Santa Ana Mayoral Candidate Vince Sarmiento sent out a mailer yesterday that showed quite a bit of nerve. In the mailer Sarmiento said that he was “the only Santa Ana Mayoral candidate working to protect the north Santa Ana neighborhoods.”

That is of course a bold-faced lie. Three of the Mayoral Candidates – Vince Sarmiento, Ceci Iglesias and Jose Solorio, all voted yes, in favor of rezoning and approving the 2525 project.

In fact all of them voted in favor of the project twice: on the first vote reading of the ordinance and again on the second reading. They did so after two years of debate, countless meetings, hundreds of emails, and hundreds of residents coming to council meetings voicing reasoned opposition to this proposed project.

Sarmiento flip-flopped on 2525 only after the was able to gather thousands of petition signatures on a referendum to stop the project. At that point Sarmiento, Iglesis, and David Penaloza all reversed their previous positions and then voted to stop the rezoning. Solorio however “abstained.”

The fact of the matter is that of those running for Mayor the only ones who did not support 2525 are Claudia Alvarez, Mark Lopez and George Collins.

Incidentally we hear that Park Santiago neighborhood leader Dale Helvig, who led the effort against 2525, is going to endorse Alvarez this week. She already had the support of former Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Don Cribb, who lives in the Park Santiago neighborhood.