Does Michele Martinez really need to worry about what out of town bloggers are saying?
A ruckus has broken out on two Orange County political blogs that are staffed by bloggers who do not live in Santa Ana. They are all upset because Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez isn’t answering their questions about her campaign for the 69th Assembly District, but really – why should she?
One of the blogs is run by a pair of bloggers who live in Irvine and Long Beach. The Irvine blogger was questioned earlier this year by the Santa Ana Police Department after they caught him sending creepy anonymous packages to a Santa Ana appointed official. He and the Long Beach blogger also stalked Irvine Councilman Steven Choi when he was running for the State Assembly – creeping up to and taking pictures through the windows of his house!
The other blogger lives in Brea – and his editor lives in Huntington Beach. Both of them are openly supporting one of Martinez’ opponents, Julio Perez. I am told that they are now “occupying” a foreclosed home. Good grief! Isn’t that trespassing – or at least breaking and entering?
Why should Martinez talk to such people? They aren’t respectable journalists. They are just bloggers and nutty ones at that. None of them have anything to do with Santa Ana. She is right to ignore them.
If they lived here in Santa Ana they might already know who she is and what she is about. But they could always visit her website and her Facebook page if they wanted to know more about her.
Why is she running? Here is what she has to say on her website, “Our state is facing unprecedented challenges, and I believe that now, more than ever, Sacramento needs local leaders who have experience making tough decisions in diverse communities to help solve our current issues. I am confident that my experience building collaborations to address complex issues will be an asset in our State Capitol as leaders work together to address California’s most important issues. I believe job creation, education, public safety and fiscal responsibility should be our top priorities.”
What has she accomplished? Again, from her website, “I am proud that during my tenure as a City Councilwoman, Santa Ana has managed to make notable progress during these difficult times. We have seen a decrease in crime by 32%, created thousands of jobs through our enterprise and empowerment zones, invested $100 million in new street repairs and safety improvements, helped secure $320 million through Measure G bonds to modernize Santa Ana schools, and we made some strategic additions to our open-space and bikeway trails. These improvements have made our community a healthier, safer place for families and businesses to thrive.”
Why does she think she can be an effective state legislator? Again, from her website, “I believe my role in regional collaborations will make me an effective State Assemblymember. I have been fortunate to serve all Orange County residents as a board member on the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), the nation’s largest metropolitan planning organization, which encompasses our six southern counties. As part of that, I work to represent the interests of Orange County Council of Governments (OCCOG) in the consideration of SCAG plans, policies and legislative platforms. On a statewide level, I also represent the City of Santa Ana on the State Workforce Investment Board (WIB). The WIB develops new workforce development policies that support economic development throughout California, in collaboration with county and city WIBs.”
Who supports her? Click here to see for yourself. You will see that she has broad support from state legislators, local elected and appointed officials, and business owners.
You see the ridiculous yahoos on the out of town blogs could have just read what she had to say on her website, rather than harass and pester her. But maybe they just have an axe to grind with Martinez because if elected she is NOT going to answer to them. No, she will be answering to the residents of the 69th Assembly District – which do not include any of the crazed bloggers who are currently stalking her.
I surely didn’t have to call their boy Perez to find out what a left-wing whack job he is. I wrote this post just based on other articles about him and his website. It is all you need to know about who Julio Perez is.
And I certainly didn’t have to interview Tom Daly to find out who he is. I already knew he, like Perez, was the wrong choice for the 69th Assembly District.
For the record, I don’t call politicians – ever. I don’t demand they talk to me. I don’t harass them via email. Once in awhile I email my City Council regarding local issues that are of importance to me. And I leave it at that. I know my place. I am not a journalist. I am a citizen blogger. I get a lot done on this blog. But I know my limitations. Too bad the out of town bloggers have no such constraints. Kudos to Martinez for blowing them off!
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+1
However, she is a democrat same like these lunatics who are asking the questions.
Therefore, from my prospective she must represent their interest rather than mine and for that reason she can't accomplish anything in Sacramento would bee prudent.
In the end of the day, she will have to vote with the democrats and democrats are the problem.
Not that republicans are any better but at least hey try to hold democrats from completely destroying the California.
So Michele "Evita" Martinez is just a lesser evil in her capacity as a liberal progressive democrat representing 4 bloger nutcases and not me.
However as a resident of Santa Ana you will benefit by being represented by her. As for the GOP candidate, he is preoccupied with social issues. Useless in other words. And unelectable.
