Bustamante running scared, as his pals unleash a lame hit piece

By
Admin
– October 29, 2008Posted in: carlos bustamante, Fresh Juice, jubal, LibOC

Apparently Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante is running scared.  I received a hit piece from some of his pals at the “Citizens for a Better Santa Ana” (more on them later in this post) today, featuring yours truly.  It was a pretty lame mailer.  Apparently Bustamante’s allies decided to mail this piece only to Decline to State (DTS) voters.  There are over 19,000 DTS voters in Santa Ana.  Here’s the rub – they advertised this blog all over the mailer.  I guess I owe Bustamante’s buddies a big “gracias” for telling this city’s DTS voters about the Orange Juice blog!

But wait, there’s more.  The mailer attacks me for being a “political gadfly.”  A gadfly is someone who complains at City Council meetings.  As the founder of one of Orange County’s “Big 3” political blogs I think I have surpassed mere gadfly status – I am a far bigger problem than that for the crooked folks at City Hall.  And if I am of so little consequence, why did these people spend thousands of dollars to attack me in a last minute mailer?  I can only surmise that they ran a poll and the numbers did not look good for their boy Bustamante.

The back of the hit piece features numerous quotes from posts I have written over the years here at the Orange Juice.  I am not sure exactly what Bustamante’s amigos were trying to achieve.  They went out of their way to slam me for quitting the Republican Party – and for not being a Democrat.  But guess what?  Most DTS voters also quit one of these parties.  Oops!  Looks like this hit piece totally misfired.

They also slammed my friends in the Libertarian Party – but this mailer went to DTS voters.  Why would they be offended by the Libertarian Party?  Most likely because they don’t look kindly on third parties.  Again, a very botched strategy by the folks behind this hit piece.

In another ironic twist, the mailer features a lot of out of context quotes, many regarding my support for Latinos.  What Bustamante’s pals don’t know is that many DTS voters in Santa Ana are in fact Latinos.  Again, a total misfire on the part of the lame consultant who put this together.

And who is that lame consultant?  I googled the address on the hit piece.  The company that produced this pathetic hit piece is Lysa Ray Campaign Services.  Never heard of them?  Neither have I.  But they have a lot of right-wing clients, including:

  • Truong Diep (Van Tran’s wing man);
  • Mark Leyes (former Garden Grove City Councilman);
  • Dina Nguyen (another Van Tran acolyte from Garden Grove);
  • Tim Shaw (who is running for the La Habra City Council and who used to work for Janet Nguyen);
  • and the Education Alliance (ultra conservative Republicans who try to take over school boards).
  • This company also did work for Cynthia Coad.  I helped Chris Norby defeat her a few years ago…

This firm has also worked for a few Democrats, including:

  • Anaheim Councilwoman Lori Galloway, who stabbed Lou Correa in the back when she endorsed Lynn Daucher against him;
  • and Jordan Brandman, who is a friend of mine (Jordan, if you are reading this, please don’t use these people anymore!)

All in all, this could have been a lot worse.  It is obvious that Bustamante and his few backers are in complete panic mode.  That bodes well for my campaign!

Interestingly, this mailer did not attack me on the issues.  Do you know why?  Because Bustamante doesn’t have two good ideas to rub together.  If he tries to beat me on the issues, he loses.  But this ridiculous attack does nothing to undermine my main arguments:

  • Bustamante helped push Santa Ana into a $28 million budget deficit
  • The FBI has rated Santa Ana number one in violent crime
  • A city of almost 400,000 residents should have more than one library
  • Why did Bustamante and company wait until months before the election to start paving our streets and arresting criminals?
  • Why aren’t both monthly City Council meetings televised?  And why isn’t that video footage archived permanently online on the City’s website?
  • Speaking of the City website, why is it NOT available in Spanish?
  • Why did Bustamante and the rest of Team Pulido vote for TWO water rate increases in one year?  We now pay more for water than the wealthy residents of Irvine!
  • Why does Santa Ana charge $600 for business licenses you can buy for $50 in Brea?
  • Why do all of Bustamante and Team Pulido’s development schemes result in displacement of homes and businesses?
  • Why did Bustamante and his pals vote to give massive pay raises to all the City employees when we are in a $28 million budget deficit?  They even gave our lame City Manager, Dave Ream, a big raise!
  • Why did Bustamante support Measure G, the fraudulent SAUSD property tax increase, while we were in the midst of the Bush Depression, even after SAUSD Trustee John Palacio said we did not need this bond measure?
  • Why does Bustamante constantly harp about rising test scores in our schools when his own kids are in private, not public, schools?
  • Why did Bustamante make those awful “water bra” remarks – you know, the remarks that got him kicked off two state commissions?  Talk about nutty!
  • Why did Bustamante help start a business bank during the worst banking crisis of our lifetime?

Are those nutty positions?  No – they are sound positions that support the people of Santa Ana.  THAT is what has Bustamante and his dwindling group of friends running scared.

Thanks again Bustamante and company for all the new readers!

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About Admin

"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.