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Ciro wins one Rodriguez's re-election hopes alive; Cuellar to fight ruling BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer Wednesday afternoon, attorneys in the drawn-out electoral battle between Henry Cuellar and Ciro Rodriguez received the long-awaited phone call from the 4th Court of Appeals. In a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel reversed the ruling of the lower court, stating the visiting trial judge erred when he did not allow Rodriguez to introduce evidence of alleged voting irregularities. The case has been remanded back to Laredo for trial although no date has been set. Just last week, Cuellar expressed confidence the court would...

Ballot recount begins in District 28 race BY LAUREL ALMADA Times staff writer The results of the U.S. Congressional District 28 recount are expected to be in later today, after the court appointed committee counting the ballots completes the process. The second recount began Thursday morning at the Webb County Justice Center's central jury room. "It's been going well," Henry Cuellar spokesman T.J. Connolly said Thursday evening. "The people in charge did a commendable job of organizing." U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez spokesperson John Puder shared a different opinion. "It's gone very slow," he said, adding that he believes the process...

Recount lawsuit ruling to be made in Laredo BY MATT JOYCE Associated Press Writer AUSTIN - Attorneys for Henry Cuellar Thursday accused U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of improperly "trolling" for ineligible voters in his effort to overturn election results after a recount of the District 28 Democratic primary. Cuellar's team made the arguments at a hearing as they began studying a list of about 260 Webb County voters that Rodriguez's camp identified as possibly illegal. Steve Bickerstaff, a Cuellar attorney, urged District Judge Joseph Hart of Austin to dismiss Rodriguez's lawsuit partly because Rodriguez failed to specify his complaints when...

Fraud allegations disputed BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer Webb County Commissioner Judith Gutierrez blasted the Ciro Rodriguez camp and the San Antonio Express-News Wednesday for their "continued allegations and inferences" that electoral fraud occurred in Webb and Zapata counties. She was referring to the recount of ballots in the hotly contested race for Congressional District 28 involving Laredoan Henry Cuellar and incumbent Rodriguez of San Antonio. "Enough is enough. If you have any evidence of fraud, prove it," Gutierrez said, referring to "one-sided news reports" and a particularly biting Thursday piece by Express-News columnist Ken Rodriguez. "It is an...

Election count facing scrutiny by state party Cuellar takes 203-vote lead BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer Roberto Balli, Webb County Democratic Party chairperson, filed an affidavit Thursday asking for a recount of the recount in Webb County, because of electoral irregularities and possible fraud in the congressional race between Ciro Rodriguez and Henry Cuellar. Balli sent the notarized affidavit to Charles Soechting, chairperson of the Texas Democratic Party in Austin. Soechting is expected to make a decision Friday morning. Meanwhile, Cuellar claimed victory Thursday over Rodriguez by 203 votes, after all 11 counties completed their recount of ballots cast...

Cuellar takes lead District 28 recount gets complicated BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer Only in South Texas: the curse of Duval County's infamous Ballot Box 13 episode, which elected Lyndon B. Johnson to the U.S. Senate in 1948, has come to roost in Webb and Zapata counties. That's how political observers are viewing the startling development in the recount of Democratic primary ballots cast in Webb County and Zapata County in the hotly contested congressional race between Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio and challenger Henry Cuellar of Laredo. During a recount of ballots Tuesday morning, Zapata County election officials...

Ciro claims narrow win BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer By an amazing 126-vote margin out of 48,542 total votes cast, Laredoan Henry Cuellar lost his second bid for U.S. Congress to incumbent Ciro Rodriguez (D-San Antonio) in the March 9 primary. Cuellar was running in the Democratic primary against Rodriguez for the 11-county Congressional District 28 seat. "We expected it to be a tight race, but not this tight," Cuellar said early Wednesday afternoon. "This should be a wake-up call to voters who say their vote doesn't count. Yes it does." Cuellar received 24,208 votes, or 49.87 percent of...