Frankly, I have not benefited from being represented by Santa Ana's Jose Solorio in any form or shape.
So?
Having an elected representative at the state level from the majority party seems to be better for the district represented as in this hype-partisan enviroment. The only way you have a chance to get funding for local projects or get bills passed that reflect local needs is to be from the majority party.
That said the majority party in this state for the forseeable future will be the Democrats, so pick the Democrat you like best and go from there.
Perhaps in the future the Republicans will come back from the lunitic fringe but they will have to lose badly several more times before I see that happening.
I guess the basic question to ask here is why wouldn't Martinez, or any candidate for that matter, answer legitimate questions put forth by a legitimate, news reporting and political blog? It has been my experience that websites touting accomplishments of individuals are usually inflated by publicists and, in other cases, are not kept up to date. Martinez is running for an office whose vote would or could affect statewide issues. I live in Tustin but that doesn't mean I am not interested in who is running in other districts, including the 69th. This sounds more like airing your personal issues with these other bloggersand rather than legitimate concern for Martinez. Martinez should be willing and open to answering specific questions concerning her campaign. To do otherwise means the "bloggers" will write a story based on other input.
And, you may refer to yourself as a citizen blogger but many of us come from journalistic backgrounds and prefer to think of ourselves in that light. In fact, a recent case in Washington State shows the precarious position of "citizen bloggers". Hopefully, that case will never apply here.
I agree with our other commenters. There is no reason for her to respond to these bloggers. They are not legitimate. They don't live in the district. They are just going to try to use her words against her.
Martinez is running a serious campaign. The last thing she should do is waste even two minutes on these yahoos.
And when she wins I expect she will continue to ignore them and look to the needs of her actual constituents.
"They are the John and Ken of the oc blogesphere, and their posts have ZERO affect on election results"..... Hmmmm
Except that real John and Ken have absolute effect on 1M+ radio listeners and are very instrumental in the election process.
While they may not have a milliin plus followers, they so ha e a sizable readership and that means they should be taken seriously. Anon doesn't have the decency to come into the sunlight so his comments mean nothing. And, admin, with your recent kudos to OCR regarding their change in commenting policy, I am surprised you allow inverified comments. "Those blogger" have received numerous awards for their journalism.
Is standing outside of Chois house on a public sidewalk worse than bloggers to the North sifting through Harry Sidhu's property tax records so they could "discover" his real name is Hareesh? Or do they get a pass because they sit to the Right?
I think all of us here in the blogosphere have a purpose and come to the table with our own views. Do we really need to call each other names?
I wonder Jeff why you are holding us to a different standard from that set by the Lib OC? Or have you not seen their blog of late?
I have looked into doing what the Register is doing but have not yet found a Wordpress plug in that will accomplish that. I am still looking into it.
No one should be invading anyone's private property in order to write a blog post - right or left.
Lastly, my style of writing includes a lot of humor and I don't take politics or politicians and certainly not bloggers very seriously. I will leave the nastiness to others but I do reserve the right to call unhinged stalker bloggers "yahoos."
I'm not holding you or anyone to a standard. My point is that your comments regarding the out of town bloggers behavior seem to be focused on them in particular when other bloggers you don't have issues with get a pass.
You are right that you may call anyone a yahoo. You can do it in a public forum like this. Or, you can spend your blogging time more productively, doling out some of that humor (like your subsequent post)
And, like me, you don't take politics too seriously. You go, citizen blogger. 8€)
Jeff,
Be fair amigo. Have you not looked at the many posts we put up this week? I spent a lot of time on our Year in Review and on our Top Ten Issues in Santa Ana in 2012 posts, not to mention our things to do on New Year's Eve post. And I managed to write an in-depth post about the GOP candidate for the 69th - something the LOC and the OJ have completely ignored while going after their fellow Democrat, Michele Martinez.
Ignore my other posts if you like but don't say we aren't being productive when in fact we are being more productive than the LOC, the OJ and the Register combined.
Admin, I think you should re-read my previous, what I thought was, tongue-in-cheek comment. I may not read everything you write but I subscribe and know when you are writing something. I just like to pick and choose what I comment on.
Sean, are you still angry over the T-shirt incident?
Jeff,
I was never angry about that. Receiving multiple anonymous packages with harassing notes does tend to get bothersome though. Dan's stalking and harassing goes well beyond myself.
Glad to see your ignored the entire subject matter of my comment. You come on this blog pissing and moaning about anonymous comments and yet say nothing about the same elsewhere, particularly at the LibOC. I wouldn't have expected anything else from their crew.
