call a "velador," someone out to point his flashlight here and there, choosing his points of illumination, ambling up and down the darkened street as if someone serving the public, whistling his pedestrian tunes to himself...
- 30 -
No comments:
Post a Comment