CANDIDATES FOR JP 2-3 THICK AND HEAVY

By Juan Montoya
At first it was just Maria Esther Garcia who was known to be running for the new position of Justice of the Peace 2-3. Garcia listed Lynette Benavides, of Brownsville as her treasurer.
The appointment of a treasurer allows the candidates to raise funds for the coming campaign.
Now we understand that the opening of the position has opened the floodgates of rumor and some of the names that are mentioned are startling, to say the least. Among them is former Pct. 2 Constable Pete Avila, who is now taking classes to become a more viable candidate, Mariano "Bean" Ayala, the perennial master of all ceremonies in Brownsville, and even Brownsville Independent School District trustee Minerva Peña.
We even now understand that City Commissioner Ricardo Longoria, who opted not to run against Sofia Benavides for Pct. 1 commissioner is also considering joining the fray.
Garcia is the court administrator for County-Court- at-Law 2 Laura Betancourt and the daughter of Cameron County Pct. 1 commissioner Sofie Benavides. From what we have been able to ascertain, Garcia is fairly well liked in the courthouse and from our previous experiences with that particular court – having had to pay for our legal transgressions in the pas – all we can say is that she treated lawyers, litigants and defendants in a professional, courteous, and efficient manner.
Avila lost to his nemesis Abel Gomez for constable and now apparently has decided that his years as a fire fighter and a law enforcement officer give him a leg up in the race against other candidates.
Garcia, however, has been with Betancourt for the better part of a decade and has probably overseen the dispensation of literally thousands of cases before her judge's court. It'll be difficult to beat her on the issue of experience.
Before she became the administrator of the court, she was also the office manager for former commissioner John Wood. That probably allowed her to rub elbows with most influential political heavyweights in the county, giving her a leg up on political contacts critical to get elected here.
And speaking of another JP office race, let's not forget that Erin Hernandez Garcia is also running this time around because she beat out Yolanda Begum in the last election to serve the unexpired term of Tony Torres. Many observers think that there may be a Begum-Hernandez rematch in the works.
We're still more than a year from the 2014 primaries and we can expect more candidates for these and other positions to emerge from both parties as the time goes on. For now, all we can say is that if this is any indication at the amount of interest in this race, there will probably be more coming out of the woodwork.