City of Santa Ana Downtown Orange County Community Alert:
NOTICE OF CITY COUNCIL REORGANIZATION
SANTA ANA, CA (December 12, 2012) – At a Special Meeting of the Santa Ana City Council held on December 11, 2012, the City Council reorganized as follows: Continue reading
Re-elected and Newly elected Board Members Officially Installed
Mr. Rob Richardson and Mr. Jose Hernandez will serve another term on the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education after being re-elected by the voters of the Santa Ana community. They will be joined by newly elected Board Member, Ms. Cecilia Iglesias, and current Board Members, Dr. Audrey Yamagata-Noji and Mr. John Palacio. Mr. Richardson, Mr. Hernandez, and Mrs. Iglesias were installed during the December 11, 2012 meeting of the Board of Education. Continue reading
In the end, Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides realized he was outnumbered and so he sucked it up and made the motion tonight to select his colleague, Council Member Sal Tinajero, as the new Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem.
The rest of the fading Team Benavides tucked their tails twixt their legs and followed suit – one by one they all seconded the motion and finally Mayor Miguel Pulido, who was so horribly attacked by Benavides during this year’s mayoral campaign, announced that, by proclamation, the clear choice was Tinajero. And just like that the “Santa Ana Spring” was over. Continue reading
Angelica Amezcua – or Angie Oliver, courtesy of the OC Register
Can you believe it? Newly elected Council Member Angelica Amezcua is now in a position to be the key vote that will determine who our next Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem will be. How this happened is an interesting tale.
The “Santa Ana Spring” failed miserably this November, particularly when Amezcua beat her Team Benavides opponent, Eric Alderete. She spent not a dime and he raised and spent a small fortune, for naught. Now the Benavides cabal is down to three votes – David Benavides, Michele Martinez and newly elected Roman Reyna. Continue reading
The Santa Ana City Council Installation and Reception has been set for Tuesday, December 11, 2012, at 6 pm, at the City of Santa Ana’s Council Chambers, located at 22 Civic Center Plaza, in downtown Santa Ana.
Immediately following the installation will be a reception hosted by the Bowers Museum’s Board of Directors, at the Bowers Museum, located at 2002 North Main Street, in Santa Ana.
By: Joe Hill, OC Politics Blog
“Tired of infighting in his organization, Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro said Tuesday he would step down,” according to the Mission Viejo Patch.
“There’s a lot of infighting,” Barbaro said. “The day after the election, the problems were over. But leading up to the election was a nightmare. It was Democrat versus Democrat and the whole thing was just overwhelming.”
Barbaro cited the intra-party squabbling over Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido’s supporters and his challenger David Benavides as one example. Continue reading
Assemblyman Jose Solorio is leaving the State Legislature soon and he will be returning to a part time job as a new Trustee on the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Education. Solorio sent out a farewell email today, outlining what he feels are his accomplishments:
Dear Friend:
As my six years in the State Assembly come to an end today, I want to thank you and let you know it has been an honor to serve the constituents of the 69th Assembly District. I am grateful that my tenure in the State Assembly resulted in many accomplishments, especially in light of the fiscal and political crises that dominated the last five years. Continue reading
Who is Santa Ana’s most powerful politician? U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez certainly made her case this year by helping to elect Anaheim Council Candidate Jordan Brandman and Assembly Candidate Sharon Quirk-Silva. But Assemblyman Jose Solorio also was a key factor in the successful re-election of Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and the victory of Assembly Candidate Tom Daly.
But what about Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez? Has there ever been a more powerful termed out local politician? She beat out two candidates who were incumbents, for the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Trustees. And she helped elect unknown and unfunded Santa Ana Council Candidate Angelica Amezcua, in Ward 3, while giving Santa Ana Councilman Vince Sarmiento a scare in Ward 1 with Amezcua’s sister, Estela. Continue reading
Will Solorio lead the charge for a union-only PLA on Measure Q projects?
The Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Education will be quite different once their new Trustees are sworn in. For the first time that I can remember the Board will be majority Latino with only two holdovers in Phil Yarbrough and John Hanna.
