As I was driving to work today I heard the allegations against Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido on talk radio. Just like that the story has jumped from the Voice of OC to the L.A. Times to talk radio.
Is it any surprise then that now the local TV stations have picked up the story? Click here to check out the CBS version of the scandal.
Will this story stick? Will this damage Pulido in the long term? Who knows? November is many months away. But if this does become a major chink in Pulido’s armor, are his enemies on the Santa Ana City Council prepared to take him out?
For one thing they can forget about running Councilman Roman Reyna against Pulido. That idea should be DOA. Reyna is not in any way up to the task of being Mayor of the Orange County seat.
So can anyone else on the City Council be reasonably expected to beat Pulido?
Pulido already defeated Councilman David Benavides in 2012 and now Benavides is up for re-election. He won’t run for Mayor and risk it all when he can likely be easily re-elected.
What about the other Council Members? I know that Councilman Vince Sarmiento would like to run but does he have enough fire in the belly? He barely won re-election in 2012, against an unknown candidate who spent no money. Sarmiento spent six figures!
The scariest candidate might well be Council newcomer Angie Amezcua, who won in Ward 3 in 2012 without spending a dime. Her ballot designation of “teacher” allowed her to crush Planning Commissioner Eric Alderete, an attorney who did raise and spend a lot of money.
Could Amezcua beat Pulido? The answer is a qualified “maybe.” She really has not done much on the Council but “teacher” is a powerful ballot designation.
Or the Council could look elsewhere for a candidate. If Pulido can’t make his current troubles go away the Council will need to act quickly rather than line up behind Reyna.
Somewhere over the rainbow where skies are greyzola. There is a little city that claims education is first, they should have reclaimed the people are first before there new alcohole tax based income.
So last Saturday at Bistro 400 (DTSA on a Saturday???), sat Julio Perez, OCDP insider Jeff LeTourneau and Carina Franck “Pantone”, self described democratic political consultant and fundraiser. Made you wonder, Julio should have put a sizable dent in his debt with his $150K per year job with the union (if not, there are some serious questions about his abilities and smarts). He looks to be a better council candidate than mayoral.
Of course, Martinez and Benavides have been advised (smartly) to lay low surrounding the Murder downtown, considering their shameless support of a booze fueled district.
If it is Benavides, he will eventually be faced with his lies about his marriage, who owns the house he lives in. I also know, some people question why we have two councilmembers (Reyna and Benavides) living a thousand feet apart from each other, but NO representation for Asians. Look for the Pham killing to rear it’s head in Pablo’s reelection.
Of course there is always Michele, who is sure to face investigations of her own and questions surrounding her Non-Profit, which is said to be little more than a money washing scheme, hopefully Chris Prevatt grows some balls and exposes what he is rumored to have, I doubt it, for “the channeling” continues.
Short of an indictment , Pulido will skate through AGAIN.
Just face it he’s corrupt . Yes our current mayor….
Is the rest of the Council any less so? Unfortunately there is a real lack of leadership in this community.
JOE GERDA (or Vince Bellotie).
So at the sparsely attended Art Walk yesterday, I ran into some city hall “watchers” who were laughing with me about some recent goings on:
# Roman Reyna loves the idea of exploiting a mayoral run to gain much needed name recognition with a mayoral, run. But he knows hell be crushed and is said to be coginzent that he is being played. Maybe even without a college education he’s not so dumb.
# David Benavides would love to take another shot at Pulido, but, keeping his council seat is more important RIGHT NOW. So is mending the relationship with his fractured family. Whom he is rumored to be close to losing visitation due to multiple missed child support payments and long standing employment issues. Like most Santa Ana parents he is facing the Middle School/High School dilemma, with schools in such bad shape and at a crucial age. Wait, doesn’t his EX WIFE teach at one of these troubled schools.
THIS LED INTO A LONG CONVERSATION ABOUT SAUSD’S failed K-5 structure (most experts agree that PRE K-6/7-9/10-12 work best in ESL environments, but with so many studentless kids on SAUSD (Palacio, Noji, (formerly) Reyna and Richardson this is likely to change. More on that later.
# There is a lot of scuttlebutt surrounding the LAST MINUTE change to have Vince Sarmiento step into the news conference addressing Kim Pham’s murder. Why Michele was not there as the Ward representative nor was the upward mobile press whore Benavides remains something of a gossip conversation. In fact, both are said to have become “sedate” in their opinions of late???? My friends wouldn’t/ couldn’t elaborate.
# It seems new Santa Ana city manager David Cavasos and Mayor Pulido have struck up a great relationship, Causing some jealousy among the other members “It’s like Jr. High, over there” was the quote I heard.
So there is a parrot on the street repeating what I HEARD.