Candidate Castano looses his cotton pickin' mind.

Last week, with jaw dropped, I watched the Statesman House 47 debate between Bill Welch and Alex Castano online. Like most people, I had not seen these two candidates in any public debate before.

Somewhere between 8 and 15 minutes into the video debate my jaw hit the floor, as the big, burly former football player, Alex Castano, started blubbering like a giant baby hulk.

Alex Castano had gotten himself in big credit card debt. He defaulted on over $35,000 dollars worth of debt to 3 banks, and then loaned his campaign $30,000.

After this crying Castano event, I wanted to look a little deeper, get all the facts, and get involved.

Capitolinside.com broke the Castano Debt Default story on March 29th with "House Runoff Contender Helped Finance Campaign Despite Credit Card Problems". I had never heard of this political website before, and have since signed up. The Statesman's article took place after the Capital Inside story on March 30th. The debate took place on the 31st. Bill Welch said he found out about the Castano Debt when the Statesman had called him to do the story on the 29th. And, sources tell me this was the case, since the source for the Capitalinside.com story was not Welch or his campaign.

Back to the debate.

After the emotional outburst, Castano said Welch had attacked him, then somewhere later in the debate, Castano defensively again claimed "Shame on you Bill Welch for attacking me". This didn't add up to me so I watched the debate again. I saw no attack from Welch. All Welch had said was that it was not responsible to get into over $35,000 worth of credit card debt. Heck, that's common sence, not an attack. I read the Statesman story again, and saw no attack. I chalk this up to Castano being desperate and in a corner over his many, many problems:

• Defaulted on over $35,000 worth of debt to three different credit card companies.
• Loaned his campaign over $30,000 after two of the default credit card judgments.
• FAILED TO FOLLOW STATE LAW by not disclosing his defaulted debt AND court ordered judgments on his Texas Ethics Commission personal financial statement.
• Had several ethics complaints filed against him recently by the leadership of a major statewide Republican organization.
• Failed to take personal responsibility for his legal and financial problems and instead blames others.

Castano's schizophrenic claims of Welch attacking him gets worse. I received campaign literature from Castano yesterday (most probably paid for with borrowed money) with huge letters on it. It says "WARNING, Mud slide ahead" and "Say NO to Bill Welch's Negative campaign".

Here's the kicker. I've received a truck load of direct mail from both candidates, and not one negative shred of paper with any attack on Castano by Welch.

OK, so the wheels have fallen off the Castano wagon.

That aside, I ask another more natural question. With 7 children and over $45,000 in debt and legal fees how can Alex Castano take on a job as State Representative that pays only $600 dollars a month?