The inside baseball set has assumed that Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Eric Alderete is going to win in Ward 3, in November’s election. However an unpublished poll shows former Santa Ana City Councilman Brett Franklin in the lead. How could this be?
Well, consider that there is no incumbent, as the current Council Member, the disgraced Carlos Bustamante, is not running for re-election. Franklin was the previous Council Member and as such he is the defacto incumbent. He has name I.D. and Alderete is seriously lacking in that area. And Franklin was born and raised here in Santa Ana, while Alderete was born and raised in East Los Angles, and he has been living here perhaps six years at most. Continue reading