Lupe Moreno, Minuteman, running for Mayor of Santa Ana

Lupe Moreno, perhaps the most notorious of Orange County’s Minutemen, has filed to run for Mayor of Santa Ana, according to the O.C. Register. 

Moreno has a long history of running for office in Santa Ana and in Orange County, as follows:

• Moreno ran for the SAUSD School Board in 2000, garnering half the votes that her nemesis Nativo Lopez got as he won, according to Smart Voter.
• Moreno almost won a seat on the SAUSD School Board, in 2002, losing by 1.5% to Audrey Noji, according to Smart Voter.
• In 2004, she was listed as an endorser by Roman Reyna, who at the time was running for the Santa Ana City Council.  That did not work out for Reyna, who was thoroughly beaten by Claudia Alvarez.  He is running again this year, as Alvarez has termed out.
• Moreno also won a seat on the OC GOP’s Central Committee in 2004, coming in fifth place, according to Smart Voter.
• Moreno ran for the State Senate in 2006, losing by close to 13,000 votes to Lynn Daucher in the GOP primary, according to Smart Voter.
• Moreno lost in 2010 as well, when she ran for the OC GOP Central Committee, losing by about 300 votes according to Smart Voter.
• She ran again this June for the OC GOP Central Committee, losing to former Santa Ana Council Member Brett Franklin by about two percentage points, according to Smart Voter.

According to a Minuteman website, “Moreno is Mexican, and a Minutemen. She says her father was a “coyote” – a smuggler of illegal immigrants, and that her involvement with the Minutemen is a way for her to make amends for her father’s past.”

For some reason Moreno has been allowed to serve as President of the Santa Ana Friends of the Library for many years.  Two years ago she  imported several Minutemen to our city to help her with a 4th of July event that backfired when one of her Minutmen was caught on video calling a Santa Ana resident a “wetback.”  Santa Ana Council Member David Benavides honored her and her committee after that debacle, compelling the rest of the Santa Ana City Council to get up and leave the Council chambers while Benavides passed out certificates.  Benavides, like Moreno, is also running for Mayor of Santa Ana this year.