The Agony of Defeat: How John Wood Lost The Cameron County Judge Race...Cascos Marches In...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ

Editor-In-Chief

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - They're blaming handy fall guy Roger Ortiz for candidate John Wood's worst humiliation. They say Roger knotted the kink into the chain that was to help wheel Wood into the Cameron County Judge's office. They say Wood now looks like the county fool.

Officially, or as much as anything is ever official in this rotten bordertown, incumbent Carlos Cascos is back in the saddle, ready for another term as figurehead leader of county government. Wood will retain his seat on the county commission, but he is a tired dog, as they say at the track. He is tainted goods, a loser in a county full of Election Day losers eagerly wishing to stay with the lost cause. Wood is said to be contesting the results of the Nov. 2nd vote that saw the Republican Cascos edge him by a few more than 60 votes. He should give it up.

Not that the Democratic Party, which sponsored Wood, wouldn't like to stretch the fray in court. It's just that, at this point, the populace already sees Wood as the runner-up, the guy who almost got the job, the also-ran, the long fly ball that only made it to the warning track, the bridesmaid. How did this happen to such a try-me politician?

Was it Roger Ortiz's fault, the elections administrator who waffled like the greatest flop of Aunt Jemima with his you won; no, you won; no, yeah, you won style of conducting the vote count. Not since Eve voted non-performing Adam out of the Garden of Eden has a human being been so flailed by his brethren. We ask: Is Ortiz just as injured - professionally  - as is Wood? Would a shave of that pencil-thin mustache aid Wood's rehabilitation? Would a Beatle wig help the balding Ortiz?

Wood knows he lost. He conceded gracefully once, and he should do it again. A contesting of the final vote count giving Cascos the win is an uphill fight of the sort only Sir Edmund Hillary could undertake. Wood, we believe, does not have Edmund's legs. It is our learned feeling that the battle was lost when suspicion entered the room. Wood let it in, and, for that, he is paying the price of seeing his reputation take a Chicago linebacker's best hit. Cascos made his share of goofs, but the winner is always forgiven. So, he parked his vehicle in front of Ortiz's home when he saw questionable defeat staring him in the face? He's Mexican, and that goes to the typical response from our culture. It may not always be parking the truck in front of a bureaucrat's home, but how many local Mexicans have parked their cars in front of the ex-wife's place, waiting, waiting for evidence of - ahem - wrongdoing? Carlos Cascos simply went "Chicanoe" in that sordid "I'm out here, and I'm gonna get your ass, vato" episode.

But, is it really all over?

Yes. Johnny Wood should call a press conference ASAP and be as graceful as his flinty-look allows. To go under the radar, and to have everyone believe he is plotting legal action, only keeps painting an image that is not kind to him. Politics is a bitch, someone famous once said. And losing politics is the ugliest of the bitches.

May John Wood find the energy to finally take the high road...

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