Nick Jimenez

Power struggle is behind Borchard's opposition

When County Judge Richard Borchard announced this week that he was opposing the expansion of the Port of Corpus Christi to include San Patricio County, the residents of Nueces County saw a side of Borchard they hadn't seen in a long time.
   In fact, that side of Borchard, the politician who sees dangers where none seem to exist, hadn't been seen since he first ran for election as county judge in 1994.
   In that election, Borchard emerged victorious, but muddied by the low-road campaign he ran against former City Councilman Ed Martin. Remember that peanut-eating-dog commercial? Remember Tri-Add?
   Borchard's campaign ads pumped a cloud of suspicion around Martin's participation in a public-private partnership to revitalize downtown. But in Borchard's campaign, Martin was transformed into a tool of the inside players, an example of "boss politics."
   "Did you ever watch a dog trying to eat peanut butter?" a memorable Borchard ad said. "Well, that's exactly how Ed Martin looks trying to explain his Tri-Add organization."
   The campaign was a low point in a local political history that has had more than its share of low points.
   Over the course of his tenure as county judge, Borchard has expended great effort to create a different image of himself. Among his first big wins was the transformation of the indigent medical care system. The Nueces County Commissioners Court, under Borchard's leadership, and the Nueces County Hospital District turned over operation of Memorial Medical Center and care of indigent patients to the Christus Spohn hospital system.
   Borchard further rehabilitated his image as political leader when he pushed a $38 million bond proposal two years ago that would have raised the John F. Kennedy Causeway and created a county fairgrounds. The bonds failed, but Borchard still received credit for putting his political reputation on the line.
   But Borchard, after first supporting the expansion of the port, reversed himself and announced he was opposing it. He pumped the same clouds of suspicion over San Patricio County that once had billowed around Martin: San Pat officials had dragged their feet on a boundary dispute. The expansion would mean a tax liability. San Pat voters would unfairly receive the benefits of a port paid for by Nueces County voters.
   What he didn't say was that inclusion of San Patricio County would reduce his political power. With the expansion of the commission to nine members, the Nueces County Commissioners Court, under Truan's legislation, would no longer appoint the majority of the commissioners. San Pat would appoint one member, the city four and the county four.
   Ironically, Borchard has been one of the strongest proponents of the benefits of regionalization. He has been tireless in uniting area county officials behind the effort to create I-69, the NAFTA highway whose route would go through South Texas.
   Because of his I-69 work, Borchard may be one of the few local political figures who can open doors in surrounding counties and who knows the key county officials on a first-name basis. The only other political figures who would fall in that category are Truan and Congressman Solomon Ortiz, a close ally of Borchard. That puts three political gorillas in the fight over the port expansion.
   Including San Patricio County on the port commission aims at the very regionalization benefits that Borchard has been extolling. It gives a key economic factor, in this case the port, broader public and political support. The port is planning to build a major containerization facility in San Patricio County, but without San Pat input. San Patricio and Nueces counties are the two most populous counties in the region and share an economic market; people in San Pat work in Nueces County and vice versa. The legislation, if San Patricio County voters approve, would give them a voice in governing the most powerful economic engine in the region.
   But politics is essentially about power, who has it and who doesn't. To get the power of a county judge, Borchard was willing to do what he felt he had to do. Now, with his power threatened, he seems willing to do the same to keep it from being diminished.
  

 
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