Surprise! It turns out that Angelica Amezcua, the mystery candidate who somehow got elected to Ward 3 on the Santa Ana City Council this Tuesday, doesn’t go by that name. She probably did years ago but she has been living in the Morrison Park neighborhood since 2011, as Angie Oliver, the wife of attorney Rob Oliver.
I am surmising that the Olivers are friends of Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez, particularly as Rob is a shareholder at Alvarez ally Ruben Smith’s law office.
So Angelica dropped her married name and went from calling herself Angie to filing to vote as “Angelica.” Brilliant! This is what U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez did when she dropped her original married name of “Brixey” and started using her maiden name – back when she first beat Bob Dornan.
According to an old Morrison Park Neighborhood Association newsletter, the Olivers have two kids, ages 4 and 7, and Angelica works as a 1st grade schoolteacher at Carver Elementary.
I doubt that Angelica thought she was going to win. The whole thing was a prank orchestrated to get back at the Team Benavides candidate, Eric Alderete. Well, mission accomplished I guess. But now Angelica has to serve on the City Council for the next few years.
The good news is that she is going to be a major upgrade as compared to the disgraced outgoing Council Member, Carlos Bustamante.
umm, is that legal to do that?
Yes, if she re-registered in time.
Maybe “Angie” Oliver is “Carpetbagger”?
I doubt it. She barely exists on the Internet and does not appear to even have a Facebook page.
“Carpetbagger” barely exists on the internet and does not have a facebook page. silly.
But he knows how to comment on blogs and he appears to be very well informed about local politics. This Angie character doesn’t appear to have much of a clue but she won anyway
So Angie is being characterized as a clueless character?
She is going to be the most powerful person in all of Santa Ana! So she better get a clue. The “council majority” will be demanding that she works with them. And Pulido will be demanding that she works with him. Angie Bird is now in the Catbird Seat.
She’s a teacher so of course she’s smart. And she’ll be smart enough to stay away from the ding dongs on the Council, but she has a lot to learn in a very short time. Luckily Alvarez will be advising her.
I am not Angie, She’s better looking.
But, now that I see her husbands picture, I know who they are.
Hopefully she operates as a free thinking independent and doesn’t get sucked in to the cancer that is Benavide’s.
Look for Vince to lean more center. Maybe Michelle too as she see’s her lights fade.
I am done with this for a while, (2-0 Perez and Benavides DENIED), although Roman might deserve some bashing now and again.
Unlike Art Lomeli, I am all about the city and the neighborhood and protecting it from phonies.
Call the LIARS line if you have a canidate.
As a mother I’m so happy that Angie was able to win. My sister teaches with her and says she’s the greatest.
She had the fire in the belly to win that Eric sadly lacked. Eric reminds me of another past Santa Ana candidate and lawyer named Glenn Mondo who ran for City Council several times and lost. Glenn realized at some point that he was better working behind the scenes in politics and is now a judge. Maybe Eric could meet with Glenn and find out how he did it. Not everyone is cut out for elected office buy there are always rolls for good voluteers.
Angie will be on the City Council until 2024 (3 4 year terms) so I suggest we all support her and give her the love she deserves.
I could not disagree more with your statement regarding Eric. Eric busted his ass during this campaign and worked very hard. When he was not working at his day job he was busy walking precincts.
The comparison to Mondo is a very poor one. Mondo assumed that he had the election in the bag and figured because he had locked up all the traditional support that he did not have to work. Ted Moreno, the candidate that beat Mondo, simply outworked him.
If you want to compare someone to Mondo, I would go with Tino Rivera. Tino kicked back and assumed victory while Michele Martinez worked to win.
Eric worked very hard and ran an excellent campaign. He did everything right and this outcome is simply illogical.
We shall see what Mrs. Oliver is made of and what kind of councilmember she will be very soon. I wish her the best in this huge undertaking and hope she is up to the task.
Make no mistake about it, Eric Alderete is an asset to the community and someone this council would have benefitted greatly from.
Angélica Amezcua is a wonderful person, as her husband and friends attest.
However, personal character is not the key issue here.
The chief issue is that Angélica is now in a position to make crucial policy decisions impacting Santa Ana residents for the foreseeable future.
Her inaccessibility during the campaign robbed me and other Santa Ana residents of the opportunity to gauge her vision and assess her views on issues and policies.
Her campaign silence was simply irresponsible and has now brought forth this avalanche of post-election scrutiny. Do not blame the public.
