Zeke Hernandez is pictured on the right
It looks like SAUSD Trustee Roman Reyna won’t be winning easily after all, in his campaign for the Santa Ana City Council’s Ward 5. Zeke Hernandez has pulled papers to run against Reyna and the third candidate, Karina Onofre.
Hernandez has been involved in community affairs for many years, as a member of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, SACReD and Los Amigos. He is well known in Santa Ana and has run for office before. Continue reading
In the end the Santa Ana PBID tax may finally die – but it won’t be because our City Council had the guts to get rid of it. Instead it is on its last legs because some Council Members are on vacation, others cannot vote on PBID matters due to conflicts of interest, and Council Member Carlos Bustamante is refusing to attend public sessions of the City Council, according to the O.C. Register.
It is too bad our City Council did not have the guts to get rid of the PBID outright. And it is sad that the Downtown businesses are going to get stuck paying this tax again for another year. But I do hope that this will prove to be the end of the PBID. Continue reading
As I have been predicting for some time, Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez is running for the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Area 5, which includes (as per the OC Political blog):
McLoughlin and Chapel are of course toast. Area 5’s voters break down like this – 33% are Latino, 27% are Asian and presumably the balance are white (41%.) But Chapel and McLoughlin are going to split the white vote. That should put Alvarez in the catbird seat. Continue reading
UPDATE: A four member city council voted tonight to unanimously put to the voters a four term limit of 2 years each for the office of Mayor.
I can understand why the Santa Ana City C0uncil Members are upset at Mayor Miguel Pulido. Let’s face it – he has been running circles around them for almost 20 years. But he is now dealing with a Council that, for the most part, he did not elect. He opposed Sal Tinajero and Michele Martinez when they first ran for the City Council. He did create David Benavides, but when Vince Sarmiento was appointed to the Council, to replace Jose Solorio, he was already his own man. Unlike Benavides, he was a polished product and a guy most people respected. Who would have forseen two Pulido allies going down in flames – Carlos Bustamante’s own alleged misbehavior did him in, and Claudia Alvarez could not undo the term limits she helped create. Now Pulido, like Julius Caesar, is surrounded by short swords and although we are headed into August, it might as well be the Ides of March.
Back in Pulido’s heyday, he and former City Manager Dave Ream knew how to work this bunch. Once they got elected, they would be warmly welcomed, even if they had initially been opposed. Commission appointments would be handed out like Halloween candies and just like that Council members would be subverted. But Ream is gone and so is his magic bag of redevelopment – and now even the developers that lived high on the hog in our town for so long are slinking to the Council’s side. Continue reading
UPDATE: Council Member Sal Tinajero has pulled papers to run against Mayor Pulido this November. Chisme has it that Benavides will be pressured to get out of the race ASAP.
UPDATE: Council Member David Benavides has announced that he is running for Mayor. Pulido has nothing to worry about.
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido’s detractors are befuddled about how exactly he keeps on winning, every two years. What they don’t understand is that their views don’t reflect the views of the residents at large in our city.
Santa Ana is a huge city. The “inside baseball” and chismoso/gadfly set is fairly small, perhaps a hundred people at most. In 2010, mayoral challenger Alfredo Amezcua lined up a lot of these folks – and combined them with the dwindling “Usual Suspects.” Amezcua spent a quarter million dollars and he thought he had victory in the bag. But you see what he was listening to was an echo chamber – and he failed to reach the majority of voters in Santa Ana. Continue reading
An Orange County Superior Court judge has ruled that Santa Ana City Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez may not run for a fourth council term, according to the Voice of OC. I have also confirmed this with my own sources – Alvarez’ political career is over – or is it? She can still run for Mayor of Santa Ana, although that is not likely as Mayor Miguel Pulido supported her attempt to run again. And she could run for the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education, or for the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Education.
The unfortunate side affect of this ruling is that it decreases the chance that an opponent to Pulido will arise. If someone does challenge him then Alvarez will likely run for Mayor and count on a vote split putting her in office, particularly if one of her male colleagues opts to run against Pulido. Her defeat in this lawsuit likely means Pulido will sail to an easy victory in November. Continue reading
Courtroom video courtesy of George Collins, Santa Ana Insight TV
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez has joined Santa Ana Parks and Rec Commisioner Max Madrid’s lawsuit to compel the Santa Ana City Clerk to issue nomination papers to Alvarez, as “a party to the action.”
Adding Alvarez to the lawsuit dispenses with the issue of whether or not Madrid had standing to bring the lawsuit to the court. Now he does, end of story. Continue reading
California’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris, wrote a legal brief regarding local municipal term limits that should have a considerable bearing on tomorrow’s hearing regarding Santa Ana Park and Rec Commissioner Max Madrid’s lawsuit to compel the Santa Ana City Clerk to issue nomination papers to Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez.
