Who is really corrupt – Janet Nguyen or Jose Solorio?

Janet Nguyen and her good friend, the disgraced former Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante

Janet Nguyen and Jose Solorio, the candidates for the 34th State Senate District, are accusing each other of being corrupt. But is this true? Are they both corrupt?

I feel like Nguyen’s GOP hacktivists have forgotten the meaning of the word “corrupt,” which is defined as “having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.”

Has Solorio ever been dishonest or acted for his own personal gain? I have known him since he started his career in politics on the Santa Ana City Council. We have not always agreed but I have never known him to be dishonest or to be a selfish politician. Does he at times vote for bills I disagree with? Yes he does but as far as Democrats go Solorio is a moderate and he is fairly pro-business.

Nguyen on the other hand recently voted twice against an Orange County Ethics Committee intended to root out corruption and ethics violations at the County of Orange, even though the two separate OC Grand Juries recommended the Ethics Committee. Her career in politics does in fact show a lot of corruption including:

• Voting against a letter grade restaurant health rating system that most Counties use and that the OC Grand Jury recommended. She was the key vote against this County ordinance but did not mention to anyone that her husband and her then Chief of Staff were the co-owners of an absolutely filthy Lee’s Sandwiches franchise in Stanton that had received numerous health violations courtesy of the OC Health Care Agency. She also had accepted over twenty thousand dollars in campaign contributions from the owners of various bars, restaurants and eateries that had terrible health violation records. She did not mention any of this when she voted against letter grade health ratings. Well she got away with it but her husband was reportedly fired from his job, working in food safety for a large food services corporation. Oops!
• Nguyen hired her own sister and paid her $73K for a County job – for part-time work!
• Nguyen hired back her husband’s ex-business partner and he is even now collecting a salary from her office – most likely though he is actually working on her campaign
• She says she is against taxes but she spent $136K of our taxpayer money on new office furniture that was not needed.
• Nguyen tried to take over the Black Friday event in Westminster a few years ago and was intending to use the event to promote herself and then GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman – luckily the Westminster City Council punked her and put Nguyen in her place!
• And Nguyen took over and ruined the CalOptima agency, forcing the OC Board of Supervisors to assign Supervisor Todd Spitzer to clean up her mess. After she took over CalOptima she held a fundraiser so the OC medical community could write checks to her campaign!

Now how can you look at Nguyen’s record and not arrive at the conclusion that she is hopelessly corrupt?

I have refrained from endorsing either Solorio or Nguyen up until now. I like Solorio but don’t like his record. But I really dislike Nguyen and her record even more. There are five votes in my household now as my 18-year-old son just registered to vote. None of us will be voting for Nguyen this year.

Will Solorio at some point disappoint me? Probably. But will he ever disgust me? No. Nguyen on the other hand is disgusting in every way. And even if she did win what would come of it? Do you think the Democrats who control Sacramento will work with her? Of course not. She will receive a tiny office in Sacramento and limited staff. Every bill she tries to pass will be ignored by the State Legislature and if a bill of hers somehow ends up on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk he will veto it.

Now if Solorio wins you can bet that he will be a major player in Sacramento as he was when he was a State Assemblyman. He will take care of his district – and unlike Nguyen he will not ignore Santa Ana. (Look at her record – 99% of her community events have been held in Little Saigon, not in Santa Ana).

A Nguyen victory will be an utter defeat for the people of the 34th State Senate District whereas a victorious Solorio would quickly be in line to become the next State Senate leader. That Nguyen is hopelessly corrupt is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reasons to not vote for her!

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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