Election Central:...Something's Up, But What?...Is This Really Election Week?...How Can You Tell?...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor-In-Chief

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Bill Clinton is coming to town. It'll be a little Early Christmas for the 120,000 lost souls who call this falling town home. Clinton, the former president, is bringing needed life to a local election that has had all the drama of a popularity contest over at the neighborhood nursing home.

Is this really Election Season?

Clinton's swooping in to support fellow Democrat Solomon P. Ortiz, the congressman from Corpus Christi up the coast. Ortiz has no competition to speak of, other than a pajama-addicted Republican no one has taken seriously. There will be other local Dems with Clinton at the city's Veterans Park rally - notables such as county judge candidate John Wood and perhaps even State Sen. Eddie Lucio, a public servant known to bop into a social gathering just because...

The former president's star power is a breadth of fresh air for Rio Grande Valley of Texas politics. To date, in this long season of posturing and lying, the expected gloss has been, well, missing. Does anyone really get excited at seeing Solomon P. Ortiz in person? Perhaps his wife, but who knows? This is a guy whose name should be Rigo M. Ortiz, the true-to-life personification of a stiff. Word is Ortiz serves his district as little as possible, and then serves himself with decidely more vigor. Yeah, it seems Hispanic politicians are now as sophisticated as their Anglo colleagues. Free travel? Si! A larger slice of the pie for me? Si, si!!

It's almost here, and yet this Nov. 2nd election brings way-too many yawns. Nothing stands out in any RGV politician up for election. Nothing. Wood is challenging incumbent Carlos Cascos for the position of county judge, yet what is it about these two men that spreads the color of fog across Cameron County. Cascos, a rare & lost Hispanic Republican, will not greet Bill Clinton. Wood should be there, beaming through that worm-like mustache.

Ah, but as they say here, what the Hell? Still, Clinton's visit is something. He could easily be elsewhere, maybe drawing a bigger crowd in Florida or New York. But Brownsville it will be.

"At least we'll know we're alive," said one resident who openly acknowledged living in a part of the world where everybody's face looks like 75 miles of bad road...

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