By now you have probably seen the horrible anonymous mailers that have been attacking Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido – accusing him and his family of hosting a party where a teen was reportedly raped.
The story was reported by the Voice of OC, an online news website that I have at this point lost all respect for. Their seed funding came largely from the Orange County Employees Association, a government workers union headed up by Nick Berardino, who has had some unknown beef with Pulido for some time. And the Voice of OC’s board members include lobbyist Joe Dunn, who tried to move the O.C. Federal Court of Appeals to Irvine but was famously blocked by Pulido.
The article in question was written by Adam Elmahrek. He stalked Pulido’s kids on Facebook while writing his story. That was disgusting enough but even worse, he pursued this story even though the Santa Ana Police Department looked into the matter and they cleared everyone of any wrongdoing. The girl who made the rape accusation recanted. Nothing happened and neither Mayor Pulido nor his kids had anything to do with this.
The matter was ignored by the real reporters in town, at the O.C. Register and the L.A. Times. The OC Weekly picked it up because their editor, Gustavo Arellano, has had it in for Pulido for years. Arellano doesn’t live here in Santa Ana but he hates Pulido so much that he will blindly back anyone that runs against him, no matter their record or how bad they might be.
So who is funding these scandalous anonymous attacks on Mayor Pulido? It turns out that the attacks are the work of a Political Action Committee that calls itself the Stand Up Santa Ana Coalition. I am sure they wanted to remain in the shadows until after the election but I got a hold of their campaign finance reports. Click here to see their summary report.
You will see that these cowards include downtown Santa Ana landlord Irv Chase and his son Ryan. These are the guys who have been busy ripping off Downtown Santa Ana’s business and property owners with the unethical PBID tax. And they are the guys who have been trying to gentrify Downtown Santa Ana. They listed their address as being in Costa Mesa. The irony is that Ryan’s Facebook page is replete with pictures of him drinking with his pals.
It turns out that no one on the summary report is based in Santa Ana. The other donors include businessmen in Los Angeles and Woodland Hills.
These folks are also funding mailers in support of Ward 3 candidate Eric Alderete – further reason to vote for his opponents. I have endorsed both Brett Franklin and Shane Ramon Barrows. Either one would be preferable to Alderete, who is supported in the mail by complete scumbags.
There is also a second report that includes the Santa Ana Police Management Association and the Lyon Apartment Companies. Remember when mayoral candidate David Benavides said, at the recent mayoral candidates forum held at Latino Health Access, that he blamed Pulido for high density apartments? Well Pulido debunked that lie, but the irony is that an apartment company is now funding attacks against Mayor Pulido and his family. Surely they must have cut a deal with Benavides to bring more high density apartments to our city! Don’t forget that Benavides is a realtor. Is he going to make money on these transactions?
As for the Santa Ana Police Management Association, shame on them. The police contract is coming up. Clearly they have cut a deal with Team Benavides for big raises all around. There has been talk for several years now of the City Council forcing a public assessment – a tax – on us to pay for police services. This thuggery by the SAPMA tells me that you better hide your wallet. The deals have already been cut.
By the way, this PAC is using the same Treasurer that Council Member Michele Martinez uses, a guy in Los Angeles named David Gould.
Martinez blames Pulido because her brother was arrested when she was running for Mayor, against Pulido. Well, the truth is that the cops had no idea who the guy was. He told them she was his sister after they cuffed him. Now she is pals with the cops but she still has it in for Pulido.
How ironic is it that the cops are working with Martinez, whose brother ran with gangs and so did she – by her own admission she was once a drug dealer. And I am told that Ward 5 candidate Roman Reyna’s brother ended up in jail too. These are the people our cops are now in bed with!
