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ANDRADE RESIGNS: WILL CASCOS FOLLOW IN TONY GARZA'S FOOTSTEPS?
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By <b>Juan Montoya</b><br />With the resignation of Texas Secretary of State Esperanza "Hope" Andrade, will Gov. Rick Perry tap his longtime friend and supporter Cameron County Carlos Cascos to finish out her term in the footsteps of former county judge Tony Garza?<br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8xVx7Bcpa8-6bHKeKagFhbCRobucBhkoWAJbwhw-cW5Ju4mNZq17iXhWbcA-3Ih_G_X-frnpwiOWNfcZGci7YadfZn9FiP-9Iz6iu7x6STGCQvvrRsw_20_M-0zlQJwOHisact58KJvE/s1600/cascos-image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8xVx7Bcpa8-6bHKeKagFhbCRobucBhkoWAJbwhw-cW5Ju4mNZq17iXhWbcA-3Ih_G_X-frnpwiOWNfcZGci7YadfZn9FiP-9Iz6iu7x6STGCQvvrRsw_20_M-0zlQJwOHisact58KJvE/s1600/cascos-image.jpg" /></a>"The phone has been ringing off the hook," said a county receptionist. "Everybody is wondering whether Cascos would do if he was offered the position."</div><div>Observers say Cascos, in the middle of his four-year term after getting reelected in 2010, would probably not leave if asked, but the lure of statewide office is hard to underestimate. Given the performance of his elections administrator, it might be something he might not desire.</div><div>However, Garza translated his appointment to the SOS to catapult his political career to be chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission and later as the Ambassador to Mexico under George W. Bush. Before he left office he married the heiress of the Corona beer fortune whom he later divorced.</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxCKLTwHV2SanMJzRzjoVCt3G_-Q2M1fArZ_jK43XSc2ECLUXbnkziPv2tsj2ndTAvfRi07ojs9r_Vn4YErtjjTrtrz4V__oZpfMEgeDVlsUIHtsHyIMN0JIFHhJ2Q8X1wN0M8s0L7Jk/s1600/ANDRADE-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxCKLTwHV2SanMJzRzjoVCt3G_-Q2M1fArZ_jK43XSc2ECLUXbnkziPv2tsj2ndTAvfRi07ojs9r_Vn4YErtjjTrtrz4V__oZpfMEgeDVlsUIHtsHyIMN0JIFHhJ2Q8X1wN0M8s0L7Jk/s200/ANDRADE-150x150.jpg" width="200" /></a>Andrade was the first Hispanic woman to hold the post and announced her resignation effective on Friday. In a letter to Gov. Rick Perry, Andrade said her four and a half years as secretary of state and Texas’ chief elections officer has been “the highest honor of my professional life.†She is the fourth longest serving secretary of state in Texas history.</div><div>She was a businesswoman and native of San Antonio and has presided over five statewide elections. Among the gains he mentioned in her letter of resignation she cited her efforts to increase outreach and information resources for voters during her tenure. </div><div>Voter registration reached a record high of 13.65 million in October in advance of this year’s general election. But her office came under some criticism earlier this year for seeking to have suspected dead persons removed from voter rolls â€" an effort that was later halted by a state judge after notices were sent to thousands of “living†voters who were told that their names were about to be removed from the rolls unless they took action. </div><div>Many wrote the SOS that â€" like Mark Twain â€" notice of their death was premature.</div><div>Dallas County election officials opted not to follow the secretary of state’s directive to purge voter rolls</div><div>Under her tenure, countless independent candidates had their petitions for different positions rejected for inconsequential discrepancies. Don De Leon, a Brownsville independent candidate sued Andrade even though his lawsuit was later dismissed.</div><div><div>She was appointed secretary of state by Gov. Perry in 2008 after previously serving as the chair of the Texas Transportation Commission. As secretary of state, Andrade also served as senior advisor to the governor for Texas border and Mexican affairs, and as the chief international protocol officer for the state. </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-857556206423583847?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/11/andrade-resigns-will-cascos-follow-in.html
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A CHARMED EXISTENCE: UTB'S BEN REYNA
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<br />By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />In October 2001, Browntown was all atwitter.<br />President George W. Bush had just nominated former Brownsville Police Chief Benigno G. Reyna as the Director of the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), "America's oldest federal law enforcement agency."<br /><a href="http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2005/06/24/PH2005062401640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img align="bottom" alt="Outgoing U.S. Marshals Service Director Benigno G. Reyna, with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, background, has led the 4,200-member Marshals Service since October 2001." border="0" height="241" src="http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2005/06/24/PH2005062401640.jpg" width="400" /></a>Reyna took office on December 5, 2001.<br />For a small-town cop in charge of some 130 officers to suddenly find himself at the head of an agency with a staff of 4,200 and a budget of $733 million was heady stuff. A hometown boy had done good. Reyna had been in the BPD for some 25 years before being named Chief of Police in 1995, a position he left in 2001 to go to Washington at the behest of W.<br />According to a<em> Washington Post</em> article, he almost immediately faced skepticism from judges and regional U.S. marshals about his experience for the job.The US Marshals Service had come under fire from judges over the issue of security of judges and their families when Reyna headed the agency. He was soon the target of criticism about judicial security lapses and his leadership from federal judges and some members of Congress.<br />Then â€" only three years into his tenure â€" the Justice Department's Inspector General issued a report in 2004 critical of the way the US Marshals assessed threats against judges. Congress felt strongly enough about the issue that it authorized $12 million to spent on security systems for the homes of federal judges. Of 1,700 judges who requested these systems be installed, only 500 have received them before an event galvanized protest against his leadership.<br />The straw that broke the camel's back and which drove Reyna to resign came after typically reserved judges publicly criticized his management to Congress after a frustrated litigant broke into the Chicago home of U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow in February and killed her husband and mother. <br />They complained that Reyna had failed to devote staff and money to the service's primary duty of protecting judges and was channeling resources into other projects. <br />The <em>Washington Post</em> story said that in a private meeting with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in March, several federal judges on a national judicial leadership committee urged him to consider removing Reyna from office.<br />When Reyna could not weather the congressional onslaught, Gonzales announced his resignation without explanation and thanked him for his service. <br />"Benigno Reyna has served as director of the U.S. Marshals Service with integrity and skill," Gonzales, who would also take his turn at the resignation podium later, said in a statement. "As a law enforcement officer with more than 29 years of experience, he has shown steadfast leadership in directing the Service in the months and years following the September 11th attacks, as well during its work with state and local law enforcement in Operation Falcon, which resulted in the arrests of more than 10,000 fugitives." <br />Leaving Washington D.C. in disgrace and heading home, Reyna was soon taken under the wing of University of Texas-Texas Southmost College partnership President Juliet Garcia and a position was made for him in the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs as a Special Assistant to the V-P for Administrative Affairs at $100,000 a year.<br />That increased to $102,000 in 2006-2007, $104,040 in 2007-2008, $106,000 in 2008-2009, and finally to $108,233 from 2010 until today. However, he no longer is assistant in academic affairs. His niche is now described as Administrative asst. to the Office of the Provost for Governmental Affairs. <br />What does Reyna do to earn his keep besides relish the memories and photographs of his time in the Big Leagues before he was ushered out the back door? Like many of the high-paid underachievers in Garcia's coterie, his major qualification is that he is her staunch supporter. In Browntown, as at UTB, that's really all that matters, isn't it?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-4124338911933294187?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-charmed-existence-utbs-ben-reyna.html
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