J.D. Salinas for County Judge?...His newspaper ads are sending mixed messages...

Political ads have always been a favorite read for me. It's right up there with the comic strips. Only during election season do we see candidates throwing worthless information, spinning it to look important, and make the opponent look like a spawn of the devil incarnate. Take for instance, a political ad in today's The Monitor Valley & State section, page 4B. It looks to me like Mr. Salinas is making due with his $400,000 in loans by putting a half page ad denouncing Ramon Garcia as a spendthrift, and laissez faire stance on issues. The political ad reads,"Who is really looking out for taxpayers?" Then we see a picture of Ramon Garcia next to the headline "$6 Million in the red, health care money revoked on Ramon Garcia's watch." Salinas inserts two newspaper article headlines by The Monitor having to do with money the Valley lost to build a clinic and provide local health care for the indigent population. The first article is titled, "County judge appealing for revoked funds." Salinas' camp contends that Ramon Garcia "let it(money) sit there idle until the state took it away." Well, there's more to the story than that. I went to The Monitor's web site and checked the archives, and read the full article. Apparently, the money got tied up in a political tug of war between Hidalgo County and Cameron County because the money was supposed to fund a clinic that would serve both counties. Even State Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa is quoted as saying, "What happened was the Health District took a long time to set up." Dr. Linda Villarreal, the report states as being a Health District board member, adds that "the money was never really the counties to begin with". The money, she says, is "provided to a region as a whole, not for specific projects". This means the state is basically saying,"Look here's money set aside for health care, do with it what you need to do." Unfortunately, as Senator Hinojosa stated, the Health District took too long to set up. As a result, County Judge Ramon Garcia wrote a letter to Governor Rick Perry, asking for the $6 million back. It didn't happen because San Antonio got on the ball, and received some of those funds for a children's clinic. The rest of the money went to health care facilities around the state that were already set up, and not caught up in bureaucratic red tape. The next headline in the political ad has to do with the following. It states, "Hidalgo County has the largest indigent population in the state and the financial burden falls on local taxpayers." Well, that's true in the sense that we as taxpayers foot the bill when there is no government funding. But to blame this on the County Judge, well, I don't care who you are, not even a superhero could be held responsible for the high population of indigent people in Hidalgo County. The statement has to do with an article that appeared in The Monitor on February 1st, of this month. The headline of the report says, "Patients increasing while funds decreasing". The report states that "The Hidalgo County Indigent Health Care program's budget fell short in 2005". This of course being the direct result of our area not receiving the $6 million dollars from the state. What the political ad fails to show is what the county did to relieve some of the budget woes. The report cites Hidalgo County Budget analyst Raul Silguero stating, "money will be transferred from the contingency fund, which is leftover money from job vacancies, insurance, costs and unspent money". Ramon Garcia, of course put a hiring freeze in affect back in mid-November which was to have lasted until the end of the year. Sounds like fiscal responsibility to me. The problem with these political ads lately is that candidates are expecting us to take every thing they claim as facts. In reality, they're a bunch of half-truths spun into intriguing little snippets to make the average voter take a candidate's word for it. I for one feel a change coming full on, and the days of the average voter are over.