All the stops are being pulled in the runoff elections for three spots on the City of Brownsville Commission.
We have just received the flyer above where mayoral candidate Charlie Cabler and District 1 incumbent Ricardo Longoria have enlisted the assistance of former Dallas Cowboy star Tony Casillas to give their candidacy a push. Will Los Vaqueros fans come out in droves? A new outfit called LaPitada.com believes they will.
Cabler is running against Juan "Trey" Mendez for the mayor's seat and Longoria is facing challenger Nurith Galonsky. Notable for her absence from the Cabler-Longoria ticket is At-Large "A" candidate Jessica Puente-Bradshaw who is running against top vote-getter John Cowen.
In each case, these efforts have drawn criticism from their opponents, with the candidates giving out plates accused of rewarding voters in exchange for votes and not having permits from the city health department for off site consumption. They claim that former city commissioner Charlie Atkinson recorded the "Trinity" (Mendez,Cowen, Galonsky) supporters rewarding him for his vote.
On the other hand, the Cabler team has been accused of coercing elderly voters from the Carino Adult Day Care facility and forcing them to stay in vans until they vote for their candidate.
All these efforts on both sides has apparently swelled the early voting numbers. In fact, the first-day totals in the runoff (1,245) are 19.7 higher than the first-day totals (1,040) for the early-voting period in the May 4 election.
The highest increase between the two early voting periods was at the Central Library (710 compared to 546 votes) and 255 to 230 at the Southmost Public Libary.
"This goes contrary to tradition," said an election precinct worker. "Usually, the runoff totals are much lower than the first election. The more people who come out the better."