Our neighboring city of Anaheim exploded this summer when Anaheim cops appeared to shoot a young Latino in the back – and no weapon was found on him. There was already a movement underfoot in Anaheim to push for Area-Specific City Council elections since currently most of their Council Members live in Anaheim Hills – and no Latinos serve on their City Council.
Usually the candidates supported by Disney, the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce and SOAR – a political action committee run by Disney and other area resort businesses, get elected easily, but this year might be different.
Latinos also got upset when the SOAR-backed City Council Members voted to give hundreds of millions of hotel tax dollars to a wealthy developer so he could build a tax-subsidized hotel. That money was supposed to be spent on local needs.
This year SOAR is supporting an ex SAPD cop named Steve Chavez Lodge – who only recently started using “Chavez” again after years of going by “Steve Lodge.” They are also backing an AUHSD Trustee named Jordan Brandman, who is in hot water now for possibly misusing school resources to advance his campaign.
Here is where Santa Ana enters the picture. Council Member Vince Sarmiento, who is supposed to be part of the so-called “Santa Ana Spring” and who is backing his colleague David Benavides for Mayor of Santa Ana, has endorsed Chavez-Lodge for the Anaheim City Council. But Chavez-Lodge has come out against Area-Specific City Council elections in Anaheim. So effectively Sarmiento is backing a guy who stands against Anaheim’s Latinos!
Did Sarmiento have other choices as to who to endorse in Anaheim? Of course. I personally have endorsed John Leos and Duane Roberts. They both support efforts by Anaheim’s Latino voters to reform Anaheim City Council elections.
By the way, Anaheim could embrace the system we have in Santa Ana. Our City Council candidates have to live in specific Wards, but the voting is at-large. That reform would at least begin to reform the Anaheim City Council and make it more diverse.
So much for the Santa Ana revolution. Once again it is quite obvious that Sarmiento and his pals are not about change at all. They are about business as usual and their campaign is all about taking power to serve their own purposes – and certainly not to help Santa Ana’s residents.
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First of all, glad to see that you also Support Duane Roberts. Green Party/ Occupy!
I knew that you had it in you Admin.
Secondly, yes that is a pretty un-slick move on Sarmiento's part. He just lost a notch on his slickster belt.
Slickster Sarmiento,
Born again Christian Hipster Benavides,
Piggy Backing to look taller than Pulido and yet still not making much of an impression.
Duane is an old friend of mine. I like the Greens. They have haven't sold out yet!
That dude Chavez-Lodge of Anaheim suggested that the city of Anaheim should throw a parade for the Anaheim Police after their month of battle with the Latino residents and protesters. (For successfully protecting the property of Disney Corp. perhaps.)
Not cool Sarmiento!
Endorsing the likes of that.
Wow. What an awful idea! This certainly does look like a bad move on Sarmiento's part.
Clearly the Santa Ana ''Spring'' is a fraud!
Art, Doesn't Sarmiento have the Spanish word for lie ..miento...en his name? Shouldn't that give us a clue as to what he is all about? Shame on him for backing the Cops in Anaheim as our people get no justice there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htnX_81fdvw&feature=related
"But Chavez-Lodge has come out against Area-Specific City Council elections in Anaheim. So effectively Sarmiento is backing a guy who stands against Anaheim’s Latinos!"
Editor, the above is simply faulty logic (fallacious reasoning). It's that simple. I won't go into all of the reasons why. You know it is. Classic Straw Man argument. I just want to make sure someone points it out. You are almost following the faulty logic pattern of..."God is love, love is blind, Ray Charles in blind...therefore Ray Charles is God." Your argument really holds no more water than that one.
This is a blog and you can obviously write what you want without being concerned with if your statements and/or arguments would pass any type scrutiny.
This is straight up propaganda...and poorly thought out propaganda at that.
Sarmiento could have endorsed the progressive candidates in Anaheim. Instead he chose to endorse the reactive corporate Republican. Our readers are quite capable of drawing their own conclusions.
Don't forget that the Santa Ana police union is backing Sarmiento and his pal Benavides. So of course Sarmiento had to back their guy Lodge, even if that went against the best interests of Anaheim's Latinos.
Hey Editor,
As a public employee union steward, I support the backing of the canidates, who else is going to look out for our interests?
