Committee Supporting Pulido Misleading Voters

Mayor Miguel Pulido (Photo: Chris Prevatt)
Mayor Miguel Pulido (Photo: Chris Prevatt)

Taxpayers for Experienced leadership For SA, a committee Supporting Miguel Pulido For Mayor 2012 has dropped another piece of mail today in support of their favored candidate. That, in and of itself, isn’t news. What is news is the content of the mailer. The mailer looks to the casual reader as though it’s from the Democratic Foundation of Orange County. It has the organization’s logo and pictures of Mayor Miguel Pulido with Former President Bill Clinton, and Assemblyman Jose Solorio. It lists Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro as an endorser of Mayor Pulido.

That claim left Pulido’s main opponent, Councilman David Benavides, perplexed. “Miguel Pulido and his supporters continue to claim a false endorsement of the Democratic Party Chair,” Benavides told me. “I am proud to be the official Democratic Party endorsed candidate for Santa Ana Mayor. I hope that Chairman Frank Barbaro and the Party will take steps to clear up the misinformation being distributed.”

Councilman David Benavides – Photo: Chris Prevatt/LiberalOC

In August, the Democratic Party of Orange County endorsed David Benavides for Santa Ana Mayor. Almost a month later Pulido announced his endorsements, listing Democratic Party of Orange County Chair Frank Barbaro as an endorser. That announcement caused a stir within the ranks of the Party causing Barbaro to apparently announce at a subsequent party meeting that he had withdrawn his endorsement and requested that Pulido cease using his name and party position in his campaign materials and on his website.

It is probably unlikely that Benavides will get the statement he hopes for from Barbaro or the Party. Pulido’s campaign website still touts Barbaro’s endorsement which includes his title. In addition, campaign reports indicate that Barbaro  gave a $500 contribution to Mayor Pulido’s campaign on October 18, well after he had allegedly withdrawn his endorsement and almost two months after the Party endorsement decisions were made.

But regardless of Barbaro’s actions, the fact that this committee funded by three donors, Susan Samueli at $25,000 and $5,000 each from Donnie Crevier and a McDonald’s franchisee, is misleading voters into thinking Miguel Pulido is supported by the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, and by reasonable extension the Party. The committee operators know that their claim is false but they don’t appear to care. The consultant running the committee is a long-time Democratic political insider and it’s unlikely the consultant is unaware that Barbaro’s endorsement was pulled due to the Party endorsement of Benavides.

What this mail piece demonstrates is that you can’t always trust the accuracy of the mail you get during election season. Groups that send out such false information make it difficult for the public to find the truth.

20 Comments

  1. That Miguel Pulido and his allies feel the need to resort to such childish, misleading games tells you all you need to know about them. It’s time for Pulido to go.

  2. “.. you can’t always trust the accuracy of the mail you get during election season.”

    Does anyone pay attention or trust those political mailers? I think they are becoming less believed and effective.

    • Given that intelligent candidates spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on them, is your hypothesis that the candidates are stupid, misinformed, or intentionally being perverse?

  3. Benavides: “I hope that Chairman Frank Barbaro and the Party will take steps to clear up the misinformation being distributed.”

    That seems like a pretty reasonable request. Can you scan and post the mailer, Chris?

  4. Benavides needs a mailer to the voters stating the unlawful act of having Barbaro endorsing Pulido against the direction of the Democratic Party.

    State…………….breaking laws is a Pulido common practice for his political and economic manipulation. This is a perfect example!

    • It’s not unlawful for Barbaro to endorse Pulido; it’s just a violation of the Party rules.

      If Barbaro did renounce the endorsement, then he might have a civil action in Pulido saying otherwise, but he wouldn’t bring it.

      Pulido’s scamming from the city, on the other hand — well, if we get him out of office, we’ll find out a lot.

  5. Unlawful act? Hopefully the good Doctor will cut and paste from his trusty Wikipedia the Penal Code showing exactly what laws have been broken.

  6. Greg,

    Thanks for the clarification. Unethical violation of the Democratic rules then is a better statement.

    Unethical and unlawful definition very similar. Thanks for the advice Santa Ana Voter.

