Tue. Nov 5th, 2024

While the Disney Company, through the SOAR PAC, has been propping up Tom Daly’s lame campaign for the 69th Assembly District, he is being outworked by his leading opponent – Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez.  Just look at the endorsements she has racked up thus far:

  • Assemblyman Ben Hueso
  • Assemblyman Roger Hernandez
  • Assemblyman Ricardo Lara
  • Assemblyman Henry Perea 
  • Assemblyman Jose Solorio
  • Ret. Senator Martha Escuita
  • Ret. Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez
  • Ret. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico
  • Santa Ana, Mayor Miguel Pulido
  • Santa Ana, Councilmember David Benavides
  • Santa Ana, Councilmember Sal Tinajero
  • Santa Ana, Councilmember, Vince Sarmiento
  • Garden Grove, Councilmember, Dina Nguyen
  • Garden Grove, Former Councilmember, Mark Rosen
  • Brea, Councilmember, Ron Garcia
  • Lake Forest, Councilmember, Kathryn McCullough
  • San Juan Capistrano, Councilmember, Laura Freese
  •  Montebello School Board, Gerri Guzman
  •  Cudahy, Mayor Josue Barrios
  •  El Monte, Councilmember, Joseph Gonzalez
  •  Bell Gardens, Sergio Infanzon
  •  Southgate, Jorge Morales
  •  Hawthorne, Mayor Protem, Alex Vargas
  •  Hawthorne, School Board, John Vargas
  •  Santa Ana, Planning Commissioner, Eric Adelrete
  •  Santa Ana, Planning Commissioner, Patrick Correa
  •  Santa Ana, Planning Commissioner, Sean Mill
  •  Santa Ana, Housing and Redevelopment Commissioner, Lynnette Verino
  •  Santa Ana, Housing and Redevelopment Commissioner, Monica Garcia
  •  Santa Ana, Parks and Recreation Commissioner, Ken Nguyen
  •  Santa Ana, Parks and Recreation Commissioner, Max Madrid
  •  Santa Ana, Youth Chair Commissioner, Jonathan Espinoza
  •  Santa Ana, Environmental and Transportation Commissioner, Don Cribb
  •  Santa Ana, Environmental and Transportation Commissioner, Kim Olson
  •  HOPE, PAC
  •  (Partial Listing)
Impressive!  And I hear she has a good shot at landing the endorsement of the California Assembly Latino Caucus.
Martinez notes on her website that “the newly reapportioned Assembly district is extremely diverse- it has a population that is 78.3% Latino, 9.7% Asian and 1.5% African American (2010 Census). ”  All the more reason to elect Martinez, not Daly.
Click here to get involved in her campaign and click here to contribute to the effort.
What about the other Democratic candidate?  Well, Julio Perez continues to be unknown in the district and the Disney Company took away his biggest campaign issue when they settled their contract with their hotel workers.  Game over for Perez!

author avatar
Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

By Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

190 thoughts on “Leading Assembly candidate Michele Martinez lands big endorsements”
  1. Santa Ana Councilwoman Martinez has the support of the Santa Ana City government, does she? Whatta shocker! And she has the “endorsement” of Jose Solorio, who in your previous post you tell us is going around Sacramento talking up Tom Daly’s candidacy! That’s … an odd claim.

    I see that from my hometown of Brea, she had the endorsement of one of our City Council’s Republicans! Those names from Lake Forest, San Juan Capistrano, Montebello, Cudahy, El Monte, Bell Gardens, Southgate, and Hawthorne — are they Republicans too?

