Tuesday, May 20, 2014

NAME THAT PARTY: Corruption scandal looms over Precinct 2 runoff

5/20/2014


Early voting starts today for the runoffs and in the race for Ernie Hernandez’s seat the winner will finish his term.
Alex Dominguez and Leonel Lopez are vying for the seat of Cameron County Commissioner Precinct 2.
The winner will take the position in June.
Both Dominguez and Lopez have as a mission regaining the public's trust.
“Even before the criminal cases came out I was determined to do this because I wasn't satisfied with the type of job that he was doing in office,” Dominguez said.
Commissioner Ernie Hernandez stepped down a few weeks ago as part of a plea deal to avoid jail time following his arrest on an eight count indictments.
Seven of the eight charges were dropped.
Hernandez did accept responsibility for the charge of coercion of a public official.
“He took the high road and he let us do what we needed to and we are there and we are going to do it," Lopez said.
Dominguez and Lopez say change is coming.
They say regaining the public's trust is a priority
“Communicating with our constituents,” Lopez said. “I don’t blame them I just realized that we need down here, we need to be more involved with our constituents let them be a part of the decision making too.”
Both candidates are also promising transparency.
Dominguez said that he plans on working to eliminate the image the Valley has of a corrupted region.
“To show the rest of the country that we are not corrupt, we are good people with a few bad apples and it’s our job to change things,” Dominguez said. “Right now what I can guarantee you that I will do is my door is always going to be open. My budget book, my check book will always be open to the people in the county so they can see where their tax dollars are going.”
While they promise change they also promise to complete those projects Hernandez never finished like fixing the streets of Cameron Park, lighting the colonias and building a park in Olmito.
However, their biggest promise is that they will be an open book to the public.
"Look beyond all the adds, come and get to know the people,” Rodriguez said. “Only in talking to the candidates are we able to decide who is going to help us. We have had enough negative attention on Cameron county and political candidates, we got to turn the page on that."
Neither of the candidates had anything negative to say about each other.
They actually have known each other for years.
Right now, Lopez and Dominguez are just asking the public to go out and vote.

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