Okay, here’s the deal. Over at The Orange Juice Blog Art Pedroza posts that he’s hearing that Democrat Santa Ana City Councilman David Benavides is being talked up as a possible challenger to First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen.
Art says:
But Benavides is a HORRIBLE public speaker. And he has an awful record as a Councilman. Good grief I cannot believe anyone thinks he would make a good Supervisor. This just goes to show you how very desperate the Democrats are. They know that Supervisor Nguyen is headed for another victory in June.
Where to begin?
I know that Art is a tool for Janet, but when did she become a good public speaker?
From my perspective, if an elected Democrat Latino, from the largest city in the district, who happened to get almost double the votes Janet did in February, or for that matter in her Garden Grove City Council race, more power to him.
Art has been crowing about the Dems being anti-minority for thinking of running a white candidate (Joe Dunn) in the First District. Now he calls them desperate if there is talk of a Latino, in a majority Latino district, challenging Nguyen.
Can he be any more inconsistent?
I welcome the thought of the highest Santa Ana Council vote getter in the November election challenging Nguyen. Quite frankly Benavides has more real world experience than Nguyen. Janet Nguyen has been a disaster as a Supervisor. She has taken “Minor-League” to a new level of incompetence.
I hope Benavides seriously considers running. It would be nice to have someone on the Board of Supervisors, representing the First District, who isn’t a lackey for John Moorlach and the Lincoln Club.
Chris,
I realize you are somewhat disconnected from the OC now that you live in Long Beach. Thus you must not realize what a complete hack Benavides is. He really is quite pathetic.
BTW, your boy Benapuppet tried to get a job at Janet’s office after she got elected. Since she wisely rebuffed him, I guess he wants to run for Supervisor instead. Sorry David – you STILL won’t be getting anywhere near Janet’s office!
I have heard both Benavides and Supervisor Nguyen speak. Rest assured he is a miserable speaker. I would expect no less from a Pulido puppet.
Now tell me about Benapuppet’s real world experience Chris. The guy works at a bank and he has been trying like heck to get out of the mortgage industry for some time now. Exactly how does this sad background compare to Supervisor Nguyen? She worked for two supervisors and an assemblyman before she got elected to the Garden Grove City Council and later to the Board of Supervisors. Benapuppet isn’t even in the same zip code when it comes to real world experience!
Seriously, the most incompetent politicians in Santa Ana are the Pulido cabal, followed closely by the hacks on the Santa Ana School Board.
The only elected Democrats in our town that are worth a damn are Senator Lou Correa, Councilwoman Michele Martinez and School Board Trustee John Palacio. The rest are pretty much worthless hacks.
Tinajero by the way just voted tonight to raise the county sewage rates. This after he voted last year to raise the water rates in Santa Ana. Nice job of screwing the poor there Sal!
One last thought, the Democrat Benavides defeated in his council race, Nelida Yanez, is a REAL progressive. She would have been a far better council member than Benapuppet. It is too bad that folks believed Benapuppet’s lies. I sure didn’t.
You got it Chris. Art plays the race card ,blasts the Dems for considering running a white guy for the 1st S.D. (the horror)and then when there is talk of runnin g a Latino, well, he’s not Art’s kind of latino. Only problem is, Art’s kind of latino is a moving target. John Palacio used to be the devil’s bridesmaid(think of nativo as being El Diablo) . Now he’s better then Bimbo bread. Michelle Martinez was Art’s kind of latina, then he went negative on her, now she’s back in his good graces it appears. Unless she decided to challenge Janet, and then she’d be part of the Pulido cabal. Tim Whitacre and Sean Mill used to be Art’s homeboys. Now he throws them under the blog bus every chance he gets.
It’s kinda of like Art going from Rudy Giuliani to Barack Obama– ping pong politics.
Janets experience–working in a bunch of Republican political offices. That explains why she fits in well with the GOP 5th Floor Club. it’s a nice comfortable spot for her to tread political water until she runs for the 34th S.D and then vote against all the social programs that Art has grown to love. Time for some diversity there. I’m not sure David is the right candidate but even he would be an improvement over the same old same old.
