Santa Ana’s Ward 5 City Councilman Roman Reyna voted against hiring more Santa Ana police officers this year – and when Reyna ran for Mayor a couple of years ago we caught him posing with a couple of members of the Mexican Mafia. Now the chickens have come home to roost for Reyna as Juan Villegas, an Orange County Law Enforcement Officer, has filed to run against him in Santa Ana’s Ward 5 this November.

Villegas openly addresses the alarming increase in crime here in Santa Ana during Reyna’s watch, on his campaign website. That is exactly the message that Santa Ana’s voters are looking for as folks are just fed up with the daily shootings and violence that have happened since Reyna joined with the others in the current City Council majority to dump our former Chief of Police, Paul Walters, and to get rid of the Santa Ana Police Department’s Gang Task Force. 

Villegas attended both Santa Ana and Fullerton College, according to his Linkedin page, while Reyna reportedly dropped out of high school. Villegas also has worked for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for 26 years while Reyna has had trouble keeping a real job in addition to his part-time work on the City Council. Villegas is also an author and a professional speaker.

Villegas will have money to spend on his campaign as the Santa Ana Police Officers Association figures to be all in on his campaign. Reyna on the other hand has a very tough time raising money and he could have a very hard time doing so this year as it is a Presidential election year and money is going to bigger races in the County.

Villegas has our endorsement and we expect him to win handily in November.