    Michelle is a nice woman and I truly do wish her great success in politics, but your plumping these as “big endorsements” just makes you look silly. Next week I’m co-hosting a fundraiser for Perez with Jess Araujo, Eric Altman, Allen Baldwin, Cesar Covarrubias, Pina Hernandez, Al Amezcua, Valerie Amezcua, Gloria Alvarado, Ana Cabral, Alberto Duenas, Berny Enriquez, Celina Estrada, Dr. Arturo & Raquel Lomeli, John Montevideo, Marti Schrank, Phu Nguyen, Benjamin Vasquez, Anaheim Councilmember Lorri Galloway, Anaheim City School District Trustee Dr. Jose Moreno, Anaheim City School District Trustee Jeff Cole, Anaheim Commissioner Al Jabbar. Anaheim Commissioner John Santoianni, Anaheim Commissioner Vicky Ramirez, North Orange County Community College District Trustee Mike Matsuda, Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee John Hanna, Garden Grove Unified School District Trustee Bao Nguyen, Santa Ana Unified School District Trustee John Palacio, Westminster School District Trustee Sergio Contreras, Huntington Beach Councilwoman Connie Boardman, Huntington Beach Councilman Keith Bohr and Huntington Beach Councilman Joe Shaw, with the support of the Orange County Labor Federation, AFSCME Council 36, Anaheim Municipal Employees Association, California Federation of Teachers, IATSE Local 507, I.B.E.W. Local 441, Laborers Local 652, the Orange County Employees Association, Roofers Local 220, Sprinkler Fitters Local 709, Teamsters Local 396, and UFCW Local 324. Readers can come to their own conclusions regarding which endorsements are “big.”

    I admire your loyalty to a friend, though, so make whatever claims you imagine are helpful. Who knows what unsuspected influence Cudahy and Bell Gardens might have in AS-69?

    1. Obviously you don’t know Santa Ana politics, but why would I expect a Brea blogger to have a clue? Solorio has double endorsed opposing candidates for years. It is how he rolls even though it undermines the value of his endorsement, such as it is.

      As for the event you are hosting for Perez, it is a Who’s Who of the same folks who backed Amezcua against Pulido last year. Do you recall how that worked out? And of course the usual pro-union hacks. These people got behind Republican John Leos last year too. And how did that work out?

      Lastly, you clearly have no clue about Latino politicians in this state either. The endorsements that matter are Legislative and Perez is treading water there, as is Daly. Those labor endorsements for Perez are nice but that same coalition tried to prevent Nativo Lopez from being recalled. Fail. The reality is that the vast majority of voters in the 69th DO NOT belong to unions, period.

      There is one woman in the race. Martinez figures to clean up with woman voters. She will dominate in Santa Ana. Daly and Perez will split the Anaheim vote and guess what? At best one of them will come in second place and Martinez will win in the general.

  2. Michele stood us up at the DFA meeting Wednesday night. She said she was coming and didn’t. I even called her a couple times during the meeting and she didn’t answer. Julio gave a real good talk though. I wanted Michele to have a chance to make her case to us real progressives, but I guess something else was more important.

    Greg didn’t mention, maybe he doesn’t know yet – but I’m playing at the Julio fundraiser Wednesday.

    1. And I will remind my readers that neither you nor Greg live in the 69th. Why are you meddling in our district?

      As for the DFA, they are very left-wing and their views do NOT reflect the will of the voters in this district, at all. How many DFA members even live in the 69th? Fail.

  3. This is tiresome. I’m gonna help whoever I think is the most progressive democrat in whatever district I can. Where do you get off thinking you can keep me out of Santa Ana? If we had a freaking decent candidate where I live, and they had a chance, then I would spend my time here, but that’s not the case. You sure don’t mind bragging about all of Michele’s out-of-state endorsements.

    If she’s taking your calls, can you ask her what happened Wednesday night? It’s not good standing people up, saying you’re coming and then not.

  4. “Dr. Arturo & Raquel Lomeli”…… Hmmmmm

    Well you have real winners!

    “I wanted Michele to have a chance to make her case to us real progressives, but I guess something else was more important”……. Hmmmmm

    How about skipping talk with communists?….. Huh?

  5. I do not understand your real progressives lingo… Nelson.

    Are you asking me to make your girlfriend come?…. since I do not have any girlfriend as married man.

  6. Solorio has double endorsed opposing candidates for years. It is how he rolls even though it undermines the value of his endorsement, such as it is.

    Hey, Artmin, I want to quote you something that I just read on an Orange County blog:

    From what I hear, so does Jose Solorio, the legislator Daly is hoping to replace. Word has it that Solorio’s fellow Latino lawmakers are laughing behind his back as he scurries around Sacramento pimping for Daly.

