Nueces County filings

The Nueces County Democratic Party Headquarters was a zoo yesterday evening as candidates rushed to beat the filing deadline. Go to the NCDP website to see the final list of candidates.

Nueces County Sheriff Larry Olivarez resigned to run for Nueces County Judge (Terry Shamsie declined to run for reelection) and six Democrats filed to replace him. An interim Sheriff was appointed by the County Commissioners yesterday in a shocker that stunned the new acting Sheriff, Rebecca Stutts. Stutts had not applied for the job was there to support Chief Deputy Jimmy Rodriguez for the job. Stutts is the county's first female sheriff.

Other open positions with multiple filings included:

- Nueces County Democratic Chair, with 5 candidates. (Solomon Ortiz, Jr., declined to run for reelection.)

- Nueces County Court at Law No. 3, with 5 candidates. (Judge Marisela Saldana decided to run for the 148th District Court after Judge Rose Vela announced she would not be running for reelection.)

In another shocker, longtime Democrat Judge Rose Vela decided to run for the 13th Court of Appeals as a Republican.

pro-corporate/anti-consumer judges (the ones who have Republican staff attorneys) got opponents, which is right, but I'm disappointed that Rose ran as a Republican. How close did Corpus Christi Republican Alicia Cuellar come to beating Valley Democrat Judge Yanez last go round?

Sounds about right to me!

she was really a joke of a candidate--long story short, she kept getting whipped in the Dem Primary and switched to the Republicans. She got no support from the Republican Party, either.

Tokyo Rose is a different story. She and hubby Phil (Filemon Vela, Jr.) are gazillionairs, and Phil's dad was a HIGHLY respected Dem judge in the Valley. She could have easily won, had she run as a Democrat. Rumor has it she is looking for an appointment from either the state or federal Repubs--or purchasing an appointment, if you listen to the most cynical (that'd be me.) The 13th district is probably the bluest in TX: Rose is the one and only Repub running in it, and believe me, if the Rs thought they had a snowball's chance in Brownsville, they'd be fielding candidates.

There are some other odd aspects to this story, but I don't know if a soul outside Nueces County would be interested. If you want a few more strange details, just ask.

which seems awfully close when you consider that Yanez a hero of the working man and Cuellar is a certifiable nutcase.

I'd love to hear more about any odd aspects to the story -- I'm completely dumbfounded by Rose's surprise flip.

but Yanez was one of the more difficult candidates I worked with. Quick to criticize, and "thanks for a job well done" was not in her vocabulary.

Here's the odd part. Joel Yowell, LONG time Repub County Chair had someone named Mike Bertuzzi file against him the 1st day (12-3.) Yowell was rumored to have claimed that Bertuzzi was one of a group of "disgruntled former Dems" who were trying to "take over" the county Repub Party. A few Dems said they thought Bertuzzi WAS a Dem, but most of us thought Yowell was just bad-mouthing his opponent, so no one checked it out. Tokyo Rose also NEVER contacted Yowell (or the state Repub Party) about her plans to switch--he was as stunned as Ortiz (Dem chair) about it. Lo and behold, Bertuzzi was in the inner circle of Rose's original campaign for District Judge as a Dem.

On the Dem side, attorney Mikal Watts has his finger in EVERY judicial race. One of my friends, a Dem activist for almost 50 years, says this is the strangest election year she's ever seen. It's obvious that Watts is trying to control the Dem side. The $64,000 question--Is Yowell correct about the Vela gang trying to control the Repubs? And why are two multi-millionaire attorneys simultaneously making a power play on both sides? I don't know--but it smells to high heaven.

Like everyone else, Watts is generally supporting Democratic incumbents. Certainly, those incumbents do not owe their candidacies to Watts.

In the open races, I'm pretty sure Watts is supporting Judge Saldana in the 148th who is a sitting judge running against a newcomer and every single attorney I know is also supporting Judge Saldana and supporting Galvan in the 94th against a candidate who is literally not qualified based on her youth (but she will meet the minimum requirement by election time) and every attorney I know who has heard about Hernandez's recent problems in a local federal court is supporting Galvan out of a concern that Hernandez will not likely beat the Republican challenger if she wins the primary. Also, both Saldana and Galvan planned their candidacies long before approaching many financial backers, including Watts among many others. I'm not sure who Watts is supporting in County Court #3, but with 6 candidates it is obvious that no one "picked" the judge or even the Democratic nominee, and none of the 5 Democratic nominees are "Watts's candidate."

I'd heard the same thing about Bertuzzi. I'm wondering what's afoot. I also noticed that Juan Reyna announced as a Republican for County Court #3, but I thought Reyna was a Democrat. Was I wrong about Reyna or is he part of the Vela-Bertuzzi shift and -- if so -- were Reyna's, Vela's, and Bertuzzi's moves coordinated?

from what I've heard. He is part of the Vela shift to the dark side. I am pretty sure it's coordinated. A person in the DA's office (who works with Sales, the Republican filing for the 94th) was the one who told me about Yowell's comments regarding Bertuzzi way back on Dec. 3, 1st day of filing. You may be right about Galvan: however, potential candidates usually start making the banquet rounds in the fall--and Galvan has been invisible, while Hernandez has been really working the circuit. Watts is a smooth operator, but I've heard from two people I trust completely (an attorney and a wife of an attorney) that Watts is involved in (at the least) every district court race, plus the county judge and county chair races. I don't know exactly why Watts is involved in the last two races, but I know he IS involved--which is why it's so strange. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't trust Watts; he has literally looked me in the eye and lied to me on two separate occasions. As far as I'm concerned, you only get one free pass. Anybody can make a mistake, but twice in a row begins to demonstrate a pattern of behavior--and Watts has failed my "trust test." I no longer believe a word he says.

Hunter he wouldn't run unless Hunter stepped aside and was waiting for Hunter to officially announce his intentions and so the cramped timing of Galvan's campaign is a direct result of Hunter's inability to make a decision. Nueces County will not miss Hunter (a judge who cannot make a decision: go figure).

With respect to Watts being involved in every race, I don't doubt that. I bet there are quite a few Democrats who are involved in every race. If I had half of Watts's money, I'd be involved in every race!

Although Hunter waited forever to announce it, everyone and their yellow dog knew he wasn't running by the 1st of December.

would not announce until after Hunter made his decision public -- not because Galvan did not know what Hunter was 99% likely to do but out of respect for Hunter. That's just what I had heard from friends of Galvan who heard it directly from Galvan.

Hey we love strange details, so don't worry about filling us in as long as the reporting is accurate.

Sonia

Wild Filing Finale
http://stxc.blogspot.com/2006/01/wild-filing-finale.html
Saw that they were calling Rose Vela - Tokyo Rose. And Vilma Luna drew no Democrat candidate challengers. That's interesting.


Sonia