Our Santa Ana Voter Guide for the Nov. 6 election

There are quite a few key races coming up in the November 6, 2012 General Election, here in Santa Ana.

I have written dozens of posts in recent weeks about many of the candidates for the City Council, the SAUSD School Board, and the Rancho Santiago Community College District.  After much deliberation, here are my endorsements:

Santa Ana City Council:

Ward 1 – Estela Amezcua

Comments: the incumbent, Vince Sarmiento, is not a bad guy but he has chosen to ally himself with mayoral candidate David Benavides.  I cannot as such support Sarmiento.  This is of course a protest vote since Sarmiento should win this contest easily against an opponent who is not running a campaign.

Ward 3 – Brett Franklin and  Shane Ramon Barrows

Comments: Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Eric Alderete is the leading candidate, but he, like Sarmiento, is with Benavides.  As such I am endorsing  Barrows, a neighbor of mine in the Park Santiago Neighborhood who is an Irvine police officer, and former Council Member Brett Franklin.  I like Barrow’s measured views and willingness to tackle the tough issues.  However he is not running a big campaign – he seems to be more interested in getting out the issues.  Franklin on the other hand is leading the race, according to inside polls.  He is working hard and he has a great shot at taking back his Council seat.

Ward 5 – Karina Onofre

Comments: Onofre disappointed me by becoming a Republican, but I cannot vote for Roman Reyna as he too is backing Benavides.  And I think we should have more women on our City Council.  It is also important not to elect a Council of lemmings.  We need a few new voices to mix things up.

Mayor – Miguel Pulido

Comments: I spent years attacking Pulido on the old Orange Juice blog but he came around  on the issues and is doing a great job.  His major opponent, Benavides, is unproven and appears to lack any concrete new ideas.  His move to sell the Santora building to his church backfired as well.

SAUSD School Board:

We can vote for three candidates.  I am supporting three of them: Ceci Iglesias, Myriam Tinajero and  Jose Alfredo Hernandez.

Comments: Rob Richardson voted not to hire our amazing new Superintendent, Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana.  So no way am I voting for him.  Tinajero’s brother, Sal, was a great SAUSD school board member and he is doing a fine job on the City Council.  Let’s hope his sister is made of the same stuff.  Jose Alfredo Hernandez voted to hire our new Superintendent and in so doing he has my gratitude and my vote.

Rancho Santiago Community College District Board of Education:

Area 3: Tony Tapia.  I have known Tony for some time.  He is a great guy and a true man of the people.  No way I can support Thomas Gordon, a partisan Republican who serves on the OC GOP Central Committee.  Gordon’s views are against the working poor.  And I cannot support Nelida Yanez.  She doesn’t seem to have any new ideas and I am not sure why she is even running.

Area 5: I am co-endorsing Claudia Alvarez and Dave Chapel.  Alvarez is fiscally conservative, which I like, and Chapel is an educator, which I also like.  May the best candidate win!

Local Ballot Measures:

Measure GG – Oppose

Comments: Our City Council had a chance to fix term limits with Measure D, a few years ago.  Instead they punted at the time on Mayoral term limits and instead extended their own terms to 12 years!  Now they want to limit the Mayor to 8 years while keeping their 12 year terms.  That is unfair and unbalanced and you know that if Benavides wins they will quickly act to extend the Mayoral term limits to 12 years.  This is a self-serving bunch and we ought to reject this latest flawed term limit measure.  As voters we can boot the Mayor every two years.  That we don’t do so is a measure of how bad the mayoral opponents have been and continue to be.

Measure Q – Oppose

Comments: We are already paying higher property taxes due to two previous SAUSD school bonds and one previous Rancho Santiago Community College District bond.  I am sorry the Rancho Trustees wasted our money.  That is not a good enough reason to vote to increase our taxes again.

Congress:

46th Congressional District – Loretta Sanchez is the incumbent.  I was going to vote for her but an not happy that she has not endorsed Mayor Pulido.  And she has made a lot of awful endorsements, including backing some of the Benavides cartel members.  I can’t vote for her Republican opponent, Jerry Hayden, as he refused to clarify his position on the Dream Act and on immigration, so I am sitting this one out.

State Assembly:

69th Assembly District – No way I can vote for Tom Daly.  I am voting for Jose “Joe” Moreno.

Click here to see my Voter Guide for info on the other races in Orange County.

Click here to read the OC Weekly’s Santa Ana Election Guide.