Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido held his first fundraiser of the 2012 election season tonight in Santa Ana at a catered event at First American Corp off Main Street. And the event attracted the likes of Lucy Dunn of OCBC, Frank Barbaro of the DPOC, State Rep. Jose Solorio, Broadcom executive Henry Nicholas, Rancho Santiago Trustee Dave Chapel, and Karina Onofre, the Republican candidate for Santa Ana City Council in Ward 5.
And while guests enjoyed the wine and the shrimp, that was some chat about this morning’s LA Times story that indicates more Santa Ana residents want to see a change at the top with the paper calling Pulido, Santa Ana’s “Invisible Mayor.”
From the LATimes story:
For the first time, Santa Ana leaders, activists and political insiders are actively urging voters to make a change in November and replace the man who some have come to view as the “invisible mayor.”
“I think it’s the start of an awakening within the city,” said Councilman Sal Tinajero, who along with two council colleagues are backing Councilman David Benavides.
Longtime Pulido allies, such as the county’s Democratic Party, the county’s labor federation and the city’s police union, also have deserted the long-time mayor and jumped behind Benavides, the best known of five candidates challenging Pulido.
“In order to make good decisions for a city you need to have a pulse and understand what the needs and the issues are in the community, both for the residents and businesses,” said Benavides, who believes City Hall has become largely inaccessible to residents in the immigrant community under Pulido’s watch.
Pulido, he said, has been “absent from our community for far too long.”
The Voice of OC reported that Pulido was caught texting on his smart phone during a candidate’s forum earlier this week in front of Santa Ana’s business leaders, giving these leaders less than 100 percent of his attention which seems to bolster his critics’ charges.
Additionally, The Liberal OC must report that Pulido’s campaign consultants have been less than honest with us about a “rogue” website that went up for the Mayor that isn’t exactly “rogue.” Three weeks ago, we were told that www.mayorpulido2012.com was being taken over by the campaign by 5PM Thursday September 13. The site was created by OC PR and eMedia Solutions, a “PR” firm founded by New Santa Ana blogger Art Pedroza. GoDaddy.com, the site’s registrant, can transfer a site in about 30 minutes and it can take up to 5 business days for the WHO IS data to be updated. None of this has happened and content from the site suggests it is still being run by Pedroza. In a document obtained by TheLiberalOC, Pedroza admits the Pulido campaign “retained” him to build the Mayor’s website.
The only question remains is how much is the Pulido campaign paying for these services. Pedroza was paid $5,150 in 2010 by Pulido’s consultants, DeSnoo & DeSnoo but not reported after the election was over in early 2011.
“Start of an awakening within the city” who the hell is tinajero trying to kid?! He came into this gig anti pulido but yet he planted his lips on the nutsack of the tiny dark lord within a year of my stupid ass voting his fat useless ass into office. And now we’re supposed to listen to this traitor and support another useless pulido hack gone bad because tinajero says so? Screw you sal. Pulido will win again without my vote or yours but the real question is this:? How long will it take you to sell out again?
jose s.
What’s with all the talk about donkeys? I thought you were cussing for a moment.
Anyway, you got me laughing my donkey off. Thanks for the morning laugh.
Fat Sal and Fat Sean are too busy trying to get Sal’s plus sized sister elected. When you look at Martinez, the Tinajeros, Mill and Pedroza, can we agree SanTanna’s anti-obesity program is a failure.
The advantage to Art Pedroza being morbidly obese. He can’t hide behind trees in Santiago Park with his camera near the children’s playground anymore. You listening SAPD?
And Dave Chapel and Karina Onofre advertise on this site. Does that mean that like Miguel and Dennis DeSnoo, they think men screwing little boys is funny?
Pulido pointed out that for Benavides to argue that years of bad decision making has stunted the city’s growth is “disingenuous” given that for the last six years Benavides has voted with Pulido more than 98 percent of the time.
This statement is ” DISINGENOUS”. The point the new council majority , Benavides is part of it” for separating from Pulido is that deals of real significance positive for the city or not we’re made in the council member’s absence.
Items voted on ( 98% Pulido reffers to ) were mostly generic , some not generic where made under political duress from Pulido and Pulido ‘s political and financial supporters. This pressure happened with the decision by the majority council to place the mayor term limits on the Nomember ballot .
This all happened based on staff , political and financial supporters believing as Pulido would assure them that he controlled the council majority.
The majority council manipulated this way got wise and separated from the Pulido control.
The power and has now left Pulido for this reason ………the political and financial support he enjoyed for 18 years as mayor .
Now Benavides along with the Pulido independent council majority as he mentions can bring the proper development the city deserves.
This can happen even if Pulido stays Mayor. His hope is that if he stays Mayor he can divide the majority council in his favor again.
This will never happen. The majority council understands this strategy .
Art Lomeli. Do you support gay rights? Same sex marriage? Harvey Milk Day celebrations in Downtown Santa Ana? OC Pride events in Santa Ana’s streets or parks?
