Tino Rivera IE mailer ripped by Cops

It hit the fan today in Santa Ana, as the Orange County Cops organization sent out a blistering letter to Rene Paquin of the Firemen’s Benevolent Association of Santa Ana, in the wake of the mailer that hit the streets yesterday, touting Tino Rivera as the candidate endorsed by OC COPS, the Firemen, etc.

Here’s what the letter read, in part, “The most significant problem with the mailer is that your organization knew that OC COPS not endorsed candidate Rivera and you proceeded to engage in a mass mailing of the piece, fraudulently using the strength and public image of our organization to intentionally deceive and defraud the voters of Orange County.”

The letter also states “Your actions, with regard to the mailer in question, constitute serious and intentional violations of the California Election Code and the Orange County Campaign Reform Ordinance.”

There are many questions worth pondering:

  1. How could this happen?
  2. Was it intentional?
  3. Did Mayor Miguel Pulido have anything to do with this?
  4. Is Rivera’s campaign foundering? Is this a sign of desperation?

My guess is that the firemen will have to buy an ad over the weekend explaining their “mistake.” But that isn’t enough. They should have to hand-deliver a written apology to each voter who received the mailer in question.

The fraudulent mailer should be denounced by everyone – and the OC District Attorney ought to investigate the entire matter. I for one do not think an error like this is possible – this was likely planned and now it is going to hurt Rivera – just as the voters are going to the polls. Looks like Pulido won’t get his puppet elected in Ward 2.


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"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.