Sunday, April 5, 2009
Editorial: Joe Adame Elected -- Will he rise above the limitations of the EDC Crowd?
Joe Adame is elected Mayor at Saturday (April 4) election; Henry Garrett ( as one political observer put it), “puffed away like an old cobweb into the distance.” What does the insider’s mathematical results of the election reveal?
Do the election results reveal a major leap in the dominant political structure in Corpus Christi?
The answer: NO!!!
Do the election results reveal a major departure from the status quo of the way the municipality has been running?
The answer: No!!!
Do the election results in their substantive analysis reveal we really have both a new face and voice in its figurative sense?
The answer: No!!
It reveals one very obvious fact that the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation (known as the EDC for short) reorganized after loosing their loyals on the city council. The major impetus for the following was fulled by the firing of “Skip” Noe as city manager.
Mayor Garrett was forced at some point to either align with the Pro-Growth’s agenda (EDC’s) or the Smart Growth’s (non-EDC’s). Loosing confidence in “Skip” Noe as City Manager marked a significant removal of the linch-pin and hold that the EDC “Shadow” elite had on the city council. Noe, in my estimation, had been the top administrative official that was for the most part serving as “Mr. Gadget” and emissary for the elite Corporate Sponsors of the EDC (e.g., Al Jones – President of American Bank; Mike Carrol – President of Frost Bank; Contractors Joe Fulton/Mike Barnett and Berry Construction, and so forth). The appointment of Angel Escobar as City Manager (Mayor Garrett being the swing vote – one can add the name of Melody Cooper also) raised the ire of the opposition (EDC elite) which was playing a low key role retrenched.
With what variables in mind did they retrench? The EDC elite that for the most part dominates the internal focus of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation as a whole (known as the EDC) were aware that the ethnic demographics, and thus and so in this election were going to favor a candidate with an Hispanic surname in the next election cycle.
Joe Adame, whose father was a pharmacist in Robstown and a friend of the late Dr. Hector P. Garcia) (founder of the American GI Forum), because their investment. Their first return: the election results on April 4.
The final question: Will Mayor-elect Adame have an epiphany and rise above the limitations of the EDC?
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