Desperation appears to be setting in on the 8th Floor, over at the Santa Ana City Hall. Recently a fellow who works for a big bank donated to the Michele Martinez campaign for Mayor. And then her opponent, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, allegedly called the bank in question and tried to have the donor investigated for embezzlement. Hmmm….bad form.
And then one of my pajaritos overheard something at City Hall that was truly despicable. Santa Ana merchant Teresa Saldivar, who owns a jewelry shop in downtown Santa Ana, has apparently been pressured by at least two City of Santa Ana employees, to stop supporting Martinez. The chisme goes that her own landlord also called her and asker her to stop supporting Martinez.
What is Pulido so afraid of? He has been in office for over 20 years. He has a firm grasp of our City Council. He and his various business partners own all sorts of businesses in and around town. He has gone from owning a seedy muffler shop to owning that same seedy muffler shop (and yes it is still quite seedy) plus an entire empire, including, according to our pajaritos, manufacturing operations in Mexico and a food truck commissary in south Santa Ana.
Pulido’s opponents shouldn’t, on paper, scare him all that much. Martinez is a first term Council Member who won with a sliver of the vote because a white candidate, Evangeline Gawronski, split the white vote, allowing Martinez to trump a slew of Latino candidates that included Pulido’s handpicked choice Tino Rivera.
And the other Mayoral candidate, George Collins, ran for the City Council two years ago, splitting the white vote and allowing Sal Tinajero to win over Pulido’s pick, Jennifer Villasenor.
There is a third candidate, Stanley Fiala, who ran two years ago and at that time announced he was endorsing Pulido. God only knows what Fiala will do this time. But it will hardly matter.
Pulido is in a tizzy and I just don’t get it. Shouldn’t he run on his success as a Mayor? Oops. I guess a $28 million city budget deficit, 18 murders this year, crumbling streets and super-high water rate increases have scotched that.
Honestly though, going all Sopranos on Martinez’ supporters is rather ridiculous. Does Pulido somehow think these actions won’t show up on the blogs?
I have been told that Pulido looks awfully spent of late. I know how he feels. Running for office is a ton of work. But the real issue I think is he just isn’t having any fun now. He used to rule this city like a king. And now we have ruined it for him – by scrutinizing his every move here on the Orange Juice.
Honestly I don’t think Pulido even wants to be Mayor at this point, but he is stuck in a rut of his own making. I am told that his food truck business is tanking and the bankers are calling in their loans. I guess I can’t blame Pulido for putting on the brass knuckles and trying to knock out Martinez’ supporters. But it is an awfully crass thing to do for a guy who used to be rather suave, isn’t it?
The question still stands, WHY IS PUDRIDO SO AFRAID OF MICHELE MARTINEZ?
Michele Martinez for mayor, what a joke! Has anybody heard the girl speak, she needs to polish up on her public speaking skills as well as her writing skills.
La Chola is dead on.
But again we elected Loretta Sanchez, Arnold Schwarznegger, and Antonio Villaragrosa.
All of whom are horrible public speakers.
A few years back I watched Pulido speak at a CSUF graduation event. He was well spoken, and delivered in persona. Later he confided it was his largest public speaking experience.
Counter that with Congresswomen’s Sanchez horrible repeated performances at SAC and one has to wonder if anyone listens to our elected officials.
#2 and #3,
Many of us have heard her speak. We are impressed.
Everyone has room for improvement, I suppose. I know I do.
Readers should attend one of Michele’s fundraiser to get a first hand opinion of her speaking ability.
Michele is way ahead of most of us at her age.
Michele has major voter support. This can not happen without communication skills.
This is why Michele’s opposition is relying on strong arm intimidation againts some of her supporters.