Soon enough Angélica will have no choice but to communicate her views and make policy choices. I hope she can do a better job communicating her vision and policy preferences, rather than continue relying on friends and family to vouch for her personal character.
Peace.
This blog’s addy-name is misleading. No mention of political platforms, agendas, city vision, budget discourse in this article. Only what you “somehow” “surmise” and “suspect” about another victim on your undesireables list. A trash-dig rant might’ve been tolerated months ago. Please, your readership respectfully implores you to, at least, orient both your black permanent marker’s wide-nib and neon yellow highlighter’s broad-tip with the voters’ compass: Forward.
How would anyone know anything about Angie’s position on the issues? She never communicated any of that during her campaign. That said, I am looking forward to finding out what she is all about.
Doris,
Would you happen to know anything about Mrs. Oliver’s platform, agenda, vision for the city or what she wants to do in regards to the budget? If you do please share it.
Mrs. Oliver surely did not inform the voters as to what her agenda was. However I will remain cautiously optimistic that she has one in place and has an idea about what she is getting into.
My name is Robert Oliver and Angelica Amezcua is my wife. Though the political blogosphere is not known for constraining itself to the boundaries of fact and fiction and are best ignored, I believe this post warrants a response.
My wife’s name is Angelica Amezcua, not Angie Oliver. The name on her birth certificate and passport is Angelica Amezcua. The name on every paycheck she has ever received from SAUSD reads Angelica Amezcua. The name on the grant deed of our house (a public record) reads “Robert Oliver and Angelica Amezcua, husband and wife as joint tenants.” The name on her auto registration is Angelica Amezcua. The name on our water bill from the City reads Angelica Amezcua. In short, Angelica has kept her maiden name ever since we married, to this husband’s chagrin.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Angelica is referred to as “Angie” to those who know and love her. Indeed, this blog’s author assumed that I go by the name of Rob, rather than my given name Robert (I do not, by the way).
To suggest that Angelica somehow “changed” her name for political expediency, however, has no basis in fact. Yes, I consider my family the Oliver family, and yes, if you call our home the message on the answering machine informs you that you have reached the Oliver residence. But that does not change the fact that Angie refers to herself as Angelica Amezcua as a matter of course, and not for political gain or motive.
Two minor factual corrections. First, I no longer work at AlvaradoSmith. I left my partnership there two months ago to re-start my own practice, though Ruben Smith and many of the great people who work there continue to be good friends of ours. Second, our sons are 9 and 12–just thought you’d want to know.
I would also take issue with attempts to paint her election campaign as a “prank” or as some pawn in political infighting between the Mayor and the Council, but I do not think such unfounded opinions warrant the dignity of a response. I would simply ask Mr. Pedroza and readers of this blog to get to know Angelica and to give her a chance to develop a record that you can either support or criticize.
Maybe someone should tell the Morrison Park Neighborhood Association that she goes by Angelica Amezcua.
From the MPNA newsletter: “Robert and Angie Oliver moved from South Santa Ana to North Santa Ana in September.”
Did you have them make a correction in the next edition of the newsletter Robert?
Confused Voter,
No, nor do I feel compelled to do so.
Best,
Robert
I notice that you and Claudia Alvarez both got your JD’s from Loyola Law School. Did you know Claudia from school Robert?
Hank Gathers (fond memories of him, BTW):
I did know Claudia in law school, she graduated a year ahead of me. I haven’t seen her since. Our paths diverged after law school (I practiced in downtown L.A.), and we lost touch.
Best,
Robert
Robert,
First let me offer my congratulations to your wife and welcome you both to life under the microscope of Santa Ana politics.
I think a lot of folks are trying to figure out who Angelica is alligned with and there are rumors that it is Claudia. There is nothing wrong with that. Claudia was a great councilmember and there is nothing wrong with being associated with her.
BTW, I too loved those LMU teams with, Hank, Bo, Jeff Fryer, Tom Peabody, etc… There is a great article in the current edition of Sports Illustrated about them.
Why isn’t “Angie”replying to this blog instead of her husband??? It’s going to be a long four years for Santa Ana residents.
All I had to go one Robert was that neighborhood newsletter that mentioned you both. Other than that your wife completely failed to communicate with Santa Ana’s voters during her campaign. She blew off all of the candidate forums. She did not send out any campaign mail. She doesn’t even have a campaign Facebook page – a free resource by the way.
It will be a simple matter for me to check with the Voter Registrar to see how Angie filed to vote and under what name, previously.
As for your employment, you might want to ask your old employers to remove you from their website.