Bladerunner-
“ping pong politics”- I like that. That deserves some kind of award for “wittiest comment line of the week”. I mean it 😉
OK, OK, back to Art now. I just don’t get it with him. First he bashes us for “wanting a WHITE man” (oh, the HORROR!! Joe Dunn! Who does he think he is?!) to run against Janet. But now that a Latino Democrat is stepping up to the plate to take on Janet, Art now screams in HORROR(!!!!) that David Benavides isn’t “Latino enough” because he’s been officially branded as a “Pulido hack”. And I’m sure if another Latino OR Vietnamese-American Democrat were to challenge Janet, Art would still find some kind of fault because for some reason a conservative Lincoln Club Republican is a perfect fit for this moderately Democratic district.
But hey, I guess this kind of bizarre “logic” makes perfect sense in Art’s world… And I’m sure he’s working on a post RIGHT NOW decrying you and me and Chris as “Pulido puppets” for even saying we want a Demoratic Supervisor in the First District who actually cares about working people.
The supervisor job is well paid and requires nothing special to hold that office.
So councilman Benavides has the same right as the rest of us to cash that check.
Art,
if you dont like david Benevides, you should have a talk with your homey/ pajarito Phil Becerra. he is the one who has been trying to recruit benevides to run against Janet.
Anon:
Pedroza’s problem with Benevides as a potential candidate for Supervisor is based upon his support for Janet Nguyen and concern that any credible democratic challenger could possibly defeat her in November.
I’m certain a lot of Democrats have been thinling about, and talking about, potential challengers. I know I have.
Whether or not any of those Dems, knows, speaks with, or occasionally associates with Pedroza has little significance. It certainly has no impact on Pedroza’support for Janet Nguyen.
Chris,
You are either misinformed or lying. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have not supported Benavides from the start. I predicted he would be a Pulido puppet and that is exactly what he has been. It is dishonest to say that I don’t like him solely because he is thinking of running against Supervisor Nguyen. Frankly Chris I am very disappointed that you would write such a lie. I can only hope that you are either misinformed or flat out guessing. In either case you are wrong.
Bladerunner and Andrew,
David Benavides has not been a friend to Latinos, as a Council Member. He has voted along with Pulido on just about every issue. Even when he disagrees with Pulido, as with Measure D, he does not have the balls to say so in public.
The fact that you Dems are stuck having to recruit someone as lame as Benapuppet really underscores what an awful job you have done in Santa Ana. You have no decent Latino candidates, period.
There are plenty of real progressive Latino candidates out there. But they for the most part do not get the support of your party. I can think of three right away – Deborah Vasquez, Nelida Yanez and Lynette Verino. Any of them would be preferable to Benapuppet.
You guys should have repudiated Pulido years ago. But you have gone along with him. Now you have no decent candidates. This is your fault.
It is true that I have changed my views over the years, but comparing that to ping pong is flat out BS. Yes I was a Republican for many years. In that time I supported GOP candidates. I am not going to apologize for that. Nor should I have to. Yes, I was supportive of Rudy, while I was still a Republican! Once I left the party, that was off the table. I gravitated to Obama for many reasons. I don’t agree with much of his agenda, but we do need change and I don’t like what the GOP is offering.
Yes, I did run against John Palacio. Yes I bought the GOP line that he was a bad guy. I now know him personally and quite frankly I think he is one of the shining stars in your party. He too would be preferable to ANY of the Pulido hacks.
I think the world of Michele, but she is inconsistent and quite frankly I don’t have a clue at this point what it is she is trying to do. I wish her the best, but she is part of a dysfunctional council that hates her. I can’t see that ending well.
Janet is amongst the best that the OC GOP has to offer. She is by no means a right wing nut. So how do you reward her? By trying to take her out. I don’t get it. She is not a bad person and I think she has done a great job as a Supervisor. She does not deserve your ire. Quite frankly, the rank partisanship the lot of you are guilty of is disgusting.
I wish you people would put half as much energy into taking out Pulido and company. But no, you guys do what you are told to and line up behind these bums. So disappointing.
At any rate, it is most unfair to malign me with this ping pong BS. Andrew, I thought we were friends. I guess that was BS too.
