I have heard from several inside sources that SAUSD School Board member Cecilia Iglesias is considering running against Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero next year, in Ward 6.
Tinajero also served on the SAUSD School Board before he ran for the Santa Ana City Council.
Tinajero won his first election in Ward 6 back in November of 2o06, when his main opponent was Jennifer Villasenor. She had Mayor Miguel Pulido’s support. Tinajero was hammered via direct mail for weeks and he actually ran out of campaign money. However Villasenor was undone by the presence of George Collins on the ballot. Collins ended up with over five thousand votes and Tinajero squeeked past Villasenor by 880 votes, according to Smart Voter.
Tinajero dodged a bullet in 2010 when he defended his seat. Thomas Gordon, a member of the OC GOP Central Committee, was unable to collect enough nomination signatures. Two other candidates, Nam Phan and Helen Martinez appeared lost during the election. Tinajero won with over 53% of the vote, according to Smart Voter.
Iglesias was the top vote-getter when she ran for the SAUSD School Board last year, edging out two incumbents – Rob Richardson and Jose Hernandez. She got over 18,000 votes according to Smart Voter.
Iglesias gathered over 10,000 nomination signatures when she ran against Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, in 2010, as an independent. Iglesias ended up with over 7,000 votes in the general election and Republican Van Tran got over 37,000 votes, according to Smart Voter.
Iglesias currently works for State Senator Mimi Walters, a Republican. Iglesias has become a huge part of the OC GOP’s ongoing effort to try to garner Latino votes despite years of opposing immigration. I believe that Iglesias can easily raise over $100K from her GOP contacts. She might well be their best hope now that Carlos Bustamante, the last Republican on the Santa Ana City Council, has seen his life destroyed after being fired by the County of Orange and facing numerous felony allegations for harassment.
The negative for Iglesias is that she will no doubt be expected to campaign for Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who is running for Lou Correa’s 34th State Senate District. Nguyen is being investigated by the FBI and the FPPC for alleged campaign finance violations. She will no doubt hurt Iglesias at the ballot box.
Tinajero, on the other hand, damaged himself politically last year when he allied with his colleague, David Benavides, who unsuccessfully challenged Pulido. The Council majority has since fired the former City Manager, Paul Walters, and overspent on a new City Manager.
Iglesias immigrated with her family to the United States and to Santa Ana three decades ago. The youngest of three children, she was born in Usulután, El Salvador and raised by her grandmother, aunts and uncles until the age of seven. In 1979, her mother brought her, along with her brother and sister, to live in the United States. She arrived in Santa Ana in November 1979 and has lived in this community since, according to her SAUSD bio.
Born and raised in Santa Ana, Sal Tinajero is a product of the Santa Ana Unified School District and also attended Orange Coast College. A scholarship to Bradley University in Illinois resulted in a Bachelor’s degree in Communications. In addition, Sal holds a Master’s in Cross Cultural Education from the National University. Dedicated to education, Sal was named the 2006 National Hispanic Teacher of the Year for his exceptional achievements as a history, speech and debate teacher at Fullerton Union High School and was invited to the White House by first lady Laura Bush. In 2000, he served as a Governing Board Member of the Santa Ana Unified School District and was re-elected in 2004, according to Tinajero’s official city bio.
Isn’t she an Evangelical bible thumper?
That means that she is automatically a sinner.
I wonder what her deep dark sins are.
We have all fallen short of the mark.
I don’t think she has a chance. He has parlayed his position into greater name recognition.
I heard that Michele’s fund raiser was a disal failure, that the resturaunt didn’t even recover it’s costs. From the look of Michele and Sal, they would have been better off hosting it at Norm’s.
Tell me about it!
dirty sinner.
I heard that she is a considering a run for Congress against Loretta.
That would be very ill-advised. She would have a far better chance at winning in the 34th State Senate District. The current GOP candidate, Janet Nguyen, is being investigated by the FBI and the FPPC.
Sal Tinajero has been on the ballot four times and won every time. I watched closely if the Santa Ana Spring would fail. And to my surprise and many others, the Santa Ana Spring is a huge success. They cleaned house, brought new people in and saved the city from going bankrupt. The council balanced the budget and hired a top notch city manager! I think Sal who is the Mayor Pro-Tem and is seen by many as the leader of the council has quite a few things to run on. So the question is does Santa Ana want to continue with progress or elect the mayor’s candidate and go back to Miguel Pulido rule.
Sal is more likeable than the rest of his junta. It will be easier to defeat Benavides and Martinez.
Rose,
I would love to see your definition of a “huge success”. I have yet to see any substantive legislation come from the “Springsters”, short of removing an employee and replacing him with a higher cost lesser qualified candidate.
Before you start in on me. I am a liberal democrat, who does not particularly support Pulido or any other individual. But, I feel like councilmembers Martinez, Benavides and Tinajero, have HIJACKED the city government to enrich them selves and their supporters.
What PROGRESS Rose? The city is a wreck under these guys.
Carpetbagger
I gave some examples; under Pulido the city almost went bankrupt, streets were full of pot holes, there was little if any transparency, even though more than half of the community speaks Spanish; translation equipment was not brought in until this majority was elected, they prevented a bankruptcy, they passed a Sunshine Ordinance that is creating more transparency (Miguel voted against it by the way), they fully supported Harvy Milk Day : ), they are promoting responsible affordable housing!; If you are liberal at least give credit for the effort and accomplishments. As for the new City Manager, I will criticize if he doesn’t work out but not before as you did. I was secretly critical of this ” Santa Ana Spring” thing but I’m glad I wasn’t vocal, because it is working in my book. I am a liberal too; Santa Ana government is more liberal today than it was six years ago, thanks to Sal Tinajero and the rest of the council. Like I said before Cecilia would bring the city back to the 80’s an 90’s… By the way take a look at how she feels about gays and gay marriage. I’m just saying have a rational discussion, I agree she should probably run for Senate, I think it’s the right time for a Repunlican to run against Jose. As for the council my vote is with Sal and the council.
Rose,
How would Cecilia bring the City back to the 80’s and 90’s? I like the 80’s and 90’s. Janet is the candidate for the Republican Party for the 34th State Senate District. I actually like Cecilia and feel that a run for Congress would be great. She definitely gave Loretta a run for her money. Know that Cecilia has the support of the community, I believe she is a viable candidate. Cecilia is from our community. Loretta got elected in the 90’s and yet the only thing she has done is named a post office. What a shame!!!! Loretta has left us in the 90’s and many of our undocumented students are undocumented because she has never championed anything for them. Cecilia would champion and support true Immigration Reform.
* I like the 80’s and 90’s music.