Oops, sorry Sean, you are right. I was concerned that admin might have misunderstood my previous post as a gibe. I agree about anonymous postings. I don't like them on my blog either bit we are all stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do we prohibit all anonymous posting and miss some relevant commenting or do we allow it and open ourselves uI guess p to irrelevant amd, sometime harrassing comment? I guess we each have to decide for ourselves.
Oh, and to be clear, the folks at the Lib are friends of mine but we're not on the same "crew". Ideologically, we are pretty far apart.
Gallagher,
The key word used by you is "legitimate". Dan and Chris aren't "legitimate", they are assholes with an axe to grind.
Good for Michele! She need not respond to them. They matter so very little in regards to the voters.
My question for readers: on reading the above, would you be surprised to learn that what I actually wrote in an open letter to Martinez, once she was informed that Lib OC would no longer publish her promised-but-still-tardy reply, was this:
Only in Pedrozaland is offering a candidate a forum to (belatedly) present the answers to questions that she apparently wanted to answer but didn't get to in time a form of "harassing" her. If she doesn't want her answers to be read, she can just not send them to us. Easy!
I would advise her to take the latter option. Folks can find out all they need to know about her on her website and by reviewing her record on the City Council. What some guy in Brea thinks of her is of no import to the voters in the 69th A.D.
Michele Martinez would be poorly served by dealing with the LIBERAL OC simply based on thier bias. Thats SMART politicking (Vern is that a word??).
The liberal OC is NOT a legitimate organization. A professional would not send anonymous packages to others and then try to SPIN the episode (which he did well).
As for Greg's offer, If I were Michele I would refuse that as well, Greg Diamond has repeatedly said, Julio is his Horse. Why play into that? The readership of all three blogs combined and multiplied X 10 won't change the race, but a misconstrued comment would.
MY ADVICE: Don't take the bait Michele.
It's strange that whenever, biting critisism of Dan crops up, the lawsuits and phone calls and wierd packages start showing up. I guess thats a coincidence Jeff??? Or maybe the M.O. of a fourteen year old boy?
@KLND -- Michelle is welcome to accept or to refuse it. I'm promising to publish it verbatim, given that LibOC apparently won't, simply to allow her to take part in the discussion. I have a hard time seeing how that is being antagonistic. Yes, I support Julio, but I also support fair play and the ability for candidates to communicate with voters. If such an offer is "bait" -- well, I don't get it and I wouldn't hope that a politician would do so.
Art and Sean are welcome to make the same offer here, of course (for which I realize they don't need my permission), but my sense is that we reach in part a different audience than NSA does, one that may overlap more with LibOC. Hence the offer.
Your call, Ken.
On the issue of not dealing with OCL, I'll just say it again that, if Michele doesn't talk to them, they will talk to others and her pov may never be truly known. Just reading what some political hack may have written for Michele on her webiste does not necessarilly answer all the questions the public may have in regard to her position.
We can sit here and write about it all day long but, in the end, it's Michele that needs to make the decision and live with the consequences, if any.
Good discussion.
Maybe she might respond to Diamond if he spelled her name correctly...It's Michele, not Michelle.
@HebrewLetters: Yes, I'm sure that that must be it.
I haven't heard anything to substantiate that rumor, unlike the one with the Fire Dept.
I have no problems with Santa Ana or Irvine bloggers covering it, though!
I reserve the right to post about county matters. I am in fact working on a post about the latest hiring of a Register reporter by a local union. Will post it sometime tonight.
Jeff and Greg:
Well Said.
I do find it necasary to call one thing into question:
"Just reading what some political hack has written..."
Really, I'll just use this as an example: "Watching my father wake before dawn each day......" that was ABSOLUTELY written by a consultant, Julio has said "all the right things", this is part of the reason I am not sold on him. He seems Surreal to me, unbelievable, what little is known about him and what i have heard has not impressed me. I (KLND) feel like it's staged.
The Perez talking points seem extremely vanilla to me, almost out of touch, if your not buying drinks on J street.
That's my view. Lucklily for me I actually get to choose on this one.
Diamond, On a side note, I had lunch in North County today, where a couple of Breans were coming unglued about the rumor of the OCSD taking over police services in Yorba Linda. In a wierd string of commonality, the news spokesperson for the AOCSD name came up as being brought on to help the propaganda war.
What does this mean for Brea, Yorba linda and the county at large. Maybe worth giving Garcia a call, I think he was a holdout on the Fire thing???