Our members, especially the SAPOA deserve better benefits, more paid time off and a more supportive council/mayor. The citizentry comes second.
We are especially interested in Sariemento and Benavides warm support of the coveted three day work week. The same one that nearly bankrupted Placentia!
The public unions are proud to support these politicians, we KNOW they will support us!
Ooh, maybe not a good choice of words... I believe that the "Santa Ana Spring" reference has a very negative connotation, thanks to the "Arab Spring" and all the chaos it has inflicted upon certain parts of the world. Can't we call it something else? Why not have a contest? :-)
The irony is that the term was picked by one of them. Now they're stuck with it.
Booper's right. We don't want anything associated with Arabs fighting for freedom. Arabs and Muslim's standing up to oppression is not something that we Republican's want people to focus on.
Let's call it something like "Operation Santa Ana Freedom". That reminds me of the good ol' days of George W. and the imposing of democracy on nations that didn't necessarily want it.
When we decide on the proper name for Santa Ana's next covert operation, We will let you know. Or Not.
"Sarmiento is backing an Anaheim candidate opposed to Latino voter rights"............. Hmmmmmm
What rights?
Are you promulgating that Latinos can't vote?.... Huh?
Pedroza, if you believe your own crapola then I must conclude that you may be IQ deficient as I do suspect.
Currently they elect council members in Anaheim on an st large system and they don't have to love in specific wards. So most of their council lives in Anaheim Hills and there are no Latinos on the Council.
All I can asking for is that they adapt the system we have here in Santa Ana. Others are asking for ward specific voting.
The guy Sarmiento endorsed is opposed to any reform.
How would you like it all our council members lived in Floral Park?
"How would you like it all our council members lived in Floral Park?"........ Hmmmmmm
Two of them do! One is alleged rapist and another did not got caught yet for his crimes.
But the Anaheim system does not prevent Latinos from Voting as you falsely promulgating in your title and anyone can run for the council.... not only from the Anaheim Hills.
What I do not like is 7 Latinos on the council like we have and that I am restricted to run against Tinajero only.
You Latinos always like some affirmative action, handouts and handicap against non-Latinos.
You are the one who make American system nondemocratic.
If you want more diversity on Santa Ana's City Council then you need to push for ward-specific elections, which would allow for the election of both white and Vietnamese candidates, in the north, south and west.
I like Anaheim system, no wards, no excluding anyone.
In Anaheim everyone is equal!
Any carving of the districts/ wards is discriminatory.
If you can't see that them you have a problem, Pedroza.
I do believe Stanley that part of the problem in Anaheim has been that when Latino candidates do run they are either a) unknown, b) too liberal, c) not well funded. Therefore their odds of winning are bad to begin with.
When Latinos have prevailed in Anaheim they have been involved in public safety, as police officers or firefighters, and have had years of experience working with the community. Most of them have been Republicans, but not all of them.
It should also be noted that switching to a ward-specific system either with regard to where the council candidats live or where the voters vote would not necessarily elect more Latinos in Anaheim as you could have a situation where too many Latino candidates split up that element of the vote, allowing a non-latino to win, as we saw in the 69th A.D. in June when Tom Daly beat a collection of Latino Democrats to win his party's nomination for the Nov. General Election.
You have this fixation that Latinos must be elected at any cause to any office!
Everything you have listed above did apply to me as well
when I was running in Santa Ana.
That is called democracy and freedom!
And when you overcome all of that you get elected.
There is only one winner and it does not have to be a Latino.
However, as I said earlier, Latinos always want some special privileges which are usually against the American ideas of the Bill of Rights and Constitution.
The Latinos will always try to undermine the American ideas of freedom and will force their ideas of Rights on Americans.
Same as Arabs, Latinos are major burden for the modern society and its progress. We need four more years of Obama so it will become self evident to every modern and civilized person.
Art, Have you heard of a plan to make and post "VOTE AMEZQUA" signs around Santa Ana to help the woman runnnig against Sarmiento? I saw a tweet that suggested making them at home and posting them anywhere and everywhere in Santa Ana? Can you get any more information about Sarmiento's opponant in the race? Do you have any photos of her?
She seems to be running on the very down low. I have not seen any pictures but I did see her in person when I went to the City Clerk's office to sign the ballot argument against Measure GG. She was there with her sister! I only found out who they were later. If only I had taken a picture at the time...