Santa Ana Voter
October 5, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Art Lomeli. Do you support gay rights? Same sex marriage? Harvey Milk Day celebrations in Downtown Santa Ana? OC Pride events in Santa Ana’s streets or parks?
Do you?
The answer is yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. Your turn.
Yes on all……..so what is your point?
has happened and content from the site suggests it is still being run by Pedroza. In a document obtained by TheLiberalOC, Pedroza admits the Pulido campaign “retained” him to build the Mayor’s website.
All articles / stories in the Pulido website are written by “Editor” which is the same moniker used by Art Pedroza at his New Santa Ana Blog.
So…….Pedroza is on the Pulido payroll. He is paid to promote and market Pulido.
He is taking this task to his New Santa Ana Blog but does not disclose this financial relationship with the Pulido campaign. He has stated that he is getting paid to build the Pulido website. Not so ………….along with this you can see when you access the website what I said earlier……..all stories are written by Pedroza , the purpose of the stories and the website is to market and promote the candidate Pulido.
When I try to point this out at the New Santa Ana Blog Pedroza deletes my message.
Do you suggest Pedroza is unethical Dr. Lomeli? He is a political puta
Of course Art “Arturo” Pedroza husband of Camille is unethical. He’s been paid thousands of dollars to promote Downtown Inc and now calls it illegal and unethical. Has he returned any of the money. Nope. That means Art Pedroza stole hard earned dollars from the wallet of Art Lomeli and other hard working Latino families in Santa Ana. Why anyone listens to Art Pedroza is beyond us.
why does Pedroza still carry an advertisement from Downtown Inc. on his website?
Here’s the thing about Pedroza, He’s the only one who has questioned ANYTHING about Benavide’s past. Meanwhile Pulido get’s picked apart (reasonably so, after 20 years) But, there has been no introspective on Benavides and the troubled charity, the personal issues and rampapt rumours of irresoponsible behavior.
We almost need a bi-partisan/independent blog, newspaper to look into things. Oh wait, someone tried that and no one read it. Oh well.
But again, it appears the Pulido campaign is paying Pedroza to foster a smear campaign. Irresponsible behavior? That’s from Pedroza’s rumor mill. If you have legitimate questions about the charity, by all means, throw the evidence out there. But it pales in comparison to the sort of success fees Mayor Pulido counts on.
Dan ,
there are significant # of stories like you point out from respectable sources.
I asked a few why they do not make it public. They respond that there is no publication interested and they fear repercussion from Pulido and his supporters as they believe Pulido has the power to do harm. A real emotion ….remember Bustamante’s accusers had the same fear of the perceived Bustamante power to affect their employment.
Maybe if they understand the Pulido loss of power due to the separation of the the council majority will encourage them to provide information.
Possibly OO Liberal can have conversations with them?
I’ll talk with anyone
“Start of an awakening within the city” who the hell is tinajero trying to kid?! He came into this gig anti pulido but yet he planted his lips on the nutsack of the tiny dark lord within a year of my stupid ass voting his fat useless ass into office. And now we’re supposed to listen to this traitor and support another useless pulido hack gone bad because tinajero says so? Screw you sal. Pulido will win again without my vote or yours but the real question is this:? How long will it take you to sell out again?
It is politics, jose. Pulido ‘s power for 18 years has been his ability to manipulate council members through supporters in order to acquire control of the council majority.
The new Pulido independent majority council has separated form the Pulido control. This has left Pulido void of power.
Pulido staying Mayor toes not change his loss of power . This along with the Benavides challenge and the mayoral term limit ballot makes him completely in effecting . His one time political / financial supporters understand this.
IT IS WHY THEY ALL NOW SUPPORT BENAVIDES.
Nice to see Sean Mill at Planning last night. His daughter looks just like him
Cut the BS with the Pedroza stuff.
It’s getting mighty Kardashian around here.
I thought Chris said this was going to be a “Serious” blog.
Walter you’re right. We’ll be more careful in our moderation in the future. I try to root most of this out, but it slips through from time to time.
Walter – until Pedroza discloses which candidates he consults for when he writes opinion blog posts, it’s relevant to mention it. I know for a fact he changed his tune from Renya to Onofre because she bought an ad.
Onofre bought an ad with art pedroza bc he contacted her and she liked that he was endorsing her.
Tiffany and Destiny showed up to see racist Sean H Mill at work.
The Reason Why Pedrosa is supporting Onofre because she is the better candidate. She is a college grad, and a business owner. Reyna lacks education and he is currently unemployed. Which one would you rather have in city hall???? Reyna used SAUSD as a step stone to Santa Ana city council. He has not been attending the meetings at the SAUSD and used to “help” kids at the YMCA because he got paid!!!! Now, you don’t see him at the Y because he got fired and he does not “help” kids for free… He has done absolutely nothing in SAUSD, in fact, the other trustees can’t wait for him to leave because he is a waste of a seat.