Rodriguez to launch another challenge against troubled incumbent Flores

MISSION – Sandra Rodriguez had all but decided last month she wasn’t running again.

After a grueling 2008 campaign against incumbent state Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, the former teacher and juvenile probation officer had opted instead pursue a career as a licensed professional counselor.

But then, nagging second thoughts set in.

“I just had an unsettling feeling,” she said. “Some people were telling

me, ‘You’re the hope, we lost along time ago.”

Now, Rodriguez says she’s back in and even more committed to winning the House District 36 seat.

It would seem a second run against Flores couldn’t come at a more opportune time. In the past six months, the Palmview Democrat has been indicted by a Travis County grand jury, lost much of his clout in the Legislature with the ouster of former Rep. House Speaker Tom Craddick, and earned the disdain of Texas Monthly magazine, which described him as “a bully” in a June story.

"No sitting member has brought more discredit upon the Legislature," the article’s authors wrote. But those seemingly devastating setbacks are just the type of long-shot odds Flores likes to pride himself on overcoming.
“I’ve always said I’m a hard working individual, and I deliver for my district,” he said. “I imagine the outcome of the election will be the same.”

While neither candidate has officially kicked off their campaign, the 2010 Democratic primary race is already gearing up to be a repeat of 2008. Rodriguez secured nearly 48 percent of the vote in that election against
Flores’ 52.

This time around, Flores, 50, says he intends to run once again on results.

“Whether I’m in a leadership role or not, I know the process,” he said. “I get things done, and I bring home the bacon.”

During the 81st Legislative session, he fought hard to pass a bill offering property tax exemptions for veterans – too hard, according to some House colleagues who at times found his strong-arm tactics unseemly.

That hard-elbowed political style flared up during his last face off with Rodriguez, when the two candidates had to be separated by sheriff’s deputies during an argument outside of the Palmview offices of Hidalgo County’s Precinct 3. Criminal charges filed against him last month are nothing more than a distraction that he hopes to have resolved before the 2010 primary heats up, the seven-term incumbent said.

After an eight-month investigation, grand jurors concluded that Flores intentionally hid more than $847,000 in income and personal assets from state regulators, including gifts he had received from campaign contributors over a period of six years.

Flores’ attorneys have questioned whether the activity alleged constitutes a criminal act, and the representative has maintained his innocence. But Rodriguez – an ex-Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school board trustee and daughter of a former Mission City Councilman -- said the indictments speak for themselves.

“He’s pretty transparent at this point,” she said. “People know what Kino’s about now.”

She also plans to stick to the issues that gained her a strong following last year. Expanding the state’s children’s health insurance program and broadening access to higher education remain important topics that the 81st Legislature failed to fully address, she said.

And in what could be read as a bid to lure some of Flores’ strongest supporters, Rodriguez says she will lobby for better mental health services for local veterans.

“I won’t take any personal agenda to the Capitol,” she said. “I’ll take the people’s agenda. I want to return District 36 to the people.”

Official filing for the March 2010 primaries opens Dec. 3 and runs through Jan. 4. Both Flores and Rodriguez plan to officially kick off their campaigns next month.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.