Now you know why I don’t bother going to DL anymore. I rather spend that time with my family and my real friends. Why waste it with two-faced people who put their party ahead of what is right?
I don’t see Joe Dunn or Miguel Pulido or Hoa Van Tran or Claudia Alvarez showing up at SAUSD meetings handing over 55K to help kids, but there was Janet the other night.
I don’t see Joe Dunn or Miguel Pulido or Hoa Van Tran or Claudia Alvarez
showing up at Logan Park and handing over $$$ to provide play equipment this city just keeps forgetting to provide, but there was Janet.
I don’t see Joe Dunn or Miguel Pulido or Hoa Van Tran or Claudia Alvarez
providing funds for a comprehensive gang study, so that the City of Santa Ana can find ways to help kids and their families before they join gangs or we need to just lock them up, but there was Janet.
So while you keep ripping Janet, maybe you all need to spend some time ripping this pathetic joke of a Mayor and City Council here in Santa Ana.
If you spent half the effort to improve Santa Ana that you spend on trying to take out Janet for some imaginary progressive that will fix Santa Ana, maybe, just maybe this city would be a better place to live for all of us…
Art:
I don’t recall saying that you ever supported Benavides. You unwavering support for Janet Nguyen,no matter what she does is legendary. My point is that even if any of the potential candidate names you have mentioned were to through their names in the hat you would still support Nguyen.
You claim that Nguyen is not a right-wing nut job, but she votes in lock step with the rest of the Lincoln Club servants on the board of Supes. You have criticized the dems for not supporting minorities and then criticize them when they do. Of course, since you don’t like any of the dem electeds, now we aren’t doing enough.
It is your inconsistent positions that I take issue with. You attempt to invalidate my point of view because I moved to Long Beach. Well, such criticsm coming from the rage against the machine blogger, who for all his talk, never did a damn thing other than blog in the effort to oppose Measure D doesn’t really carry much weight.
Thomas,
Would you be referring to the Supes. discretionary budget allocation for pandering to their districts? Of course, that’s chump change compared to the money spent to support the district services (political office) in Little Saigonn and the $37,000 she stole from the Health Care Agency to support her district office.
Chris not to mention that is MY taxpayer dollars she gve to Santa Ana Unified….It’s not like she’s a hero for doing it for goodness sakes. The Board gets hundreds of applications for that money and thye pick and choose who to give the dough to. While it was politically smart to do that…it is not rocketscience.
Chris,
“who for all his talk, never did a damn thing other than blog in the effort to oppose Measure D doesn’t really carry much weight.”
Sounds like you have been sipping Sean’s Kool Aid. What the Hell did you or your friends do to help defeat Measure D? Nada.
I’ll tell you what I did. I walked fliers to over 300 homes. I wrote the ballot argument. I helped design our campaign signs. I wrote a check and raised another $500. And I found someone to do our website. I also gave the campaign a banner ad on my blog.
So you can repeat the lie that I did nothing – but it is nothing more than malicious spin.
I will continue to criticize your party for not recruiting decent minority candidates because it is true. The record reflects that. Your party was not there for Lou the first time he ran for the 69th. Your party chair (at the time) opposed Loretta in the primary the first time she ran for Congress. A Vietnamese woman wins the First District and you bust a gut trying to recruit Joe Dunn, a white guy. Norby’s seat is coming up…and the best you can do is another white guy in Daly. Even though that district is majority Latino.
And no, I do not oppose all Dem electeds. Its just that most of them suck. Particularly in Santa Ana. I do support Michele Martinez, John Palacio, Lou Correa and Loretta Sanchez. I guess they are too Latino for your taste. You usually rip them, don’t you?
I don’t know why you have developed such animus for me. What a message you are sending to independents. Leave the GOP and the Dems will still never accept you or respect you unless you become one of them. Well Chris, rest assured I will NEVER be a Democrat. Ever. Why would I want anything to do with the party of Pulido and his hacks? No thanks.
Chris,
One more thing. I helped coordinate media attention against Measure D. We enjoyed terrific support from Steven Greenhut over at the Register. Jennifer Delson helped us at the Times and Gustavo Arellano did the same at the OC Weekly. No one in the media sided with the lying bastards who supported Measure D. Well, I suppose your blog was complicit. Not something to be proud of…
And Art – some constructive criticizm……she needs to pre=read her pre=prepared statements once or twice before she speaks. I don’t know if its nerves or what….but her accent was not that strong a few years ago.
