RAYMONDVILLE — Willacy County voters made a clean sweep out of office for incumbents in the Democratic Party runoff’s three contested races.
In the race for county’s top prosecutor’s badge Tuesday, Raymondville attorney Annette Hinojosa defeated two-term incumbent Bernard Ammerman.
After 28 years in local politics, County Commissioner Fred Serrato lost his Precinct 3 seat to Lyford Mayor Henry De La Paz.
And in the race for Precinct 2’s constable’s job, peace officer Jose Salazar won 258 votes to defeat longtime incumbent Hector Tijerina, who took 142 votes.
“They were all incumbents,” said Lefty Cavazos, chairman of the county’s Democratic Party. “That’s a good indication that change is on the horizon. Other politicians better start looking at that.”
For about 28 years, Serrato held the County Commission’s Precinct 3 seat, undefeated in his long political career.
But De La Paz won 137 votes to defeat Serrato, who fell short with 115 votes.
“It’s a great feeling,” said De La Paz, a loan company director who has served as Lyford’s mayor since 2009. “We worked an extremely, extremely smart campaign.”
“We did a lot of strategizing, a lot of social media and a lot of signage and a lot of walking the streets. You’re not there for 28 years without a big following,” De La Paz said of Serrato.
De La Paz said his campaign focused on building support in northwest Lyford’s Precinct 9, where Serrato won heavy support in the March primary election.
“We worked on trying to close the gap in that precinct, which worked,” he said. “Winning by 32 votes against an incumbent of 28 years is big.”
Serrato, a former deputy sheriff who was first elected to the commission in 1985, served through 2004, when he chose not to seek re-election. Then in 2008, he returned to office.
“It had to come some time,” Serrato said of his first defeat.
During his campaign, Serrato said he handed out about 2,000 flyers touting his long record.
But De La Paz worked harder on his campaign, Serrato said.
“He did a lot of politicking — I didn’t,” Serrato said.
But Serrato remains proud of his record.
“I’m satisfied with what I’ve done,” Serrato said. “I’ve been there a long time. I appreciate it. I thank the people. But that’s enough.”
Cavazos called the race for the district attorney’s job the “hottest” in the county.
Hinojosa, a longtime Raymondville attorney who has served as a public defender in state District court, pulled support from backers of longtime District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra to win 1,386 votes to Ammerman’s 1,327.
Ammerman, president of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said he ran on his record as a prosecutor who helped bring the county’s crime rate to a 10-year low, slashing violent crime by 43 percent.
But Hinojosa argued Ammerman became an over-zealous prosecutor who sought convictions over what she called “true justice.”
