PHIL VEL TAKES LEAD IN CONGRESSIONAL RACE

South Texas -- Candidate Phil Vela appears to be the front-runner in a congressional race now that District Attorney Armando Villalobos  (from the Valley) has been indicted on Federal Racketeering Charges.

A few days before early voting, a few days before candidates start pushing their campaign full throttle, candidate Villalobos in indicted and starkly dragged through the mud of repercussions. 

Villalobos' resultant campaign: frozen, insecure, devastated, sting-ed with shifting loyalties. How many are the feelings being expressed -- summed up in one word, perhaps "panic."  The polls, the odds machines quickly stamping outputs of "invalidity" -- in short, a floodgate of a "free for all" has been unleashed.

But the pragmatist analysts know and some have uttered: "Phil Vela is clearly in the lead. And clearly new appointments have taken priority: haircut, tailor, Juan "Shoe-Shine" Perez, a pow-wow with the core group and "think tank" to maximized the climate of the media."

One analyist stated: "Phil is probably staging a pilot run before the mirror for the grand debut: "Veterans, senors, those caught in the grindstone of poverty and struggle, don't lose hope, esperanza, I have picked up the flag of my Father and Mother before me in the political area as a public official -- WE WILL PEVAIL."

(Note: See link to Brownsville-Herald  http://www.valleycentral.com/   related to Armando Villalobos indictment.)