    Now, one could certainly argue with the credibility of my source — it is, after all, you, in your post on Disney’s SOAR efforts — but while I do understand and have written about double-endorsements before, tell me: does Solorio usually engage in double-“scurry[ing] around Sacramento pimping for” efforts? If he’s scurrying around pimping for (um, let’s call it “touting” instead) Michelle as well, why didn’t the author of the above paragraph mention it? If he is touting only Daly, then what is your problem with my saying exactly that above?

    Yeah, I recall that Pulido beat Amezcua. I acknowledge that Pulido could beat Julio Perez for Mayor of Santa Ana, even if Julio moved there. Michelle ain’t Miguel. I’m really interested, though, in hearing who Pulido would support if Michelle lost the primary, though. Could you ask him for me? Would he stand by and let Daly win the seat?

    As for Latino politicians in the state: whom do you think that Speaker John Perez is likely to support? (And, uh, you’ve already discounted Solorio’s endorsement, so that lowers the number to four.)

    As for the “Michelle will win because she cleans up with the women’s and Santa Ana votes,” it’s possible. I see no strong reason to believe it, though. More likely, in fact, is “Michelle gets used and then dropped like a hot potato if she goes into the runoff against Daly because what those powers that be really can’t stand about him is that he’s a reformer — and what they want most for AD-69 is someone who isn’t. Michelle isn’t at Julio’s level — has she ever given Solorio grief? — but she’s not reliably enough of a non-reformer to be preferable to Daly, who has shown more commitment to the cause of non-reform.

    1. I am ignoring the silly preamble to your comment. It is not worth debating.

      As for Michele, she is not Miguel but she has his full support. And who cares who he would support in the general? Let’s get through the primary first.

      I don’t care about Speaker Perez. He is a train wreck – and he is the one who defunded our county to the tune of fifty million. Let Julio tout that endorsement!

      You are mistaken. Julio is not at Michele’s level. She has won office twice. He has never run for ANYTHING.

  7. “Vern? Mention it here rather than at OJB? I didn’t want to scoop ourselves!”……. Hmmmmm

    I guess that Nelson did already scoop it in his pants.

    Please notice you real progressive Esq. Fatso that Michele can beat any UNION JABBA.

    Mhttps://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSK_kak4PTgaomOuO_t_NTVhPU4c0KPv0vsZknYqakImE_Xghnrzw

  8. a? how can you claim SA is “extremely diverse” and cite those statistics? maybe i don’t know the apparent new meaning of diverse. back when, it meant spread out, this looks not diverse but maybe low counts of whites is all that matters

    1. That is because you don’t get that Latinos in Santa Ana are from many countries. And the same goes for our Asian residents. This city is surely more diverse that the one you live in – HB.

  9. “I hate to agree with deadwhitemale”……. Hmmmmm

    Since you agree with deadwhitemale while hating it, it makes you to be Latino hater!…. real progressive Nelson.

  10. I think Michelle is for real, Tom Daly is looking for a job and Julio Perez is a labor tool.

    It doesn’t matter what I think, I am just a woman who votes, I don’t hold fundraisers, I don’t have a blog, I don’t play an instrument. I just support my Democraticic party and the canidate I like best, based on my judgement.

    Julio Perez strikes me as a plant. SCARY!

  11. It may have diversity within Latin American here and there, but my recollection is that Santa Ana is actually notable for its high percentage of Latino ancestry being specifically from Mexico. (Do you have a source? I could try to find mine, which I think is from earlier this year.) Maybe by “diversity” you could say that you mean from different Mexican states?

    I tentatively conclude from OC Dem’s comment that “she” is a male party-line Republican fundraiser and blogger who plays a mean kazoo. As for Julio as plant — yes, I’ve heard rumors that he actually has a background of working for Labor organizations! (Shhh, no one knows!)

    1. We all know Greg that OC Labor has not won anything in years. They always back the wrong candidates. Their only victory in the last ten years was paying for Janet Nguyen’s recount – and she has turned out to be anything but a moderate Republican. Perez will just be their latest fail.