Art, you’re the last, the very last, person who should complain about being maligned. You’ve ripped people whom you have befriended and think nothing of it.
You can dish it out–and do you dish it out–but you can’t seem to take it.
And I’m sorry if you don’t like the ping pong politics label but if the shoe fits…
I don’t know anyone who has been more over the map politically then you.
You and Thomas have sipped the kool aid. No, Janet is not an orgre. No, she is not B-1 Bob Dornan. But she’s a conservative Republican who votes in lock step with the Board majority. there are over 400,000 Dems in the County and not one Democratic supervisor. This is the most Democratic supervisorial seat so its not surprising that the Dems would want one of their own there. If there were 5 Reps on the Board I think they would especially want the 5th or the 3rd in their column.
Thomas, you’re a smart guy. Think about this: Janet is being paid a 6 figure salary to do …not much. Flowereszz is right–the dispensing of these bucks is not a great thing. Its what little they do. Loretta and Lou and jose bring some big bucks to. None of the other people you mentioned are paid full time to go out and about. So Thomas, where was Janet BEFORE she got elected to the Board. Was she out at Logan park, the Santa Ana unified District, or anywhere but showing up with ceremonial resolutions for her political bosses before she got elected supervisor? Please.
Don’t put David on my back–I said I wasn’t sure he was the right guy for this. O don’t recruit people, they emerge on their own. You blame the Dems for not supporting Latinos(which is false) and then you support an anglo in the city council race which Michelle Martinez won.
You have an obsession with Pulido. You can’t seem to beat him. Scoreboards a bitch, isn’t it.
I love that Art continues to carry on and bemoan over Measure D. The voters have spoken and they voted in support of Measure D. He lost and he can’t get over it.
Other folks in the “No” camp have moved on. Thomas has moved on. Phil has moved on. But Art just can’t seem to.
He was gonna use the “No on D” campaign to catapult he and his allies into control over Santa Ana. The voters have spoken and they choose to vote against Pedroza. Now if only he could realize it his life could move on to a better place.
Sean,
How disingenuous. We were outspent ten to one by your larcenous friends on the Measure D campaign. Had we won it would have been a miracle. You were partying at the Measure D campaign HQ when it passed, so we know where you stood.
Maybe Thomas and Phil are speaking to you. I don’t see any reason to waste my time on you.
Bladerunner,
You want some ping pong analogies? How about Andrew pimping for Obama? Ping Then he switched to Hilllary. Pong! Watch him ping when Obama wins the nomination…
How about Dunn running. Ping! Then not running. Pong! Then running. Ping! Then not. Pong! Now making dumb cemetery commercials…
How about Sean Mill? Worked on Pulido’s first campaign. Ping! Then spent years hating him. Pong! Now he is part of the Pulido cabal. Ping!
How about Chris Prevatt? He was a Republican. Ping! Then he was not. Pong! Same goes for Sean. But they both rip me for leaving the GOP…
One last question. Why is it that Liberal OC was asleep at the wheel when the SA City Council raised our water rates? And asleep when the OC Sanitation District raised our sewage rates? And they never wrote about the fraudulent Measure D campaign, until after Pulido and his hacks won…and then only to rip me!
Covering up for partisan hacks is not attractive. And you wonder why BOTH parties keep losing voters to the DTS column…
“We were outspent ten to one by your larcenous friends on the Measure D campaign.”
Again with the lies. The “Yes” folks did indeed raise much more money than the “No” folks, however they did not outspend you 10 to 1. They hardly spent any of the money they raised. You both had an equal number of mailers and you both put out robo-calls. They had the money to crush you but didn’t bother spending it because they knew with you at the helm your side would self destruct.
“Had we won it would have been a miracle”
For months proceeding the election you were predicting that you were going to easily defeat Measure D. No you are saying it would have been a miracle. What gives? You were telling everyone how you were gonna defeat D and how Michelle was gonna be Mayor, etc. What happened to all that bragging and arrogance?
