Lico Reyes - Political Career

Political Career

Reyes had success when he set his sights upon the US Congress as the Democratic Party candidate for Texas District 26. While he only managed to get 323 votes (2% of the vote) in his last bid for the office of Mayor of Arlington (the winner received 9396 votes), he did manage a more respectable return in his bid for the US Congress: The winner was a Republican with 66% of the vote (180,295 votes); Lico Reyes on the Democratic ticket received 33% of the vote (89,705 votes), while the Libertarian candidate received only 1% of the vote (4,200 votes) with a fourth independent candidate trailing far behind all of them. The incumbent winner outspent Lico Reyes ten times ($689,422) on his campaign bid to get reelected. Reyes received about 1,100 more votes than his closest fellow Democrat Hon. Martin Frost, running in another district, who spent millions on his respective campaign.

During his campaign he advanced the idea of working with Mexico to develop Mexico's oil and gas resources with US technology and financial support. This would help bring down the cost of fuel, expand the economy in both countries and serve to decrease illegal immigration to the US. Reyes spoke of this on national TV and to US Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta at the NASCO conference in north Texas on April 30, 2004. It is believed that Mexico has the fifth largest untapped natural resources and is also the fifth oil and gas producer in the world.

Reyes has been credited as founder of the Portable DJ industry in the USA by Dunn & Bradstreet,however several portable dj's started at USO clubs during World War Two This industry now employs tens of thousands of DJ's and stage hands and is a multi BILLION $ industry in America. Lico worked for TXDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) for nine years (Inspector, Draftsman, Civil Engineer in Training etc.

With his leadership, civil rights investigative skills and the assistance of the US Department of Justice (Community Relations Service) Texas’ TEA’s dropout rates were successfully challenged and $85,000,000.00 (million) was awarded to Texas schools in 2000. The Texas dropout rate however continues to lead the nation according to the U.S Department of Education, predominantly Hispanics.

Several investigations also lead to, historically since the Voting Rights ACT, having thousands of interpreters and hundreds of US government inspectors/agents placed at voting polls throughout Texas under US DOJ Voting Rights Section oversight during the 2004 general elections. Reyes played a small role in this This was the outcome of several complaints with the US Department of Justice, Voting Section, regarding violations of the Voting Rights Act which requires elections to have language information, education and interpreters (physically) at the polls.

Serving as an interpreter for the Dallas county courts he has also spent many years in a variety of other public entities including the FAA as a computer technician and the Texas Highways Department as a civil engineer in training. However, Reyes is best known for his colorful role as "Father Vito" in which he has hosted a variety of different community access cable television programs and live events