The rest of the Trustees are Latinos – Arianna Barrios; Nelida Yanez; Jose Solorio and Claudia Alvarez. Three of them are Democrats. Barrios however is an independent who is very tight with the Orange County Republicans – and she does public relations work for Anaheim Council Member Kris Murray, another Republican. Continue reading
Former State Senator John Lewis has such a hold on the Republican Party of Orange County that he was able to force the withdrawal of Robert Hammond, their candidate for the 69th Assembly District, so as to pave the way for his Democratic pal Tom Daly. And Lewis also ran the failed campaign of Chris Norby, for the 65th Assembly District. With the loss of Norby’s seat, and the 69th, the California Republican Party ceded a supermajority in the State Assembly to the California Democratic Party.
But Lewis is not the only one to blame. OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh (a political consultant) and OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen were personally involved in pulling Hammond out of the race for the 69th. And neither of them helped Jose “Joe” Moreno, the Anaheim Republican who, at the last minute, filed for the 69th rather than concede the victory to Daly. Moreno was however undone by allegations that he violated an obscure Federal law – the Hatch Act. Moreno, an employee of the O.C. Health Agency, was accused of this by labor, even though he is a longtime union member. Continue reading
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido is currently leading his closes challenger, Santa Ana Council Member David Benavides, by over 12,000 votes. Pulido has 27,068 votes, or 48.2% of the ballots versus 14,982 votes, or 26.7% of the ballots for Benavides. There were four other mayoral candidates this year, including George Collins, Roy Alvarado, Lupe Moreno and Miguel Angel Briseno.
Pulido beat Alfredo “Al” Amezcua two years ago, in 2010, by just under ten thousand votes. Pulido got 21,588 votes, or 49.5% of the ballots, in 2010, versus 11,689 votes, or 26.8% of the ballots, for Amezcua, according to Smart Voter. There were three other mayoral candidates in 2010 – Alvarado, Collins and Charles Hart. Continue reading
As this year’s mayoral campaign drew to a close, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, in one fell swoop, was able to secure the vote of most Vietnamese Americans in his city. On Nov. 1, Pulido held a press conference on the steps of the Santa Ana City Hall, with Assemblyman Jose Solorio and Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez, and dozens of Vietnamese American community leaders, to announce his support for a city resolution that would discourage visits by Vietnamese government and trade officials.
Tonight Pulido introduced his resolution and the Council majority reluctantly fell in line as it became apparent to them that there future in the Vietnamese community was on the line. At one point during the meeting the community leaders invited Pulido and the Council to come down and take a picture with a giant flag of South Vietnam, the fallen republic. Pulido and Alvarez quickly stood up and the rest of the Council had no choice but to do so as well. They each received a scarf festooned in the colors of the flag of South Vietnam. Pulido and Alvarez kept their scarves on but the rest of the Council took them off. Continue reading
Now OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh is singing a different tune – in the wake of the overwhelming defeat of the Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, by President Barack Obama. I saw Baugh on Rick Reiff’s post-election TV show and he admitted that the GOP better figure out immigration. That is the message that both Iglesias and Onofre are now espousing as well.
Iglesias was victorious in her campaign for the SAUSD School Board. In fact she defeated two Democrats – Valerie Amezcua and Myriam Tinajero, who were supported by liberal SAUSD Trustee John Palacio and by the unions. Continue reading
Jordan Brandman has won a seat on the Anaheim City Council and now his colleagues on the Anaheim Union High School District’s Board of Education must decide whether to appoint someone to replace him or to hold a Special Election to fill his seat.
The last time the AUHSD School Board replaced a Trustee was this year when Trustee Jan Harp-Domene passed away suddenly earlier this year. The Board replaced her with Annmarie Randle-Trejo who went on to win a permanent place on the AUHSD School Board in this year’s general election, according to Smart Voter. Continue reading
Thursday November 15, 2012, 3:55 PM
City of Santa Ana, Downtown Orange County
Community: Please Join Us Tonight at Com-Link Forum Meeting to Welcome Newly Elected City Officials
SANTA ANA, CA (November 15, 2012) – The Communication Linkage (Com-Link) Forum Meeting is scheduled for this evening, Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 6:45 p.m. and will be held at the Santa Ana Police Department Community Room – 60 Civic Center Plaza in Santa Ana. Continue reading