      As for Santa Ana, if you lived here, which you don’t, you would know just how diverse this town really is. If you are looking for a homogeneous town, look no further than the white Republican city you live in – Brea.

  12. We humans are interesting creatures because we are highly prejudicing in order to survive in the jungle.

    We trust our eyes and our so-called vibes more than anything else.

    We believe in the first look and can fall in love based on it.

    Our racism comes manly from this feature because we can’t read from the facial expression of the other race if they want to hurt us or not.

    For example: Oriental will be appearing to whites somewhat smiling just before he will punch you in the mouth.

    The whites can’t never figure blacks facial expression and the color black always induces a fear.

    And when we see a Jew we know that we will get ripped off big time.

    I am sure that all prospective races feel same way to each other.

    Jesse Jackson: There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved (…)

    However, this nature’s survivability feature can be gravely abused. The con-artists are doing just that. They make as put down our guard like Obama did, who is stupid as a doorknob, getting elected to the top job in the world because he reminded to too many of us the young JFK.

    Many vent for it!

    Well what I am trying to say Admin, as I have expressed in my leading comments above, that Michele must look like a million dollars in every stage of her public appearance.

    She must emit an energy to make people feel god about themselves if she want to get elected.

    So Admin do me a favor and take Michele on a photo-shoot, visiting interesting spots of the district in various outfits including some night life pictures in front of the first class hotels and limousines.

    The pictures you are using are ugly.

    The one above resembles SAPD mugshot.

    The picture speaks thousands words, so if you want here to get elected be aware of it.

    CAVEAT: If you will do some shooting in the SA ZOO, look in the background to make sure that she is not standing in front of monkey cage with erected male.

    Always make sure that the Esq. Diamond is not in a background because that signals the bad news.

    And never, never have honky-tonk Nelson playing piano in the background. That brings in people feelings of despair, poverty and self defeat.

  13. I love that AD 69 is a heavily Latino district, people I know fought hard for that to be the case. Just, don’t abuse the English language! Overwhelmingly Latino does not translate to “diverse!”

    If you’re gonna say that the presence of Salvadorans and Guatemalans makes the place diverse, I may as well point out the British, French, German, and Dutch ancestry of all my boring white neighbors.

    None of this is very important, I’m just messing with you. Just let’s not misuse the word “diverse,” even if others do.

    1. You love that this is a Latino district yet you are working with Perez, a candidate who cannot win – and who could hand Daly the election by splitting the Latino vote?

      As for the rest of your comment, it could have been written by the likes of Thomas Gordon or Debbie McEwen. Not what I would expect from a supposed liberal.

      Again, you don’t live here. I do. And I am telling you that this is indeed a very diverse city – and that Latinos are not one people. Just watch a soccer match between Mexico and any other Latin country and you will find that out very quickly. Or a boxing match pitting a Mexican against some other Latin.

      But it is more than that. We also have a lot of folks from different Asian countries – and the same holds true for them. Vietnamese and Cambodians are not the same people. And neither are Chinese. And on top of that we have a growing gay community. Santa Ana is easily the most diverse city in the County – and HB would most certainly be among the least diverse cities.

  14. “Just, don’t abuse the English language! Overwhelmingly Latino does not translate to “diverse!””….. Hmmmm

    Nelson, you are exhibiting classical case of a child sex abuse from your English teaching priest in the Mater Dei High School.

    So let me help you with your native tongue.

    di·verse (d¹-vûrs“, dº-, dº“vûrs”) adj. 1. Differing one from another. 2. Made up of distinct characteristics, qualities, or elements: “Prague . . . offers visitors a series of excursions into a rich and diverse past” (Olivier Bernier). [Middle English divers,, from Old French divers, from Latin dºversus, past participle of dºvertere, to divert. See DIVERT.] –di·verse“ly adv. –di·verse“ness n.

    Therefore, Art is correct by using “diverse” to describe Santa Ana and its population.

  15. Maybe one day Art, you should allow these two clowns Nelson and Diamond from OJB to cross post some of their crapola here so I can resize their ego.