“Maybe Thomas and Phil are speaking to you.”
It’s not about who is speaking to who. They have moved on and are on to other issues. You are still whining like a petulant child about the voters decision from about a month a go. You can continue to throw rocks and spread lies, that is what you do best, but good God move on already. You lost!
“Now he is part of the Pulido cabal.”
Miguel’s gonna be suprised to hear that.
Art,
I agree that Deborah Vasquez is smart and well-spoken and has a good record of community service. She should have been a council person for Ward 1, and would have been a candidate if things had played out differently last year. But I don’t understand, Art, your claim above that Pulido and crew are “the most incompetent politicians” in Santa Ana… they keep winning. Winning might not be absolutely everything, but for a politician, winning elections generally indicates political competence. I understand opposing them, and I made a small donation to the No on D camp, but I think there’s nothing to be gained in accusations of hackery. Better figure out how to win. But without taking a side, I want to offer a good word about Benevides, not because I support him (I have no opinion) but because it’s worth it: as I understand it he came to Santa Ana in the 1990s for a few weeks to work as a Christian community organizer, and he came to a conviction that he wanted to stay and work on community issues directly relevant to ordinary working class Santa Ana residents. Is that untrue? Because I value people who make such choices and I regularly encourage my students to emulate that risk-taking, genuine progressive orientation. I have seen Benevides himself tell that story on video. So unless it is untrue, I think I’d like you to demonstrate how he has failed these same people before I’m willing to believe he’s such a bad replacement for Janet.
j
When Janet is presenting that big fat check of taxpayers’ money to schools, YMCA,, Soup Kitchen, or whatever group that she can get a nice picture for the mailer – she’s using our money.
It’s one thing to donate from her campaign coffer, but don’t go brag about it if you’re going to be handing out the government doe. All Supervisors get that kind of earmarks, Janet is no more special than Chris Norby or Pat Bates.
I suggest the Liberal OC start the ABJ Club, which is “Anyone But Janet Club”.
Janet has developed a bad habit of making significant personal commitments to local charitable organizations and then using county tax dollars (that were already in the pipeline) to fulfill these pledges.
This behavior leaves people with a bad impression and will be remembered at election time.
Art–First, address your questions about content on the Liberal OC to someone else—I’m not in their blogpen. But i would note this—different blogs have different areas of interest and coverage. To say they ignore various issues misses the point—virtually every blog ignores various issues–they can’t cover everything.
You have done a pretty good job of covering Santa Ana politics. You’ve done a terrible job of covering Huntington Beach and Yorba Linda politics. Big deal. Are you covering up for political hacks in those areas(? See where this is going amigo?)
Second, there are many people who change their mind about their party or their candidate preference. Sometimes it involves a change of life. A number of people have a little ping or a dash of pong. But you, my friend, are in a class by yourself. It’s like your political life is one fall on the Road to Damascus after another. From Lupe to Lou, from Rudy to Barack, from Palacio no, to Palacio yes, you are the Prince of Pong.
Instead of torching everyone on this site, why not go do what you do well–write more stories on Santa Ana politics. And dump Janet just like you dumped the GOP–she will otherwise break your heart.
thesunkenroad,
Just look up Benavides on my blog. You will see exactly how he has sold out his people, by siding with Pulido almost if not always 100% of the time.
A source told me that Pulido got his hooks into Benavides over 7 years ago…and he not only got Benavides elected, he also got him his current job.
I have no respect for politicians who cannot stand on their own.
Bladerunner,
That is a cop out. The fact is the Liberal OC avoids stories about Santa Ana because most of the time they reflect how screwed up the Santa Ana Democratic politicians on the SA City Council are. And now of course Sean Mill is running interference for the Pulido cabal. He denies that but there he was on election night at the Measure D party.
Again you are wrong in attacking me with this ping pong analogy. My history in politics does include a lot of change, but stream it all together and it makes sense. I went from being a Republican to being an independent. My positions and those I support make sense when you look at these changes on a linear time lime.
It took me almost forty years to figure out that the political parties are the problem. Just look at the sewage rate increase. There were Republicans and Democrats involved in that sorry decision.