Finally, it is hard to treat your wife’s campaign as anything other than a successful stunt. Again, she did not campaign. But by the grace of God, and good luck, she won.
I have no axe to grind with her by the way. I am hopeful she will be an improvement over the out of touch and disgraced Bustamante. But if you think that I am going to ignore her then you have another thing coming. She is now a public official. We will be watching and hoping that she at some point decides to communicate with her public.
If you seriously believe she goes by Angie Oliver all you have to do is ask all her current and past students. She is kind down to earth and very intelligent women. Her father would collect cans and carton after loosing his job at the sugar cane factory that closed many years back. Student loans paid for her education. Most of her 20 or so nephews graduated or had some form of post secondary education including schools like Cornell, Stanford, Cal State Fullerton, UCR, Concordia and Syracuse. To say she goes by Oliver is an insult to the Amezcuas. Most of her brothers until a few years back were employees of Steelcase.
You are absolutely correct Mr. Oliver.
“Angie” is not going to be a pawn.
She is now going to be the most powerful
person in Santa Ana.
And the blogs should be ignored! haaaa hhaaaa.
We had over 5,000 Page Views yesterday.
As a mother I’m thrilled that Angelica won! We need a moms perspective in the city. It’s not always the same as a man or as a single woman like Martinez.
I’m still not sure why a candidate or her husband would not surface to talk openly to the press or neighbors organizing forums until after the campaign is over. That’s a new technique which seems to have worked well for Angelica.
If she can win in a landslide with no money or P.R., just imagine what the future holds. There are lots of people (Correa, Solorario, Alvarez, Sarmiento, Benavides, Tinajero, Marinez, Nguyen, etc) waiting for Congresswoman Sanchez to move on but I now believe the person who will take her place one day is Ms. Amezqua. Mark my words…you heard it here first. She has 12 years to build up the resources needed.
It’s sad that Eric’s political career was cut short before it even started because it seems he really wanted to get into politics but I agree with Fisher Park Mom that he may be better suited to work helping other get elected and serving on the Planning Board. There is no shame in that and it’s a fine way for him to give back to our community. I hope he does not move out of Santa Ana. We have seen too many candidates run, lose, and leave town. That would be sad.
Didn’t Ruben Smith run campaigns for Nativo Lopez and help fun his campaigns? I guess Nativo gets the last laugh Santa Ana! And right in the Council ward that refused to build a school on the old Farmers site. Take that Floral Park!
Ruben Smith also created Nadia Davis Locker as a Santa Ana school board candidate. How long until we see him getting business from the City? Rumor has it Ruben just bought a house on N. Towner between Santa Clara and Riviera. Interesting.
So where does Angelica stand on the bike trail in Santiago Creek? Can we get that built now please?
Bustamante was on the fence on this issue though his family uses the unmaintained trail often. The inclusive needs of the many to connect our neighborhoods together via the creek trail outweighs the exclusive desires of a few to fence off the public creek for private use.
Go to http://www.neighbors4trail.org and sign the online petition. I hope Angelica gets a balanced perspective on this and with rest of the Council do what is right instead of avoiding it. A detour that is 4x longer on busy surface streets is not a family friendly/safe option.
Bustamante was on the fence? All the council members sit on the fence until somebody offers them a donation to get off it. duh.
A couple of observations:
1) It’s both scary and telling that Robert Oliver and not the canidate is responding to this innocuous blog post. Given that the councilwoman elect has not revealed much information, it’s premature for him to start getting defensive. PLUS, the last thing the political blogeshere needs is another lawyer blovating.
2) For a guy that disses the factual nature of the blogs, he struck back pretty fast!
3) Mrs. Whatever, better get used to speaking up. We didn’t elect her husband, and he will get chewed up and spit out. Leaving her political carcas on the table. This is not Fullerton.
With that being said, I congrtatulate the council member elect and wish her strength and resolve in her position. I look forward to her public comments on her positions.
Puppetmaster makes some great points. Residents will also be watching to see how deep Ruben Smith is into her. (Remember..Rueben made Nadia Davis and then hooked her up with his buddy Lockyer.) Ruben Smith was also Nativo Lopez’s best friend and made Mr. Oliver and the rest of his firm bucket loads of money that should have gone to school kids while Nativo and Sal Mendoza where raping the district for hidden insurance fees. So welcome to politics Mr. and Mrs. Oliver. Your lives are now subject to public review. Ms. Amezcua/Oliver would be better serverd by speaking for herself and not hiding behind her lawyer husband. That said, we wish her the best and hope against hope that she is not another Nativo/Nadia Davis creation.
