Roman Reyna is no stranger to Santa Ana politics.  He ran for the Santa Ana City Council four years ago against Council Woman Claudia Alvarez.  He didn’t win - in fact he played the role of the spoiler, costing Lynette Verino a chance at victory.  And now, four years hence, he is playing the spoiler again - this time he is one of nine candidates running for the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education.

Reyna is working hard on his campaign.  I saw him driving around in his little red pickup truck the other night, putting up his signs.  But when I tried to find his campaign website on Google, I came up empty.  I ended up having to go to the O.C. Voter Registrar’s website, where I found his website listed in his candidate’s statement.

So who is Roman Reyna? According to his website he is 39 years old.  His website states that he attended Fremont Elementary, Santa Ana High School and Santa Ana College.  His website also states that he is the best candidate for the school board.  But it doesn’t really explain why that is the case.

He does have some decent endorsements, including:

• Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides
• RSCCD Trustee Larry Labrado, Jr.
• Former Santa Ana Councilman Mike Garcia
• And Deborah Vasquez, who serves on the Santa Ana Housing & Redevelopment Commission

According to his candidate’s statement, Reyna has worked for the City of Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Department; Santa Ana High School; Santa Ana YMCA; and Santa Ana College.  Reyna is also very actively involved with his church, Templo Calvario, which is part of the Assemblies of God - the same Pentecostal church that GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin belonged to until she was 38 years old.

Reyna also serves on the Santa Ana Housing & Redevelopment Commission.  He was appointed to that body by Councilman Benavides.  But Reyna has missed most of his commission meetings (see graphic above - the “E” symbol represents an excused absence, while the “X” symbol means he attended that meeting, and the “U” symbol is an unexcused absence).  Reyna missed five out of a total of eight meetings.  He missed over 60% of his commission meetings.

Reyna states in his website that “the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior.”  Well, can we expect a guy who misses over 60% of his city commission meetings to be there for all the SAUSD school board meetings?

Reyna’s campaign message is also confusing.  His candidate’s statement states “Do not be fooled.  Now more than ever is when we need experience.”  Huh?  Reyna is a challenger, but his message sounds like something an incumbent might say.  Reyna ought to be saying something about what we need right now is CHANGE.  Perhaps his statement got mixed up with SAUSD Trustee Jose Hernandez’ statement?

I am told that Reyna is a very good speaker.  And he has his fans.  In fact Republican Mayoral candidate George Collins is walking Reyna’s materials.  And his signs are all over town.  But early polling I am privy to doesn’t have him in the top four candidates.  All this work may be for naught.

You may email Reyna at this link.

UPDATE:

I spoke to Roman tonight at the NAACP candidates forum.  He wanted me to clarify that while he does serve on some sort of development committee for Templo Calvario he is a Catholic and he attends the Immaculate Heart of Mary church in Santa Ana.  He also pointed out that he got more votes than Lynette Verino four years ago.  The latter is true - but he was the only male candidate against two women.  Lynette would have had a good chance if Reyna had not been the spoiler in that race.  Instead we got stuck with Alvarez for four years - and now she has extended council term limits and will be there again for four more years.  The horror…  I wish in retrospect that Reyna had opted to run for Council again this year rather than School Board.  Not sure why he didn’t.

The Focus on SAUSD School Board Candidates series now includes posts on Irene Ibarra and Gregory Barraza.  Up next: Gloria Alvarado.

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