Art Montez Betrays His Deceased Uncle Amin David; Vote ED LOPEZ for NOCCCD

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This literally would not be happening if Amin David were still alive.

Eyes of a traitor to his patron: This literally would not be happening if Amin David were still alive.

I literally could not believe it when I was told that North Orange County Community College District candidate Art Montez — who boasted of how he would bring then-newly elected Connor Traut into line on the Centralia School Board and has (predictably) instead become Traut’s cabana boy — had endorsed Jordan Brandman over Dr. Jose Moreno in Anaheim’s most extremely Latino District 3.  Montez’s primary opponent for the NOCCCD seat is steady and smart Ed Lopez.

I thought that I had lost all of the respect for Montez that I could reasonably lose during Anaheim’s districting battle — when he and Zeke Hernandez threatened to blow apart the entire process if they couldn’t get their exquisitely stupid and ugly map approved — but I never expected for him to follow upon his uncle’s death with an amazing, resounding, and disgusting betrayal of his legacy.

Art Montez would be a non-entity without the patronage of his uncle, Amin David — a true and bold leader of Anaheim’s Latino community and the longtime Chair of the community group Los Amigos,  I know that Amin helped him substantially and often during Art’s times of need.  And I know that, when Amin looked for someone to whom he could entrust Los Amigos after he retired from its leadership, he didn’t focus on Montez for so much as a second, finally recruiting another serious, true, and bold community leader named Jose Moreno.

That Jose Moreno — now universally called “Doctor” as a sort of extra first name, to distinguish himself from the parasitic growth named “Joe Moreno” currently trying to help Lucille Kring win that district by siphoning off Latino votes from another true and bold community activist, Arturo Ferreras — is now the opponent of Jordan Brandman in District 3.  And Montez, who shows that the size of one’s silhouette is no good measure of the bigness of a man, is endorsing the anti-Latino choice, Brandman, over his uncle’s protege and his community’s hope!  Spiteful little man, now that his benefactor is gone!

I don’t have to tell voters not to support Brandman because Brandman is already dead in the water.  But I do have to tell people that they can vote against Art Montez this year.  Ed Lopez is a moderate Democrat in the respectable sense — meaning that he wants to be fair and hard-working steward of the public’s community college and the taxpayer’s money — enough so that he received the DPOC endorsement overwhelmingly (with support ranging from me and Jeff LeTourneau to Florice Hoffman and Henry Vandermeir, neither of whom is an avid supporter of Moreno), candidates Sharon Quirk-Silva, Josh Newman, and Dr. Moreno; NOCCCD Trustees Jackie Rodarte and Molly McClanahan and former trustee Michael Matsuda;  the Democratic Foundation and Unite HERE Local 11; the Adjunct Faculty Union; as well as support from Republicans including Mayor Tom Tait and the other sorts who aren’t endorsing Lucille Kring.  That is a wide swath of people who value solid quality in a public official over easy manipulability.

I consulted with nobody on that list — and nobody not on that list — before writing this column.  The absolute least that Montez could have done is to support the man who helped his uncle get a district system imposed in Anaheim over the man who tried to delay it and even block it before deciding to run in an effectively Latino majority district himself.  Slightly less than the least would have been staying the hell out of the District 3 race if he couldn’t avoid being a vendido.

Below that — far below that, if he had cared wanted to honor the legacy of his uncle and benefactor, and the man who Montez claimed, probably falsely, encouraged him to run for the NOCCCD seat — would have been to do exactly what he is doing.

Let me quote Amin David’s words said often to others in power, since he can no longer himself say them to Art Montez:   “Shame, shame on you.”  I apologize to anyone named in this post for my intemperance here, but while I’m angered a lot by local politics it’s less often that I am totally disgusted.  I am disgusted with Art Montez and I am privileged not to have any need to hide it.

And as a voter within another district of the NOCCCD, I beg my fellow voters to let our community colleges be governed by a man the caliber of Ed Lopez rather than by the likes of Art Montez.

UPDATE, 11/4:

It is come to my attention that some people, who have dealt with Art primarily before Amin’s illness, are having a hard time believing that this is true.  Well, this screenshot (highlighted and then darkened in Photoshop, but not substantively changed comes to you direct from Brandman’s endorsement page:

Maybe Jack Bedell and a few others can be forgiven. But this list overflows with those who can’t. At least Loretta will no longer be around to shield him.


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)