By
Juan MontoyaWere we witnessing the all-too visible display of a paranoid incumbent?
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That was the general consensus of local political activists who have been watching District 2 incumbent Jessica Tetreau as she tried to get a court to declare one of her opponents ineligible by challenging her petitions (Catalina Presas-Garcia) to get on the ballot, and the supporters of another (Pat Ahumada) are convinced that her workers or supporters are vandalizing and stealing his campaign signs.
The most recent report is that Tetreau's attorneys filed a notice of non-suit against the city Friday, adding another wrinkle in the election game. Presas-Garcia is still sued.
Tetreau filed a complaint against Presas-Garcia for allegedly violating state law when one of her supporters collected signatures from registered voters on her behalf and then she signed the bottom of the petition stating she had personally witnessed the voter sign.
That set off a round of nervous episodes in candidates in the other races whose supporters and friends had done the same thing. In fact, until Tetreau raised the issue, that was the way candidates had collected the necessary number (about 100) to get on the ballot.
The claim was not that the signatures were invalid or that the voter was coerced to sign, it was that the candidates had signed them and someone else had collected them on their behalf.
"Everybody has done that since I can remember," said a campaign worker for Pat Ahumada, the other challenger in the race. "Anybody who says they haven't is either lying or hasn't been around. It's the intention of the registered voter who signed the petition that counts. Is Tetreau afraid of Caty that she doesn't want to run on her track record, whatever that may be?"
For example, political activist Robert Uresti has admitted he collected signatures for Jessica Puente-Bradshaw and that she signed them even if she hadn't been present. Other supporters of various candidates have admitted the same.
Local officials still remember when Yolanda Begum filed a lawsuit claiming mail-ballot fraud against Erin Hernandez in their runoff for JP 2-2. Visiting Judge Manuel Bañales - conceding Begum had proven cases of mail-in ballot fraud in the election - nonetheless upheld the results and said the court was not going to deprive Hernandez the victory, or the wish of the voters who cast their ballot for her.
(Since we first posted this it has been graciously to our attention that we erred on which judge heard the Begum-Hernandez case. We stand corrected. Originally, Banales was appointed by was replaced by senior Judge J, Bonner Dorsey who ruled that:
“An election contest case has to be able to be decided from the trial to being in the Court of Appeals irrespective of who wins in the lower court in time so that it does not interfere with the election process,” he said. “If it can't be done within the timelines necessary ... then the case is considered moot and the court has no jurisdiction to hear it.”
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"This is not much different than that," said the campaign worker. "Let the voters decide."
We stand corrected. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured by our faux pas. And global warming didn't get any worse and the cause of word peace was not endangered by our recklessness. As for butt surfing, well Bobby, it ain't our cup of tea. Maromas dieras, puto,)
There have been a lot of twists and turns in Tetreau's legal filing, starting with the fact that her attorney Rick Zayas – a sworn enemy of Presas-Garcia since their days on the board of the Brownsville Independent School District - had it first reviewed by 404th Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez, who then recused herself from hearing it and it was passed on to the presiding judge of the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region Missy Medary.
Zayas and Cornejo-Lopez are also good friends. Why she sat in and reviewed it in the 197th District Court and used its stationary when she is the judge of the 404th has not been explained.
Cornejo-Lopez is currently involved in a lawsuit against the BISD claiming they infringed on the privacy and constitutional rights of her children and blames Presas-Garcia for allegedly leaking copies of the grievances to social media. She also filed to run against her in a BISD election but was barred from doing it because she was running for reelection for her district court position and could not be on the same ballot for BISD trustees at the same time.
She was allowed to withdraw from the BISD ballot despite the fact that the Texas Election Code states that any candidate who files for another position automatically loses the other elected office. With the antipathy between Presas-Garcia and Zayas and Cornejo-Lopez well known, is it any coincidence that Tetreau chose her to review the lawsuit?
With the deadline to print the ballots and send them to eligible voters in the military fast approaching, it is doubtful that the visiting judge will ignore the wishes of the registered voters who signed to get Presas-Garcia on the ballot. Yet, the supporters of challenger Ahumada say that someone – they suspect Tetreau's supporters – has been busy taking down their candidate signs.
Ray Montanaro, an Ahumada supporter, said that he and the candidate are on good terms with Presas-Garcia and in fact are fellow Realtors.
"I know Caty or her supporters aren't doing it," he said. "On the other hand, I have seen Tetreau do some things that aren't right. I suspect some of her workers or supporters might be involved."
Montanaro rolled off a list of locations around town where the signs had disappeared and other locations where Tetreau workers had placed them partially covering Ahumada's. (In the photo at right, a worker replaces a sign stolen from the corner of Los Ebanos and Paredes )
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In some case, the property owners told him they had not been asked by Tetreau's people for her signs to be placed there.
"One guy even told us that he hadn't been asked if he wanted her sign and told him to remove it and replace it with Ahumada's,a suggestion Montanaro turned down.
"We are not playing dirty, and we said no," he said.
He remembers when Sergio Zarate ran against Tetrau and he offered politiquera Herminia Becerra – who was not working for him – a bottle of water. Tetreau ordered one of her supporters to take his picture with Becerra to insinuate that Zarate was paying politiqueras and buying votes to beat her.
"She is always playing the victim, but people have caught on to her, he said. "Now the girl who took the picture (Bea Quintanilla) is going against her and her former campaign manager (Craig Grove) is campaigning against her. It's caught up to her."
Montanaro says he is offering a reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of suspects who have defaced or stolen Ahumada's campaign signs.
"I know that in the past there have been candidates who paid people for each sign they brought in from an opponent," he said. "Incumbents should run on their track records and let the voters decide."
Both were arrested in Harlingen by troopers of the Texas Department of Public Safety as they headed south toward the river and into Mexico. They were arraigned Monday morning by Cameron County Ass. District Judge/Magistrate Louis Sorola.
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