    They are getting too Kafkaesque without my supervision.

  16. Haha, Kafkaesque. Do you know that’s my very favorite writer, Fiala?

    Meanwhile Art makes as little sense as ever. I sound like Tom Gordon and McEwen — because I think the word “diverse” should have a definition?

    Never mind, I rebow out

    1. No, because you don’t think Santa Ana is diverse. I have heard Gordon say that many times. Like McEwen he pines for a time when the city was indeed not diverse. Well, that ship sailed a long time ago…

  17. See, it’s so difficult to have an intelligent conversation with you. I am not CRITICIZING Santa Ana when I say that the word “diverse” doesn’t exactly apply to it. It is an overwhemlingly Latino city, and good for it! I just care about words having meaning.

    1. Sure Vern. Well if you and your Brea pal Diamond succeed this diverse city will end up being represented by Tom Daly in the Assembly. I hope you can live with that.

  18. I thought we were past this:

    You love that this is a Latino district yet you are working with Perez, a candidate who cannot win – and who could hand Daly the election by splitting the Latino vote?

    Art, explain how you think Perez could split the Latino vote and allow Daly to win given the new Top Two primary system?

    Do you understand that there is no longer a Democratic primary?

    If Santa Ana had a strong Republican candidate who could poll maybe 30% of the vote, you might have a point — but it doesn’t. I’m not afraid of Michelle being in the primary, because I think that Julio will get more votes and be in the final two against either her or Daly (probably Daly.)

    If there are three candidates in a race now and one gets 100,000 votes and one gets 7 and one gets 4, the Top 2 — with the 100,000 and 7 — go into the general election. How many times do I have to explain this to you?

    So: again, even if Julio were the weaker candidate (as he is not), how does his presence knock Michelle out of the Top 2?

    P.S. I liked how when I got you dead to rights on the Solorio thing you said it was “not worth debating.” Maybe not, but it goes into my “Art gets it wrong” file.

    So could you please explain how you think that

    1. Are you kidding? The Republicans might still recruit someone with good name ID (Lucille Kring?) who could indeed get enough votes, with a three way Dem split, to make the top two. The GOP knows that this is the year to do it as Obama is a huge anchor on all the OC races. Needless to say, Obama is losing all of Orange County this time. And the White House too probably.

      So yes, Perez could cost us big by splitting the Latino vote and putting Daly and some Republican on the general ballot. At that point who knows? Daly could win even if Latinos don’t show up, but the GOP does have a shot at this district, particularly because of Obama’s weakness and because Latinos won’t show up in the general if Daly is the candidate.

  19. Ha. One could become a “connoisseur of the fold.” Meaning appreciating the various ways that various windbags fold after realizing they can’t hold up their end of an argument. How rarely do they ever admit they were wrong? Why, very, very rarely.

  20. “Haha, Kafkaesque. Do you know that’s my very favorite writer, Fiala?”…… Hmmmmm

    That figures!

    Every pseudo intellectual snob aspire to be Kafkaesque.

    Do you know that Kavka (crow) was not really any writer and his existentialistic opinions were published after his death?

  21. There is no bigger windbag that your pal Diamond, who says in 5,000 words what anyone else can say in 500.

    Ha ha, some truth there. Still, you been talking nonsense.

  22. “See, it’s so difficult to have an intelligent conversation with you. I am not CRITICIZING Santa Ana when I say that the word “diverse” doesn’t exactly apply to it. It is an overwhemlingly(SIC) Latino city, and good for it! I just care about words having meaning.”……. Hmmmmm

    Reiterating Nelson, Art is using correctly “diverse” it is you who must find different expression for what ever you want to say, you moron mongoloid.

  23. This comment long confirms my impression that Art understands at most 10% of what I say.

    Hey, Art, this suggestion is serious: if they do recruit a Lucille Kring for a suicide mission, just run as a Republican yourself and split the GOP vote. I might even, God help me, send you a check. That way two Dems still get in. See how that works? It’s Abel Maldonado’s world, we just live in it.

