(Ed.'s Note: In one of my previous lifetimes I was the campaign manager of a barrio candidate for county commissioner who was terrified of speaking in public. At the time he was running against the late (great) D.J. Lerma, commissioner for Pct. 1. Just as today, several civic groups had debates (or forums) where the candidates were supposed to give their views of the public issues. Since it would not do that there would be no one representing the views of the challenger against the incumbent, it fell on me to show up as my candidate's surrogate.
Now, D.J. was a first-rate attorney and he would have made mincemeat out of our guy. At the second forum (debate), he looked over where I was seated and asked: "Where's my opponent? Am I running against a ghost?" That brought the house down and all I could think of responding was a lame "Well, commissioner, maybe if you laid off the spirits you wouldn't see ghosts."
The photos above were sent to us by one of our seven readers who wondered why incumbent District 4 city commissioner John Villarreal was a no-show at the Brownsville Board of Realtors forum held at their offices on Central Blvd. In fact, incumbent At-Large "B" commissioner Rose Gowen also didn't show up because she was vacationing with her hubby who she said was a teacher who observes Spring Break after the Easter holiday. It would have been enlightening to hear her and Villarreal's explanation on how it has come to be that the city has spent more than $500,000 to fund the cyclobia events in downtown Brownsville, a point brought home by Villarreal's opponent Ben Neece and Gowen's challenger Erasmo Castro. With early voting beginning Monday, it's hard to argue with those who say that both incumbents are ducking debates with their challengers.)