Slow Run-Offs...Delayed decisions...What's our alternative?...No free lunch for these candidates...

Slow morning at the polls as I drove around town this morning. Which wasn't entirely unexpected. In a county where only 13% of the more than two hundred fifty thousand eligible voters turning out for the March primary, this decline was bound to happen. What is unexpected is this sudden flopping back and forth in my mind as to who I should vote for the next Hidalgo County District Attorney.

On one hand we have an incumbent District Attorney who isn't the most personable human being on the planet. But so what, right? If we're voting a person to elected office on the premise that we have a guaranteed smile and a handshake every time we see them at the local convenience store while grabbing our favorite breakfast taco, we're in bigger trouble than I thought. It shouldn't be about that really. And in most cases, it isn't for me, except when it comes to how these elected officials get it into their heads that all of a sudden our voice isn't important anymore. And at twenty three years in office, I wonder if Rene Guerra has forgotten that, i.e. how he handled the Irene Garza case, "if you believe pigs can fly", etc. Frustration is what I felt. Here was a man, in essence, and maybe he didn't mean it this way, but it came across this way, who made it seem to us that his office is his business and we as citizen's have no right to second guess his decisions. Well, maybe, or maybe not. But one thing's for sure, this is an elected position that most of us have grown tired of the same treatment from a District Attorney who finally realises he has to do the whole smile, dog and pony show for us if he wants our votes. Hence the negative campaign ads against his opponent, Alma Garza.

That's our alternative. An opponent who is married to as Rene Guerra put it, "his nemesis" on Valley Newsline this past Sunday. He also went on to say that the reason he moved Alma Garza from the one office to another while she was at the D.A.'s office was because of his newly found knowledge that Garza was connected to Hector Villarreal. Talk about not giving someone the credit they deserve to stand on their own. To make the decision to run for District Attorney on her own terms, on her own record. No, Guerra had to bring in the issue of her husband being behind the decision to run for District Attorney all along. Which is at most, an unfair assessment of her decision to run. But then again, maybe our District Attorney knows something we don't. In which case, it was pretty naughty of him to just give us a tidbit of the whole picture, the tip of the iceberg to what the citizens of Hidalgo County would be in for if we elect Alma Garza. Should we worry then, that because Garza is married to a powerful attorney, this may lead to a conflict of interest somewhere down the line? Maybe so, maybe so. Then we're back to square one.

Trying to figure out who is the best alternative, or as most political enthusiasts would say, "the lesser of the two evils" is not an easy task, especially this year, when my vote for another elected official didn't get me what I thought our county deserved. Jesus, this whole run-off fiasco just causes headaches and ulcers. One of which I already have, the other is just a matter of time, and enough of these types of situations to get it going. Ben Franklin is quoted as saying, "the only sure things in life are death and taxes". Yes, but add that to a law of economics which states, "There's no such thing as free lunch".

I suspect our candidates got a taste of that during this run-off election.