    Adj. 1. unethical – not conforming to approved standards of social or professional behavior; “unethical business practices”
    wrong – contrary to conscience or morality or law; “it is wrong for the rich to take advantage of the poor”; “cheating is wrong”; “it is wrong to lie”
    ethical – conforming to accepted standards of social or professional behavior; “an ethical
    unethical

    adjective immoral, wrong, improper, illegal, dirty, unfair, shady (informal), dishonest, unscrupulous, under-the-table, unprofessional, disreputable, underhand, unprincipled, dishonourable, not cricket (informal) I thought it was unethical for doctors to operate upon their wives.
    legal, moral, proper, ethical, upright, honourable, honest, scrupulous

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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    unlawful [ʌnˈlɔːfʊl]
    adj
    1. (Law) illegal
    2. illicit; immoral unlawful love
    3. an archaic word for illegitimate
    unlawfully adv
    unlawfulness n
    Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
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    ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
    Adj. 1. unlawful – not conforming to legality, moral law, or social convention; “an unconventional marriage”; “improper banking practices”
    improper, unconventional
    irregular – contrary to rule or accepted order or general practice; “irregular hiring practices”
    2. unlawful – contrary to or prohibited by or defiant of law; “unlawful measures”; “unlawful money”; “unlawful hunters”
    illegal – prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules; “an illegal chess move”
    corrupt, crooked – not straight; dishonest or immoral or evasive
    lawful – conformable to or allowed by law; “lawful methods of dissent”
    3. unlawful – not morally right or permissible; “unlawful love”
    illicit – contrary to accepted morality (especially sexual morality) or convention; “an illicit association with his secretary”
    4. unlawful – having no legally established claim; “the wrongful heir to the throne”
    wrongful
    illegitimate – of marriages and offspring; not recognized as lawful
    5. unlawful – contrary to or forbidden by law; “an illegitimate seizure of power”; “illicit trade”; “an outlaw strike”; “unlawful measures”
    illegitimate, outlaw, outlawed, illicit
    illegal – prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules; “an illegal chess move”

  7. Pot Calling Kettle Black,

    You must be Pedroza/carpetbagger/henrygattis thowing out more lies.

    Pulido should just have placed ………supported by Barbaro my private attorney that handles all my consulting transactions that fund the expenses associated with my 2 million dollar mansion and advised me away from accepting a $500,00 finders fee for the sale of buildings orchestrated by the past governor of California because i did not have a Realtors license.

  8. It’s ironic that Benavides is whining about endorsement abuse.
    There’s a Santa Ana candidate that’s using Benavides’s name although he claims he did not endorse that person. Is he demanding that they remove his name from their website and printed material? No, he’s not.
    That makes it a double standard when he insists that Barbaro clarify or correct the DFOC perception and make a public retraction even though he (Benavides) won’t even step up and correct the same type of issue in his own endorsement misrepresentation case.

  9. It is apples to oranges. Pulido claims support of Barbaro written in as chairman of the OO Democratic Committee………,.,to make the perception that the OC Democratic Committee is endorsing Pulido.

    What you claim is that a candidate is claiming that Benavides is endorsing him.

    You see the difference? Pulido is beign dishonest about a endorsement. In addition Barbaro was told by the OC Democratic Committee that he was breaking their rules by allowing Pulido to publicize his chairman position on political mailers.

    Pulido and Barbaro are dishonest. I am told Barbaro will take his lumps here as the Democratic Committee is ready to replace him.

    • Instead of presenting the point you want to make, maybe you should attempt to understand what I was saying.
      Benavides says “I hope that Chairman Frank Barbaro and the Party will take steps to clear up the misinformation being distributed.”
      What’s interesting to me that is that Benavides could say that, but that he himself will not take steps to clear up a misrepresented endorsement.
      Apparently Benavides is allowing misinformation to go out under his name as well.

      • My point is the same. The candidate Benavides is not claiming a unclaimable endorser. Pulido is. Your argument is still Apples to Oranges.

    • Art—Pulido may be dishonest but not Barbaro. He asked Pulido to stop using his name and Party title on Pulido’s web site. If anything the Party should issue a statement to the press that the Democratic Party endorses David, not Miguel, ask the Foundation to cease distributing literature in support of Pulido who is not endorsed, and repeat Barbaro’s request that Pulido take down barbaro’s name and title. But Barbaro and the Party have alot of irons in this elctoral fire, and asking anything more of them at this time would be foolish.
      As for replacing Barbaro, he wanted to step down last time but there was no one who stepped forward who had the ability to raise the money to keep the Party going. I suspect he relishes the opportunity to step down and let someone else serve.

  10. Henry Gattis,

    Thanks for the link. I did not notice Pulido’s campaign mailers Shen he first ran for mayor where stated that the Mexican immigrants where responsible for all the negatives and the crime in Santa Ana .

    Pulido promised to to go beyond Proposition 187 and work with the SAPD and ICE to remove the troublesome Mexican Immigrants from the City of Santa Ana. I have the mailers if you need them .

Comments are closed.