Art, Won’t the Oliver family have to also do a public disclosure of all forms of income and investments now that she is elected? That should be interesting as well.
Why are people picking on Mrs. Oliver/Alvarez oops freudian slip there. I mean Oliver/Amescua for not speaking up on this blog. None of the other council members do. And nobody really expects them to.
They might hire or encourage their buds to speak for them or use coded names, but they never do with their real name. It is too much of a professional liability.
There is nothing wrong with Mr. Oliver laying some truth down for all of the busybodies. I think he did a fine job.
You have a point but she ought to at least introduce herself in a press conference.
Now you’re being silly. Amezcua needs to address the public. The best way to do that would be either a press conference or some sort of community meeting. Whether or not she pops up here is immaterial.
She can hold a press conference in my gallery, or upstairs in the Santora! That would be awesome. Loretta Sanchez was there just last night for a fundraiser for local veterans. The Heart of Santa Ana. Alderete was there too and having dinner with ????? at Memphis afterwards. I can almost guarantee if I talked to the United Artists of Santa Ana people they would be happy to promote a meet and greet with the newly elected councilmember!
Now you’re talking… Make it happen!
Our people (JFJ) will be there too and you can bet that loud sucking sound you hear are the puckering lips of the Police Union who want a pay raise.
I’d attend that! It might be fun to guess who I am?
Maybe Matt can commission a piece that we can bid on!
“Carpetbagger”, I think you are going to have to commission a piece from Mateo. People like pretentious Spanish names for their Art pieces.
And Just remember, the police will charge you overtime for their attendance. The artists will attend for FREEEEE!
“And Just remember, the police will charge you overtime for their attendance”
Don’t worry Mateo, there will be lots of cops there to put the squeeze on Ms. Oliver/Amezcua. They have 4 Councilmembers in their pocket and Angie/Angelicas 5th vote is insurance. Contract talks are just around the corner and our officers are looking for more pay and retirement goodies. Prices at Yum Yums Doughnet Star have gone up to you know!
As long as SEIU gets their fair share, I don’t care what happens to the police who ALL make between $150-over $200,000 per year! SEIU took cuts, Fire took major cuts and outsourced, so when are the Police going to feel the budget cuts? Do we really need to pay them so much?
Santa Ana-heim Police State 2012?
The above image is what the new “majority” council will face on their front lawns if they dare NOT give the Police Union everything they demand. I’m not joking.
You are missing the forest for the trees as it relates to Mrs. Oliver’s involvement in this race. The Olivers are confidants of Claudia Alvarez who occasionally dates Ruben Smith, – yes, the sleazy lawyer who provided bad legal advice to the Board of the SAUSD and political hack that is in desperate need of legal work for his firm (a firm, mind you that had its named partner – Adorno- disbarred for ethical lapses: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2011/04/21/adorno-suspended-for-three-years.html ).
Claudia convinced the sisters (Estela and Mrs. Oliver) to run in the hopes that they could help hand legal work to Ruben Smith in the same way Nativo did for Mr. Smith. Smith also encouraged Claudia to run for the Rancho Santiago Board so he could get legal work from that entity too. Mr. Smith doubled down on this bet by contributing thousands to Measure Q. Keep an eye on who gets legal work from the RSCCD.
More to come……and great work on this
Maybe Mr. Smith can do a class action law suit against the City of Santa Ana for conducting a fake Santa Ana Spring. ha ha he he.
not that funny actually.
Palacio will pay in two years. He has a big target on him now.
You have a picture of Mr.Smith posing with Alderete in one of your articles. I thought he was Rudy Guliani. What are you waiting for? Open that Pandora’s Box. Do it! Do it!
Smith has some explaining to do to his pals…
Eric will run for Mayor in two years and win.
I think Eric will still be in shock in two years.
I’ve heard from a Santa Ana Chismosa that Ruben Smith is divorced and that Claudia Alvarez was a long time paramour of his. Does anyone know if this is true?
For the Official Record, In the Official Voting Register, Robert Oliver’s wife is listed as Angelica Amezcua. Respectfully, Inspector for voting precinct 68054.
The question however is how was she registered when she lived with her husband in south Santa Ana? Remember that she moved to Ward 3 in 2011.
With Puppetmaster Ruben Smith back on the scene you can count on lots of fun votes and contracts involving Smith and Oliver and a host of characters from the past and present. Will Angelica be the new Nadia Davis? Only time will tell.