Make it count
>> Valley voters should get all the facts before casting a ballot.
With his guilty plea Friday on federal extortion charges, Jim Solis becomes the third former state legislator from the Rio Grande Valley to have a felony case come before the court in the past six months. Solis, of Harlingen, represented House District 38, northern Cameron County. Former Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores of Palmview, who represented District 36, was sentenced in December to five years of probation for his conviction on state charges of perjury and tampering with government records. And former Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra of South Padre Island, who represented District 43, saw federal charges of Medicaid fraud against her dropped in March. As Valley residents know all too well, such matters are hardly rare in this area. Changes will take a long time to achieve. In the meantime, it’s up to the voters to do all they can to elect honest people who wish to serve the public, not use them for self-enrichment. Yes, voting is important. But just as important is doing the work in order to cast well-informed votes. If more people did that, perhaps we might see fewer of our votes wasted on people who belong behind bars, not behind the dais.