    (That’s a little under 80 words; let’s see you say it in 8. Oh, heck, 10.)

    1. Yes I know that you think you are superior to everyone else. Lord knows what you really think of Latinos in general.

      Why would I run and risk splitting the Latino vote further, in an open primary? Now who isn’t making sense?

      Tell you what, why don’t you and Vern do something that is actually useful and find someone to run against Supervisor Janet Nguyen? There is a race your pal Julio could actually win…

  24. Greg,

    I don’t think you really want to know what I think about you and your “Gender”.

    All I said was I like Michelles Moxie, and I distrusted Julio.

    Trying to discredit legitmate opinions, pretty chicken.

  25. “This comment long confirms my impression that Art understands at most 10% of what I say”….. Hmmmmm

    Obviously Art is not alone!

    Esq. Diamond, please be legally advised that you should mollify because your statements are gravely frivolous as matter of law and matter of fact.

  26. So what you’re saying is this, Art?

    In a primary with Daly (D), Kring (R), Pedroza (R), Perez (D), Martinez (D), and already-announced whatizname (R) you think that Daly and Kring finish as the top two in AD-69? Oh, ye of little faith! You think that as a Spanish-surnamed (R) would you take votes away from Perez and Martinez rather than from a hypothetical Kring candidacy?

    OK, then — assuming that you can’t recruit an Anglo Republican to run instead, you can always change your name and run as Art Peterson.

    As for you, Vern: It would take most people 900 words minimum to say what I can say in 5000!

    1. Again you are without a clue. I have run for non partisan office twice in Santa Ana and came very close to winning a school board race last time. I have no interest in splitting the Latino vote further.

      You are wasting your time with Perez. He should pull out.

  27. P.S.: Is Tom Daly in Nguyen’s district under the new lines? That race is something I could get behind.

    1. How can you fashion yourself a player in the DPOC and still be so clueless? The OCEA won’t let Daly or any other Dem challenge Nguyen.

  28. “There is no bigger windbag that your pal Diamond, who says in 5,000 words what anyone else can say in 500″….. Hmmmm

    Churchill wrote the History of England using 500 different words.

  29. OK, we’re into conspiracy theories now; I’ll back away slowly.

    (By the way: OCEA evidently can’t stop Daly from challenging Perez!)

  30. Hey, is there an hour long wait now for approval? Or don’t you want people to see how quickly I said, “Yeah, some truth there. But you’ve still been talking nonsense.”

  31. I’ll let him know when I see him next week that Art Pedroza thinks that he should pull out of the race. I’ll try not to do so while he is drinking hot coffee while wearing a nice suit, though.

    I’d support Michelle for Supervisor, by the way!

  32. Let’s start laying bets, although the formula would be complicated. I’d like to see Julio win, although I wouldn’t mind Michele. I’d be very upset to see Daly, or any Republican, prevail. And since I’m a goofball who confuses wishes with predictions, I’ll bet on what I want.

    Obviously your side is much simpler, you just want Michele.

  33. Why is it ok for the Mayor of Cudahy and a Councilmember from Southgate to endorse in the 69th but you pitch a fit when someone from Brea or HB voices their opinion?

    1. An endorsement is one thing – and bear in mind the fact that due to term limits those Council Members might one day be in Sacramento themselves – perhaps they too will be members of the Assembly Latino Caucus – and these endorsements likely reflect Martinez’ work in NALEO and the Southern CA Association of Governments – but what Diamond and Nelson are doing is not simply endorsing. No, they are actively meddling in affairs that are quite frankly none of their business. And their meddling may well hand the district to Daly – which will be an affront and a disservice to our voters in the 69th District.

  34. Speaking of theories:

    It is my tentive opinion that Greg is a “mechanic”, and academic, who has no real passion for his cause. He can argue point and verse but lacks human interpersonal skills. I would be stunned to learn he was married and with family.

    He looks to be a cold calculating machine, hired by the union to defend it’s new round of canidates. I had NEVER heard of him before October of this year, and know he waves his opinion and (supposed credentials) all over.

    But, thats just my “conspiracy theory”. I am sure none of that is true.

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