Special to El Rrun-Rrun
![Image result for elvira ortiz, cameron county]()
Sources close to the eight district judges who deliberated today to select an interim replacement for Cameron County District Clerk Eric Garza who resigned by announcement that he was running against incumbent Sheriff Omar Lucio say that they selected former department chief assistant Elvira Ortiz by a required unanimous vote.
The Texas constitution states that:“There shall be a clerk for the district court of each county, who shall be elected by the qualified voters and who shall hold his office for four years, subject to removal by information, or by indictment of a grand jury, and conviction of a petit jury. In case of vacancy, the judge of the district court shall have the power to appoint a clerk, who shall hold until the office can be filled by election.”
However that election must be made by a unanimous vote of the eight judges. In a previous meeting last week Tuesday, two of the judges could not attend and the selection was moved up a week to today.
The judges were under the gun to appoint someone unanimously - because if they couldn't - it would have been left up to Gov. Greg Abbott to make the appointment, something the eight Democrats did not want to happen.
Ortiz ran for the position held by her former boss Aurora de la Garza and lost in a runoff election against Garza in May 2014. Garza was also a deputy district clerk under De la Garza. Garza drew 5,476 votes while Ortiz drew 4,958 votes, a 528 vote difference of the 10,434 votes cast.
No one challenged Garza in 2018.
If there are no Republican candidates for county district clerk, Ortiz might be replaced by the winning candidate of the Democratic party primary March 3. If there is, she might remain interim clerk
until the November general election.
Ortiz, as did potential appointees to the office, pledged that she would not be a candidate in the next elections.
The judges said that they would not appoint someone who would run for the office during the March primaries so as not to give the individual an unfair advantage of incumbency over other potential candidates.
Brownsville Independent School District trustee and Cameron County Court-at-Law #3 court administrator Laura Perez-Reyes and district clerk office staffer Diego Alonso Hernandez have also announced they are candidates this March. BISD Record Manager Matin Arambula is also said to be interested in running.
Sources close to the eight district judges who deliberated today to select an interim replacement for Cameron County District Clerk Eric Garza who resigned by announcement that he was running against incumbent Sheriff Omar Lucio say that they selected former department chief assistant Elvira Ortiz by a required unanimous vote.The Texas constitution states that:“There shall be a clerk for the district court of each county, who shall be elected by the qualified voters and who shall hold his office for four years, subject to removal by information, or by indictment of a grand jury, and conviction of a petit jury. In case of vacancy, the judge of the district court shall have the power to appoint a clerk, who shall hold until the office can be filled by election.”
However that election must be made by a unanimous vote of the eight judges. In a previous meeting last week Tuesday, two of the judges could not attend and the selection was moved up a week to today.
The judges were under the gun to appoint someone unanimously - because if they couldn't - it would have been left up to Gov. Greg Abbott to make the appointment, something the eight Democrats did not want to happen.
Ortiz ran for the position held by her former boss Aurora de la Garza and lost in a runoff election against Garza in May 2014. Garza was also a deputy district clerk under De la Garza. Garza drew 5,476 votes while Ortiz drew 4,958 votes, a 528 vote difference of the 10,434 votes cast.
No one challenged Garza in 2018.
If there are no Republican candidates for county district clerk, Ortiz might be replaced by the winning candidate of the Democratic party primary March 3. If there is, she might remain interim clerk
until the November general election.
Ortiz, as did potential appointees to the office, pledged that she would not be a candidate in the next elections.
The judges said that they would not appoint someone who would run for the office during the March primaries so as not to give the individual an unfair advantage of incumbency over other potential candidates.
Brownsville Independent School District trustee and Cameron County Court-at-Law #3 court administrator Laura Perez-Reyes and district clerk office staffer Diego Alonso Hernandez have also announced they are candidates this March. BISD Record Manager Matin Arambula is also said to be interested in running.