Special to El Rrun-Rrun
In 2012, Donald Clupper, a retired Porter High School math teacher ran for Position 5 against former Brownsville Independent School District board president Caty Presas-Garcia and J.M. “Butch” Barbosa, a former Brownsville city commissioner.
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He came in dead last with 8,189 votes, 4,373 votes behind Presas-Garcia, who received 12,571 votes.
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Clupper who apparently thinks that the anti-LNG block might boost his candidacy against Benavides might want to rethink this assumption. During the last city election for District 4, John Villarreal got the vociferous support from the West Bike Trail against Ben Neece and ended up losing.
In 2012, Donald Clupper, a retired Porter High School math teacher ran for Position 5 against former Brownsville Independent School District board president Caty Presas-Garcia and J.M. “Butch” Barbosa, a former Brownsville city commissioner.
He came in dead last with 8,189 votes, 4,373 votes behind Presas-Garcia, who received 12,571 votes.Now, after his last public foray at the Cameron County Commissioners Court to protest the tax-abatement to an LNG plant, apparently Clupper feels like he is riding on the crest of a wave of public support that will propel him to victory over incumbent Pct. 1 commissioner Sofia Benavides.
He filed against Benavides today, the last day to file for the March primaries.
The last time Benavides ran for Pct. 1 she had three opponents and ended up prevailing over Post of Brownsville Leasing Director Beatrice Rosenbaum by just over 1,000 votes.
However, it should be noted that Benavides drew 3,392 votes of the 6,392 votes cast, or about 49.2 percent, just shy of the 50 percent plus 1 that would have not made a runoff necessary.
Clupper who apparently thinks that the anti-LNG block might boost his candidacy against Benavides might want to rethink this assumption. During the last city election for District 4, John Villarreal got the vociferous support from the West Bike Trail against Ben Neece and ended up losing.That's one danger of pegging hitching your candidacy to a one-issue group.
Though vociferous, they have not demonstrated that they cannot draw the voters to go for or against candidates on the one issue they care about. On the LNG side, supporters say that the Port of Brownsville needs industry to create jobs and giving incentives to plants like the LNGs is one way to do that.
Though vociferous, they have not demonstrated that they cannot draw the voters to go for or against candidates on the one issue they care about. On the LNG side, supporters say that the Port of Brownsville needs industry to create jobs and giving incentives to plants like the LNGs is one way to do that.
Clupper apparently thinks that those who accompanied him to protest the abatement vote will turn the tide, but many of those were retirees from Laguna Heights, who do not vote in Pct. 1. Will that single issue swing the tide? Apparently, Clupper is of a mind that it will.