I am going to be out of town all of next week, including Election Day, so before I run out of time I would like to offer my picks for the local offices of interest in Santa Ana and our legislative districts:
Santa Ana City Council
Ward 2: Tough race! There are three terrific candidates in Evangeline Gawronski, Tish Leon and Michele Martinez, and one Pulido puppet in Tino Rivera. Gawronski is the sole Republican in this contest – and I helped her garner the official endorsement of the Republican Party of Orange County. She is my pick – but if you a Democrat and you only vote that way, either Leon or Martinez are great picks. Rivera? Nice guy – but he will be dead weight on our City Council – and a reliable rubber stamp for our Mayor-for-life Pulido. No thanks.
Ward 4: There are no Republicans in this race – just a Pulido puppet in David Benavides and his opponent, Nelida Yanez. No question here – Benavides scares me. He reminds me of the politicians in East L.A. who come from nothing, sip from the chalice of civic power and promptly become corrupt.
My colleage, Luis Rodriguez, says Benavides reminds him of Mike Garcia, the nice-guy council member destroyed this year by Pulido. Not so. He reminds me of Pulido – starting out with the right ideas, but quickly becoming compromised. Benavides has already been caught accepting money from a developer who had a matter before the Santa Ana Planning Commission- the body Pulido planted Benavides on in order to give him a better ballot designation. That’s right – Benavides appears on the ballot with a job description of “Santa Ana Planning Commissioner.” Didn’t know you could live of that meager stipend…why not tell us what he really does for a living? And just what exactly happened to Yanez’ signs?
Benavides has also told some of us that he is pro-life while telling other that he is pro-choice – and Santa Ana School Board Member Rosie Avila is so enthralled by him that she endorsed him. That alone is reason enough to oppose him. The only real choice in this ward is Yanez.
Ward 6: This is the race that drove my former colleague Tim Whitacre into Pulido’s arms. The OC Democrats endorsed Sal Tinajero, and just like that Whitacre was living the Nativo Recall all over again. Whitacre is now backing Democrat Jennifer Villasenor, a Huntington Beach city planner who is way over her head in this campaign. Just take a look at her answers during the few candidate’s forums that she attended. She barely makes any sense. You can look at the footage at the website of the Republican candidate for Ward 6, George Collins. He is of course my pick. Watch the footage of thse forums – Collins and his wife shot the film and edited it – and he almost always steals the show. He is highly intelligent and full of great ideas for our city.
Mayor: A lot of folks don’t know this, but I used to be a Pulido supporter – ten years ago. He has since completely sold out to special interests. He even refused to let us vote this year on mayoral term limits. He really needs to go! I am supporting the endorsed Republican in this race, my colleague Thomas Gordon. He is heavily involved in local issues, including OBP, Markland, and the ongoing problems with shopping carts and grafitti. I promise you that if he gets elected he will shake up the status quo in Santa Ana! I know he will work to open new libraries, fix our streets and create more after-school programs for our kids. Vote Gordon on Nov. 7 and be assured that he will clear out the special interests that have taken up camp at City Hall.
Santa Ana School Board
Two incumbents are running. They are both Democrats, as is the sole challenger. I am supporting the latter, Cecilia Aguinaga. I think John Palacio has come a long way, but he supported the ill-fated PLA that was attached to the SAUSD construction bond. That makes him a “no” in my book. I also cannot support Dr. Audrey Noji. She has accomplished nothing in her long time on the SAUSD board. We need new blood – toss Noji overboard.
Rancho Santiago Community College District, Trustee, Area 2
John Hanna versus Steve Rocco. There is only one choice in this race – and that is Hanna. He is a great guy and he promised me that if Measure O passes, which will help to fund ongoing new construction at the college district, he will not allow a PLA to be attached to the bond funds. Yes! Thanks John.
47th Congressional District
What a mess! No Republicans qualifed as write-in candidates after Tan Nguyen went off the deep end with his now-infamous voter intimidation letter. I sure can’t endorse Democrat Loretta Sanchez either. Take a pass on this race and wait for the next one in two years.
69th Assembly District
It is because of this race that I am so adamant about getting Republicans elected at the local level. Because of legislative term limits, we need to develop future candidates at local level. Otherwise you end up with a Young Republican representing you, which is what happened here. At any rate, I am supporting Ryan Gene Williams, my colleague here at the Orange Juice, and the Republican candidate for the 69th. His opponent, Jose Solorio, a Democrat who has served on the Santa Ana City Council (see what I mean?) is pathetic – as a Santa Ana Council Member he cut the library budget to the bone, and then he dared to mail out potholders in the June primary telling voters to “Learn English.” He also was happy to give away valuable land, via eminent domain, to a rich car dealer who is a member of the OC Lincoln Club, Republican fundraising group. Talk about brazen!
34th State Senate District
I don’t live in this district, but if I did I would vote for Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher over OC Supervisor Lou Correa. Don’t be fooled by write-in candidate Otto Bade – an admitted friend of Correa. Daucher will hold the line on taxes and growth of government. Correa won’t. It is as simple as that.
