You can take it to the bank.
Lali Betancourt, sister of county court-at-law Laura and the county treasurer David Betancourt is Team Saenz's candidate to challenge Cameron County Clerk Sylvia Garza Perez.
"It's a done deal," said a source close to the group. "She has already designed her signs and logo and it's just a matter to time before she announces."
Betancourt has been a student services coordinator with the San Benito Consolidated Independent School District's Gateway Academy since 2007 and also calls herself a "social studies investigator" of the circumstances, conditions and welfare of minor children. She faces the incumbent who took office in 2014 and whose term ends in 2018.
Garza-Perez knows a little about the hurly-burly world of Democratic party politics. In the 2014 primary she beat out four other candidates and then went on to the runoff and beat Arnold Flores, the former Cameron County Human Resources director. With no Republican on the ballot for the general election that November, she breezed in for the win.
In the picture above, Betancourt is sitting on the far left side as the group discusses strategy for the coming primary election in 2018. At far right is Mario Saenz, brother of Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, sitting to his right wearing his signature red tie.
Why would Team Saenz get involved in the county clerk's race? Local observers remember that Garza-Perez threw her support behind the incumbent's challenger Carlos Masso in 2016. Saenz barely eked out a win over Masso by 792 votes of more than 26,200 cast. They credit Saenz's win over Masso to his office's pushing for a grand jury to indict Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre on corruption charges a few months before the election.
Nonetheless, Cameron County residents kept Yzaguirre in office by voting him in while he was awaiting trial with more than 49,194 votes over the 15,973 cast in favor of two write-in candidates. A jury in Nueces County acquitted Yzaguirre of 23 charges, a huge discredit on Saenz's record.
Some county officials predicted that Yzaguirre would be convicted and were already planning to appoint David Betancourt to fill Yzaguirre's position. However, since Yzaguirre had won, Garza_Perez – following the directives of the commissioners court – swore him in and had him sign his office holder's bond, stymieing the effort to replace him.
What role will Masso and Yzaguirre have on Team Saenz's push to elect Betancourt in 2018? We predict it will be more than anyone thinks.