In the brief, which is dated July 17, 2012, Harris concludes that “a term served on a town council that was served prior to the effective date of a local initative term-limit ordinance may not be counted against that term limit by that ordinance.” Continue reading
Brainwashed by Carlos Bustamante?
When we revealed in an earlier post that Santa Ana City Council candidate Karina Onofre had switched parties and become a registered Republican, some folks in town started pointing fingers. Liberal OC editor Dan Chmielewski, for example, wrote a post wondering “What led Onofre down this path? Could it be a lunch with Santa Ana Council member Sal Tinajero several weeks ago?”
Well, Onofre did meet with Tinajero and he gave her very good advice. He cautioned that she should run for the SAUSD School Board instead. Let’s face it, Onofre is very young and she has no record of working in the community. The voters don’t know her. But they do know SAUSD Trustee Roman Reyna and Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez, the Ward 5 City Council candidates Onofre is hoping to beat. Continue reading
Pictured: Roman Reyna and Carlos Bustamante
SAUSD Trustee Roman Reyna has confirmed on this Facebook page that he is running for the Santa Ana City Council, again, this November. Reyna will be a candidate for Ward 5, which is currently held by Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez. She is termed out however a lawsuit filed by Santa Ana Parks and Rec Commissioner Max Madrid is seeking to compel the Santa Ana City Clerk to issue nomination papers to Alvarez, on the grounds that Measure D, which extended Council terms, reset the term limit clock for Alvarez. If Madrid’s lawsuit prevails Reyna will have to face off against Alvarez – again. She already beat him once, back in 2004. In that race Alvarez got over 26,500 votes while Reyna got only 10,720 votes, according to Smart Voter. Continue reading
Tonight’s Santa Ana City Council meeting, which was held at the SAPD’s Community Room, was, as predicted, a real zoo. Media vans and news crews were everywhere and residents and out of town bloggers packed the proceedings.
As we stated in an earlier post, Council Member Carlos Bustamante, who is facing serious felony sex crime and public theft charges, was not likely to show up, and he didn’t. This is his second unexcused absence. After sixty days of not showing up to work, at City Hall, the City Council can dump him and appoint someone to fill out his term. Continue reading
Carlos Bustamante is the last Republican left on the Santa Ana City Council. And his political career appears to be done, as he is facing numerous felony charges of sex crimes and public theft. The dwindling Republicans in Santa Ana may however have a new champion – Karina Onofre, the young candidate who is running for the Ward currently represented by Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez.
That Onofre is a Republican may have escaped the attention of Dan Chmielewski, the editor of the Liberal OC, who introduced Onofre to his readers in a post a few months ago that described her as “a 29-year-old moderate who is liberal on some issues, Libertarian on others and fiscally conservative.” Continue reading
Play time is over – the Santa Ana City Council appears to be rebelling against Mayor Pulido
“The Santa Ana City Council is scheduled July 16 to consider a ballot measure that for the first time could place a term limit on longtime Mayor Miguel Pulido and change term limits for other council members,” according to the Voice of OC.
Council Member Michele Martinez placed an 85 A item on the agenda that reads as follows, “DISCUSSION OF POTENTIAL BALLOT MEASURE REGARDING MAYORAL AND COUNCIL TERM LIMITS.”
Both Martinez and her colleague, Council Member David Benavides, ripped Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez this week, on Facebook, when Alvarez’ ally, Santa Ana Parks and Rec Commissioner Max Madrid, filed a lawsuit to compel the Santa Ana City Clerk to issue nomination papers to Alvarez. She is seeking to run again in November, for reelection, although she appears to be termed out. Continue reading
Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante, who was arrested earlier this month on a plethora of felony sex crime and public theft charges, is out on bail now and according to a city hall insider he is allegedly planning on attending closed sessions of the Santa Ana City Council, but he won’t be attending public sessions.
My source reports that Bustamante wants to keep getting his Council stipend, his car allowance, and his health benefits, but he does not want to face the music by putting himself in the public square. Continue reading
My old friend Max Madrid, a longtime member of the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Commission and an employee of State Senator Lou Correa, has filed a lawsuit against the Santa Ana City Clerk, to compel her to issue City Council nomination papers to Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez.
Madrid could have filed this lawsuit anytime, but he did it this week. The nomination period for City Council elections begins July 16, and continues for 30 days, according to the O.C. Register. To me it sure looks like this lawsuit was timed to put Santa Ana Unified School District Trustee Roman Reyna on the spot. Continue reading