Santa Ana City Councilwoman Michele Martinez will host a grand opening event this Saturday, January 14 at her new campaign headquarters in Santa Ana. The office is located at 217 N. Main Street, #116, Santa Ana, CA. Martinez is a candidate for the open Assembly seat in the 69th district. The seat is currently held by Assembly member Jose Solorio who will be termed out and Martinez’s news release revealed that Solorio is “now a candidate for the California Senate” even though no formal announcement has been made by the Assemblyman, who has endorsed both her and OC Clerk Recorder Tom Daly for the same race.
According to the release, Martinez invites all voters in the 69th Assembly district (encompassing Santa Ana and most of Garden Grove, Orange and Anaheim) to join her on Saturday.
“Saturday morning we will canvass the district seeking voters who will help nominate me by signing my forms. My goal is to submit the over 1,500 voter signatures in-lieu of paying the campaign registration fees” said Martinez. “I want this to be a local, grass-roots campaign where anyone from the community can support us and be involved in whatever manner they wish.”
Martinez reportedly lags behind in fundraising, so the “grass roots” efforts may be more of an attempt to avoid paying an expensive filing fees.
The day-long grand opening event will conclude with a “thank you BBQ” in the afternoon.
Last fall, Marteniz hosted a candidate recruitment event at a coffee shop in Santa Ana to seek candidates for office in an attenmpt to “build a bench.” That event attracted fewer than 10 people. Martinez recently finished third in the early endorsement event for AD-69 hosyed by the Orange County Young Democrats where she received only two votes — one was hers and the other of campaign volunteer Alex Flores. Labor activist Julio Perez was the overwhelming winner of the OCYD endorsement for that race.
From the press release:
Councilwoman Martinez was first elected to the Santa Ana City Council in 2006 and re-elected in 2010. A strong advocate for public safety, economic development and education on the council, she chairs the Parks, Recreation, Education and Youth Committee and is a member of the Neighborhood Improvement/Code Enforcement Committee. Michele also represents the city of Santa Ana on several regional and state boards. A graduate of California State University, Fullerton where she earned a B.A. degree in Criminal Justice, she is a graduate of Santa Ana High School and Santa Ana College. She is currently the Director of Orange County Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative Obesity Prevention Program.
For additional information visit: www.michelecmartinez.com
Martinez has declined several attempts for a personal interview about her race for the Assembly with TheLiberalOC.
Thank you for this informational post. I’m afraid, however, that most people don’t know what an Assemblyman is and, usually, there’s only one person running in AD-69. It would be interesting, though, if another candidate named, say, “Arbogast” got on the ballot. He/she would then probably win because people because they are the first alphabetically. “M” is way down there so there’s always hope for another candidate(s).
Of course Ms. Martinez declined to ne interviewed about her race. The fact that she’s Hispanic is completely irrelevant to her campaign. 😉
You misunderstood the sentence; not her race as in her ethnic origin, but her race for the AD-69 seat. A candidate’s ethnicity is not nearly as important as their ideals and their ideas.