Statewide Races and Judges
Go to www.robynnordell.com for information on who the Republican judges are and vote accordingly.
I am voting for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and all the other GOP statewide candidates.
That’s it. Whatever you do, please vote on Tuesday, Nov. 7 – or send in your absentee ballot right away.
Art,
While I agree with you on some of these races (SA Ward 4, school board), and totally disagree with you on others (AD 69, SD 34, CD 47), I’d just like to correct you on one thing…
IT’S TOO LATE TO MAIL IN ABSENTEE BALLOTS!! Sorry folks, but if you still have your ballot, YOU MUST TAKE IT TO YOUR POLLING PLACE ON TUESDAY in order for your vote to be counted.
Okay, that’s all I have to say for now! : )
Art:
I say the Mayor’s slate wins. I was visited today by Jennifer Villasenor who had firmen speaking on her behalf. That act convinced some of my neighbors to vote for her.
I’m not fooled so easily, but I suspect others are because they aren’t inclined to find out what occurs locally.
David did not even have the Mayor’s endorsement early in this race, but Yanez has been endorsed by Claudia Alvarez from day one!
The last thing I am going to do is vote for somebody that is endorsed by Claudia Alvarez! That crosses Tino off of my list too.
With Art Pedroza running the campaigns, I predict Gordon, Collins, Gawronski and Ryan Williams will all win Tuesday! Art will be come a planning commish and Santa Ana will be 75% Republican in 2 years when Art runs for Mayor of Santa Ana and brings his brand of Conservative leadership to city hall!
One thing about Art is that you always know who he is suppotting and where he stands, before the election. There is something good to be said about that.
Comment 3 was posted by Roman Reyna.
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#6
Who the Hell cares if Roman Renya posted that comment.You are so proud of yourself because you could follow Art’s directions on finding the address. Aren’t you clever.
For all of you on this blog continually harping on anonamous bloggers, just remember it only takes one vicious, relentless, psycho, (SEAN MILL is a perfect example)lying in wait,reading your name and Wham! we are treated to yet another round of venom spewing.
You all remember what happened to Santa Ana Citizens Group. After Sean’s weeklong tirade against Tim Rush, BTW case in point, he is doing it again after Rush’s quote in the mailer, the Sacits dropped off to almost 0 participation. They came over to this blog where they can speak without being endlessly harrangued by a blowhard with a personal vendetta.
Poster #8,
Good point – but in fairness to Santa Ana Citizens, our format, as a blog, is more user-friendly and it is easier to follow a particular story. The Yahoogroup format is simply archaic now. Indeed, I believe that newspapers aren’t far behind. People do want news – and I don’t pretend that what we do is straignt news – but they want it on their terms. Newspapers are always day-old news – and nobody wants old news.
The reason we set up the sitemeter services on our site was for accountability – but we certainly don’t want it misused or abused. I understand by the way that those of you who use dial-up Internet services constantly change your IP number. That might be the only benefit of dial-up!
I do hope that in time more of our posters will do so with their real name – or at least use a consistent assumed name, as is the case with Bladerunner. That is however up to you, our readers.
Finally, with regard to Tim Rush, whom I have written about before on this blog, I think it was a terrible idea for his quote to be included in the anti-Sal mailer you referred to. Sean Mill is right – for a guy with Rush’s legal problems to attack Tinajero is just plain wrong. Yes, Rush has paid his due, etc., however he needs to tread carefully going forward. Leave the political attacks to someone else Tim – it will be better for you in the long run. Even better – the Villasenor backers should stick to the issues, but they won’t. Too easy to rip Sal…
Yahoo groups vs Blogs.
SAC is/was a comm. Informational format.
Orange Juice is for political posts.
Thanks Art for bringing OJ back.
As for SAC, today is free day for Santa Ana Citizens at the Discovery Science Center. Parking is 3 dollars
Take the day, enjoy life with your kids, and tomorrow… Vote, if not already done so.
#8 I love that you name call and spew hatred against me because I dared to tell the truth about Tim Rush. Rush and his cronies like Debie McEwen have been relentless in the bullying and bigotry.
Tim accuses me of hiding in the shadows, but I have been up front and out in the open in exposing his criminal tax cheating ways.
I have been continually attacked, as have those I have been aligned with. Most of the attacks are attacks of a personal nature and lack any substance or facts.
My “tirade”, as you put it, was based on facts and backed up by documentation. If my actions keep those, like Rush, with skeltons in their closets from spewing their hatred and bigotry then good.
We have been treated to round after round of venom spewing from Tim and all the others that are behind those lie filled mailers against Sal.
Your damn right I am after “Tax Cheat Tim” again. He questions Sal’s ethics despite his track record? I gotta a handful of rocks ready for that glass house.
As far as the SA Citizen Group goes, if they don’t wanna know the truth about Tim Rush, too bad. They now know more than they ever wanted and I am glad to have done it.
Keep the personal attacks against me coming. It is okay if you do it as “anon”. You probably have something to hide so I understand. You’re buddies with Tim and birds of a feather usually flock together.