Will Team Martinez be sufficient to elect Alfredo Amezcua?
For Alfredo Amezcua to become the next Mayor of Santa Ana, he would have to surpass the number of votes that Councilwoman Michele Martinez received in 2008, when she challenged Mayor Miguel Pulido.
Martinez received 29.3% of the vote that year, according to Smart Voter. The coalition that backed her was pretty much the same folks who are backing Amezcua now, although Amezcua has added a few of Santa Ana’s notorious Usual Suspects to the mix.
George Collins, a Republican documentary filmmaker, received 13.8% of the vote, in that same election. A fourth challenger, Stanley Fiala, received 1.9% of the vote.
This year Pulido has once again drawn several opponents, including Amezcua and Collins. Additional candidates include Roy Alvarado, a retired contractor, and a fellow named Charles Hart, who has made religious values and implied racism the cornerstone of his campaign.
Even if Amezcua were to merit the same amount of votes as Martinez did in 2008, he would still lag Pulido, by a large margin. Pulido received 55% of the vote in 2008, and he is likely to repeat that feat this year.
Click here to read the rest of this post.
Thank you for the post and the photo above of Amezqua with his grandchildren. It inspired me to write the following.
THERE WAS AN OLD LAWYER
There was an old lawyer who lived in a shoe.
He had so many nietos he didn’t know what to do.
He gave them some flyers though his campaign was dead.
Pulido whipped him so soundly that his bank account, like his Santa Ana Business Bank, ended up in the Red!
I feel disoriented. When did this morph into a blog that roots for the establishment and ridicules the plucky, outsider challenger?
Never mind, I know it all… Amezcua has no specifics, and a New Pulido has dawned…
Vern,
You answered your own question. I would however be remiss if I did not challenge your description of Amezcua, the ultimate insider, as an outsider. Amezcua was a part of the Pulido machine for twenty years. He only parted ways with Pulido AFTER Pulido finally went to the left. And don’t forget, in 2008, when we finally had a good challenger to the Mayor, in Councilwoman Michele Martinez, Amezcua went to Pulido’s election night party, in a limo no less.
Amezcua is no savior. His hands are as dirty as anyone else’s. The voters have other options this year, although none of them can be called progressives. Nor would I call Amezcua a progressive. He is more of an opportunist.
Still, if his campaign is so pathetic and doomed, I would just let things take their course and ignore him, instead of being some blog that picks on the underdog. Maybe that’s just me.
Vern,
This man is no underdog. I almost always support underdogs. Amezcua is an insider – and his lack of ideas has been a real sticking point for me, and others.
But really the post you are commenting on was not an attack on him. All I did was pose the question – how is he going to get more votes than Michele Martinez did in 2008? It is a good question. So far, no answers…
yeah, it was more that first comment that prodded me to say something that’s been on my mind a while…
Vern,
It was naught but an attempt at mirth by a reader.
That aside, obviously my post struck a chord. It is our top post today…
“When did this morph into a blog that roots for the establishment and ridicules the plucky, outsider challenger?”
Amezqua is the king of the insiders. If you want change, vote for Collins.
May I suggest a current profile of candidate George Collins. I believe he deserves that from this blog. Please allow George to voice his views here and explaini why he is running.
Change,
We will definitely be posting more about Collins, not to worry!