By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com
Armando Villalobos
Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos spoke candidly Tuesday about his congressional campaign during an exclusive interview with the San Benito News and Port Isabel-South Padre Press.
But before discussing his platform, Villalobos first addressed a bevy of issues that have circulated since he made his intentions known.
In October, fundraising conducted by the Armando Villalobos for Congress Exploratory Committee led some to believe a campaign had been launched due to the amount of monies raised.
Villalobos felt otherwise.
“I followed rules of the IRS code, and as long as we followed those rules I would not be declared a candidate,” he said. “The question was did I raise enough money to declare candidacy, and I do not believe so. The amount of money that I hoped to raise was $500,000 to $600,000, and at that time (when first inquired) it was at $80,000.”
The passage of the Texas Automatic Resignation Term Length Amendment in November also had to be taken into account as certain elected officials – city and county mainly – were now given a window of one year and 30 days prior to the expiration of their current term to announce candidacy to another office, otherwise face automatic resignation should they precede said window.
Considering as much, Villalobos was originally scheduled to make his official announcement declaring a bid for United States Congress, District 27, inside San Benito High School at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Dec. 2 – the date in which he was no longer subject to the resign-to-run law as per the aforementioned term length amendment.
However, the DA said complications arose when Governor Rick Perry had not canvassed the votes making the amendment official until Monday, Dec. 5, thus prompting Villalobos to reschedule the announcement, albeit at the same time and place, until Thursday, Dec. 8.
“Now I can campaign for Congress and still serve as DA,” Villalobos said. A San Benito High School graduate of 1986, Villalobos’ term as district attorney, a position he’s held since 2003 will not expire until Dec. 31, 2012.
Furthermore, Villalobos then had to contend with more questions that arose as to whether he was required to resign his post due to invitations emailed on Nov. 23. These invites, which were for a campaign kick-off event slated Dec. 8, again led many to consider Villalobos a candidate and thus subject to the resign-to-run law. The DA has since gone on record stating that the emails were sent by his exploratory committee and has yet to make any official announcement for Congress, at least until the Dec. 8 SBHS event.
Indeed, Villalobos’ intentions to run for Congress have made headlines in recent months, but the native San Benitian plans on putting much of that behind him up in hopes of focusing on his Congressional run and remaining duties as DA.
Villalobos, a 45-year-old Democrat, will be running in District 27, which now includes Cameron, Willacy, Kenedy, Kleberg and most of Nueces County. “It cuts out 30 percent of Corpus Christi, including the home of Blake Farenthold, who will be running in the new district (34) his home is in.”
With the Democratic Primary scheduled for March 6, 2012, Villalobos plans on concentrating much of the aspects of his forthcoming campaign on his lower Valley residency, which he said would be a first if elected.
“The way that the district is being modified almost guarantees that the congressional person will come from Cameron County,” he said. “It is weighted in our favor. So if our county were to unite behind one candidate, we need to make sure we select one Congressperson. That’s historic. We’ve never had one Congressperson come from our area. We were either paired with Corpus or McAllen. This is our shot at getting representation to advocate for this particular area, where we have control over it.”
Local representation is one of the driving factors that initially led Villalobos to consider running for Congress.
“As district attorney, a lot of the things that I work with are federal grants and federal agencies, so working with the grants and the agencies, it became apparent to me that my area has been neglected,” he said. “Our country is a very wealthy country, and a lot of our problems are due to mismanagement of that wealth. We didn’t really have a voice at the table.”
“For example,” he continued, “the stimulus money that Obama made available when he was first elected was being sent out to different agencies and municipalities. Our area was not successful in getting the amount of money that the Corpus and San Antonio areas received. We were getting short changed.”
Pick up a copy of the Dec. 11 edition of the San Benito News for an update.
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