Val Verde County Sheriff Jernigan Kicks Off Re-Election Campaign with Supporters that May Surprise You

May 18, 2008
By Joe Hyde
Special to LIVE!

“I’m having a little bit of trouble getting the words out tonight,” an emotional D'Wayne Jernigan said in remarks to supporters who came out to kick off his re-election campaign for Val Verde Sheriff at the Ramada Inn Thursday evening. The retired U.S. Customs sector chief is running for his fourth term, having served for nearly 12 years as the county’s top lawman. The Republican faces Democrat Joe Frank Martinez in November. Martinez is the most formidable opponent Jernigan has faced since 1996.

Jernigan is an anomaly along the Texas border with Mexico. He is the only Republican Party sheriff and the first Republican elected sheriff in Val Verde County in over 100 years. Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, called in to offer his support during Thursday’s event.

ernigan said in the Podcast interview above that when he went to the county clerk’s office on New Year’s Eve, 1995, to register to run for sheriff, he didn’t understand that it was a partisan position. Since the Democrat primary already had someone running (then-incumbent Oscar Gonzalez), Jernigan figured he might as well file as a Republican. It was a blessing because it gave the unknown Jernigan an extra six months to gain name recognition before the November election.

But to fully appreciate Jernigan’s overwhelming bi-partisan support today, an understanding of the fractious beginnings of Jernigan’s political career is important.

When Jernigan won in 1996, Democrats cried foul. They claimed that approximately 800 absentee military ballots cast in that election “diluted” the Hispanic vote and should be thrown out. In a federal case, the Democrats found a willing local plaintiff to use to push forward their agenda: liberal activist Jovita Casarez.

The lawsuit failed at the 5th Circuit of Appeals. But had it been successful, it would have been the first time since the Civil War that voting rights were curtailed in the U.S. The case gained nationwide notoriety for Val Verde County, insinuating that this community was hostile towards the fundamental Constitutional rights of active duty military and their spouses. Naval reservist, attorney and military voting rights activist Sam Wright said that if the case was successful, military members everywhere would be unable to vote anywhere.

Jernigan wasn’t named in the lawsuit but decided, at great financial cost to him, to join the suit as an intervener. It cost him nearly $100,000. The plaintiffs were suing the county.

After the case was won, Jernigan took office on June 23, 1996, almost seven months after the scheduled inauguration.

During Del Rio’s Flood of 1998, Jernigan ran across Jovita Casarez in a shelter. Her home and possessions gone, she was destitute. Jernigan said he went to an ATM machine and withdrew the maximum amount he could, went back to the shelter and gave Casarez the money. The act of kindness didn’t bear fruit until a few years later when Casarez came to Jernigan’s office to apologize. She said she was misled and that Jernigan was the only person who helped her during the flood.

Thursday, Casarez took the podium, and in an emotional speech, said she was decidedly supporting Jernigan.

A room full of supporters at Jernigan's campaign kick-off. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde) (click image to enlarge)	Liberal activist Jovita Casarez once was Jernigan's nemesis. She now supports him with "compassion." Jernigan and Casarez have since become close friends since the lawsuits of 1996. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde) (click image to enlarge)
Retired U.S. Air Force Major General Gerald Prather congratulates Jernigan on his re-election campaign kick-off. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde) (click image to enlarge)	Jernigan points to the packet-based radio and communications system being developed to provide communications connectivity with his deputies, other first responders, and Austin agencies. The vendor is Motorola and this is the first packet-based system being deployed over VHF frequencies. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde) (click image to enlarge)

 

“When I go support people, I support them because I have the compassion. I know this is a good man. When the disaster happened in 1998, I felt [or] supposed I had a lot of friends. Political friends I helped and [other] different people. But I know that when I had nothing, when I was there in the civic center in the shelter, I didn’t have a house. I didn’t have nothing. I didn’t see a lot of friends in there. But the first [person] I see over there [at the shelter was Jernigan]… He said ‘Jovita, if you need something I am here.’ This man is genuine,” Casarez said Thursday evening.

Jernigan hasn’t been a typical sheriff on the Texas border. He had the vision outsource the county prison to The Geo Group, that grew the number of beds 10-fold. The prison expansion occurred during a period of enhanced federal law enforcement on the southern border of the U.S. The increased prison capacity, and with it revenue to the county, makes Val Verde County’s Sheriff’s Department a money maker for the county’s general revenue fund.

He has joined with other sheriffs across the region to enhance communications capacity. Central to this effort is a federally-funded open source records management database system and packet-based radio communications system that expands coverage across the rural Middle Rio Grande Development Council’s region and gives free and open access for law enforcement and first responders to communicate with each other as well as with state agencies in Austin, right from the patrol car.

Listen to the Podcast above where Jernigan describes his political beginnings, working with various people and agencies to upgrade the sheriff’s department, and what he looks forward to if he is elected for another four-year term.

For more information on Jernigan’s campaign, see www.sheriffjernigan.com.