The candidates are set for this November’s Santa Ana General Election. This election will decide the fate of Santa Ana’s liberal anti-police City Council Members as they are all facing challengers.
In Ward 1 the incumbent Council Member, Thai Viet Phan, is facing off against a small business owner, Julie Tran. Phan has voted consistently with the anti-police Santa Ana City Council members. She also upset her constituents when she went back on her word and supported rent control.
Tran’s campaign statement is blistering! It starts out with:
Instead of finding solutions, our city council is busy bickering, playing political games and granting themselves massive pay raises.
Meanwhile, robberies and assaults are skyrocketing, and our homeless filled streets are riddled with potholes.
Tran has a great campaign agenda including dealing with the homeless; supporting public safety and opposing all new taxes.
Over in Ward 3 Jeffrey Katz, the popular head of the Floral Park Neighborhood Association, is running again against the anti-police incumbent, Council Member Jessie Lopez. The contrast between the two is stark. Katz is a succesful attorney while Lopez has had a hard time finding work and currently works part-time for O.C. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, the Godfather of anti-police politicians in Orange County.
Katz’ plan includes taking our city back from the lowlife gangbangers and ending homelessness in Santa Ana.
Lopez refused to pass an ordinance that would have punished the jerks who take over our streets. She consistently votes against public safety.
In Ward 5 challenger Mario Alvarado is taking on yet another anti-police Council Member, Johnathan Ryan Hernandez.
Alvarado says that community safety is his top priority. He wants to increase housing and deal with homelessness.
Hernandez has been a giant train wreck on the Santa Ana City Council. He has been a consistent voice against the police except for that time when he got beat up by Vernon Carter, 33-years-old, his former City Council aide, and his friend Danilo Delvalle, 30-years-old.
Carter is a rap musician who performs under the rapper name “King Karlton.” For whatever reason Councilman Hernandez hired Carter to serve as a paid City Council assistant. Hernandez had previously paid Carter $270 for social media work on his 2020 city council campaign.
Both Carter and Delvalle self-identify as LGTBQ rappers.
Alvarado, on the other hand, is a father of three, a lifelong Santa Ana resident and a business owner.
Nearly 30 years ago, Mario began a career in public service working part-time for the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Department. As a teenager he organized residents to initiate the community clean-up that led to the creation of Friendship Park. Since then he has consistently coached and volunteered with local organizations, giving back to the community that raised him.
In 2010, Mario was appointed to the Arts and Culture Commission, where he helped create Santa Ana’s first Arts and Culture Master Plan that is still in use today. He currently serves as Chair of the Environmental and Transportation Advisory Commission.
The choice for voters is clear – the undereducated and underemployed police basher Hernandez, or Alvarado.
Finally, yet another anti-police Council Member, Ben Vazquez, is running against Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua. Both are Democrats but Vazquez has made it very clear that he is against law enforcement while Amezcua, who spent her adult career at the OC Probation Department, has partnered with the SAPD and has worked hard to clean up the crime in our city.
You can read Amezcua’s candidate statement here.
She will surely beat Vazquez in November but the bad news is he is only halfway through his first City Council term so we will be stuck with him on the City Council for two more years.
The article mentions crime skyrocketing but also that Amezcua cleaned up crime… which is it?
Both. She has supported law enforcement and arrests have increased but there is still a lot of crime and too many Council Members who don’t want to arrest anyone.
Very unclear to me if you’re pro or against Amezcua. She used her power (and racism) to kick out Ridge who didn’t want to rubber stamp pay raises for you know who. Do you think the city’s budget can handle $80-100K per year for hundreds of retirees for 40 years? I refuse to vote for her again. She’s only in her first term and is already making a mess of the budget. Don’t cry to me when Measure X runs out.
We did not like how she rushed Ridge out of City Hall. But the guy running against her is a socialist. And our new City Manager is a great hire. So we are backing Amezcua.