I will continue to write about Santa Ana. But I am also going to speak up when bloggers overlook what is really going on. Remember, the focus of my blog is Orange County. I reserve the right to write about what is up in any city. The only limitation is my time.
As for Supervisor Nguyen, I will be happy to dump her if she gives me a reason to. That is the meat of my argument. To date she has done a great job. I don’t have any reason to rip her. And really, neither do any of you.
I recall how you people freaked out when she paid for a staffer with money from the health care agency. But NONE of you said a damn thing when the worst city manager in Orange County, Dave Ream, was given a huge 15% raise by Pulido and his fellow Democratic council hacks. You see what I mean?
“The fact is the Liberal OC avoids stories about Santa Ana”
Almost everything I write on this site is about Santa Ana. The Ware Disposal outrage and Logan plight have grown in large part because of the posts here on Liberal OC. While it has been Joe Andrade that has been leading the fight against Ware, it has been the Liberal OC that has taken his fight to a larger audience.
All one needs to do is click on the “Santa Ana City Council” tag at the bottom of any of my Ware posts and you will get all the articles about Santa Ana politics from this blog. You will see that they are quite extensive.
The coverage of Santa Ana has grown considerably at the Liberal OC since I joined the blog team. However Chris and the others did a fine job before I got here and since.
This is simply a Pedroza spin tactic to defer attention from the fact that he is a “Janet hack”. He complains that the Democrats do not promote Latino candidates and then he shills for a politician that ran one of the most anti-Latino campaigns in local history. Go figure.
Sean,
I am still waiting for you guys to write about the new SAUSD bond.
BTW, I think folks here at Liberal OC have forgotten that the Lincoln Club funded Sal’s first school board race. Let this serve as a reminder of that.
“I am still waiting for you guys to write about the new SAUSD bond. ”
Well we’re still waiting for you to write about Janet’s misuse of taxpayer funds. When will we be reading about her using Health Care Agency funds to pay for her staff on the OJ?
Art,
Later tonight when I have the time, I’ll do that search on your blog. But I don’t understand your declaration that you cannot respect politicians that cannot stand on their own. It seems too simple that way. No politician stands on their own, and any good politician seeks NOT to stand on their own by building coalitions.
later, j
The bloggers here on TheLIberalOC are doing a fine job.
They don’t need Art Pedroza to assign stories to them. If Art disapproves of the topics chosen here he’s free to not read it and welcome to stop commenting.
Keep up the good work!
Don’t let Art bully you!
“You and Thomas have sipped the kool aid”
Wow Bladerunner, to what do I owe this honor?
You must know me not, for the other night at the OCSD tax hike, er, fee increase meeting, I got up and ripped several republicans.
waste is waste, fraud is fraud.
You can’t applaud one politician for bringing home the bacon, then rip on another for do the exact same thing.
Thomas–We’ve all sipped the kool aid. I’m not calling you a lackey, I know better. My point is that your examples of what Janet did didn’t prove your point. Go back and read my comment. You’re holding these other people to a standard that she never met before she got her 6 figure salary and was basically given the money by the county without much work. When Loretta brings home the bacon its a far more difficult process, especially when most of her tenure she has been in the minority in the House.
I don’t know if you have established that the fee increase was waste or fraud….I’m trying to sort it out–see Chris Prevatt’s post and comments above where there is a pretty good give and take rather then shrill calls for defeating everyone who voted for it.
Sean,
Will you be supporting the new school bond? Can you at least answer that simple question? Somehow I doubt you can. Or will.
Art,
I don’t live in the SAUSD.
So, we’re still waiting for you to write about Janet’s misuse of taxpayer funds. When will we be reading about her using Health Care Agency funds to pay for her staff on the OJ?
Art You wrote: There are plenty of real progressive Latino candidates out there. But they for the most part do not get the support of your party. I can think of three right away – Deborah Vasquez, Nelida Yanez and Lynette Verino. Any of them would be preferable to Benapuppet.
If you were to check into Nelida Yanez’s past, you would not be mentioning her name as a “real progressive Latino candidate. ” Do your homework on her, you will be surprised. It is quite amazing to see how people master the art of being dishonest and taking and hurting others for their own financial gain.