De La Torre files to run in Santa Ana’s Ward 6
It is getting crowded in Santa Ana’s Ward 6! The latest candidate to pull papers, literally at the eleventh hour, is Harvey De La Torre, a member of the Santa Ana Planning Commission. He was nominated to that post by the incumbent, Mike Garcia, who may or may not be running against Mayor Miguel Pulido.
There are rumors that Garcia may be disenchanted with politics in general and that he wants to spend more time with his family. If that is true, he may not run for anything – in essence conceding Ward 6. In that case, he will no doubt back De La Torre, who may end up facing off against Sal Tinajero, who serves on the Santa Ana School Board; Pat McGuigan, who has previously served on the Santa Ana City Council; and George Collins, a candidate who is quite fed up with the way things are in Santa Ana.
De La Torre’s wife was elected to the OC Democratic Central Committee in the June primary. Tinajero is also a Democrat. McGuigan and Collins are Republicans, as far as I know.
Why would Mike hold a fundraiser if he was going to bow out? He may have received some bad advice to run against Pulido. Re-election was slam dunk for Mike. Against Pulido its doable but most of the disnchantment with Pulido is insider stuff—every poll I’ve either seen or discussed with folks shows his favorability rating far exceeds his negatives and he has reasonably good name ID.
There certainly are some issues in town to run against Pulido with but this will be a very difficult race for Mike to raise money and win. I can just see the strange bedfellows who don’t like Pulido…Nativo and Art, doing their IE’S against Pulido.
Sure be interesting to find out who sold him on the mayors race and who sat him down and sobered him up.
Harvey is a good guy and would make a great councilman if he is elected. I believe he was a classmate of Jose Solorio at UCI. He also stood up for Tom Lutz when Claudia Alvarez was trying to kick him off the Planning Comm.
I’ve heard Carlos Bustamante, Rob Richardson, and Jose Solorio sat down with Mike a few days ago and tried to talk him out of running for Mayor. We will see in an hour or so if they had any luck.
If Mike does not run for Ward 6, at least Harvey will carry on the same wonderful representation that this ward has become accustomed to.
Talk? It was more like threats if Mike moved forward with his bid for mayor. If you like backstabbers and snitches then de la Torre is your candidate!
The Mike Garcia situation was a staged drama. All the players were probably not aware of the intent.Tinajero was bluffed out of the Mayor race and into the ward 6 race.Now an insider , Dela Torre was placed to oppose Tinajero, resulting in Tinajero’s journey from provable Mayor to council defeat.Thomas Gordon might of screwed it up my becoming a candidate for Mayor . The theatrics was to eliminate any credible threat to the Mayor.If Thomas turns out to be a credible candidate all the drama was for not.A little pajarito told me.
Ah, this has been an interesting 72 hours. I don’t doubt that Pulido worked hard to get the serious competition to drop out via threats, blackmail, and a good old-fashioned shoulder rub. But make no mistake, Pulido is running De La Torre for his purposes. So for all the haters out there saying (falsely) and Larry and Sal are aligned are wrong. In fact, people spreading those rumors are aligned with the Mayor. Classic text-book smear campaign from the Pulido.
I am begging all those who live in SA. Get rid of the Mayor and give the city back to the people!
BR,
Have you been walking the precincts in Santa Ana? We have and Pulido does NOT have a favorable rating. We have walked all over and while not saying anything against the Mayor on our part, the voters have been expressing their thoughts about the Pulido to us. As a Dem, I am almost excited that Gordon is running. Bring on term limits! Elect Pulido out!
Rob should devote his energies to finding a suitable search firm for a superintendent. His alliance with Noji to hire a firm that is aligned to their personal and political agenda backfired.
The voters need to neutralize Richardson by denying Noji another four years on the school board.
Noji’s dismal 16 year record, as an SAUSD board member, appears to be the reason she cannot secure a presidency position at a community college. She’s been denied the positions at SAC and Cerritos. Apparently that search firm is doing their homework.
Noji and Richardson continue to contribute to the decay of our quality of life.
It’s time to give Noji the boot!
I am worried that all of Miguel’s people might get elected and we will all get screwed again. Tino has an easy shot. Benavides has a challenge and DeLaTorre better out work Tinajero. Out of all the anti-mayor candidates Sal is the strongest and the lies that Miguel’s people are saying about him and Larry are b@## S***! We better wake up or else it will remain a city that Miguel built.
B/R,
Pulido should not assume victory. He has never been weaker. What he did to Mike Garcia was cruel and it has upset a lot of people.
Pulido does not deserve your support. He is ruthless and dangerous and corrupt. His reign is drawing to a close, and our city has very little good to show for it.
Pulido rules a second-rate city – Thomas and I want to start moving us in the right direction. We can do better – but not until Pulido is gone.
There is a new hope in Santa Ana and his name is Thomas Gordon.
Miguel is vulnerable.
Pulido denied residents the opportunity to vote on a proposed mayoral term limits city ordinance earlier this summer.
The time has come for Santa Ana voters to respond to Miguel with their brand of term limits – vote for Thomas Gordon. It’s time for a change.
The patron-style ruling Pulido imposes on the residents of Santa Ana is oppressive.