With the Precinct Four deputies on the streets, it’s business as usual.

But currently there’s a big fight over who should be their boss.

“This is hate propaganda. That is all it is, bottom line. There is no other way to describe it,” LULAC District Director Francisco Rodriguez said.

He’s talking about a campaign flier circulated by Louis Guthrie, a lieutenant deputy sheriff running in the Republican primary for Precinct Four constable.

“I would hope that the Hispanic community would see this as a threat to those who are American citizens, because it is a threat,” Rodriguez said.

The fliers publicize endorsements from the anti-illegal immigration group, Border Watch.

On the face of the mailing is an illustration that’s been deemed by some as controversial.

“It’s a depiction of what appears to be illegal immigrants, possibly about to cross the border. And it’s no secret that the borders of Texas and across the south are very porous. And if anybody is offended by that picture, my regrets and apologies,” Guthrie said.

But at a time when illegal immigration is a hot-button topic, LULAC won’t settle for just an apology.  They want Guthrie out of the race entirely.

The incumbent says Guthrie is misleading voters about just how much a constable can do about illegal immigration.

“I think that most of my constituents are aware that as constable, my job is not solely illegal immigration.  I can arrest people every week for a variety of state-level offenses. And that does not affect at all immigration’s position or policy on deportation,” Precinct Four Constable Ron Hickman said.

But it just so happens that a very public day laborer site sits within the precinct.  That site is a sore subject for a lot of voters.

“I’d say that an issue like that, probably among Republican voters that we normally see. It could probably defeat an incumbent. It’s that kind of issue. It’s that hot,” political analyst Bob Stein said.