(Ed.'s Note: Since April 28, when the news that his opponent in the runoff election for District 37 State Rep. incumbent Rene Oliveira had caused an accident by slamming into the rear of a car driven by woman with a child in the back seat while obviously drunk made the news, Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Alex Dominguez has not commented on the case.
This has caused Oliveira's supporters and others to chide him for not making it his main campaign issue and hammering him on the head to make political brownie points in the tight runoff election. That changed this Sunday when in the ad above he includes references to the incident in the context of how that DWI charge shows Oliveira's impaired judgment and how it will take time away from him serving the District 37 constituency.
"JUDGMENT: I rarely drink and I don't do drugs," the ad states. "And I know better than to leave the scene of an accident with a woman and her child without giving license and insurance information out of fear of political repercussions.
"RELIABILITY: I think I’ve missed two meetings in four years and one was for my wedding. Next January, I won’t be on DWI probation missing time when reporting to adult probation, coming community service, providing random U/A samples, going to AA meetings, or taking the required DWI classes. I will be in Austin without distractions working on legislation that matters to you."
The turnout in the early vote – 7,889 – was only 1,482 less than than the early vote in the primary in March (9,371) despite the fact that there were only five days in the runoff early voting period compared to 11 in the primary. This shows that in a tight race, the Election Day vote this coming Tuesday might decide the outcome not only in this race, but also of the others on the ballot.