Was it Team Pulido? We may never know – but someone distributed an awful flier to select voters in north and south Santa Ana. I have posted an excerpt above. The flier has no attribution – we don’t know who printed it or who distributed it. But the message sounds like what Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez has been saying about Martinez at recent candidates forums.
This attack reminds me of Team McCain’s recent attacks on Barack Obama. Apparently “Team Pulido” is resorting to the same tactic of dredging up old news to try to take out their opponent. Now we don’t know for sure that this is the work of Pulido’s henchmen – but the ONLY person who benefits from this cowardly attack is Pulido. That is not debatable.
So let’s take a look at the above-referenced charges:
- Is Martinez a former drug dealer? Well, she has said that she was – but remember that she has come a long way. She WAS a troubled youngster. But she persevered, with good advice and more than a few mentors. She is a great example for troubled kids in our city that you CAN change your ways and live a decent life.
- Did she vote for higher fees? Yes she did. But the ENTIRE City Council has voted to raise our water rates. And they all voted for the dog barking ordinance, which carries ridiculous high fines. Pulido voted for all of this too. So why single out Martinez?
- Does she support sanctuary for immigrants? Who knows? This issue has NEVER been allowed to come to a vote on the City Council. So NO ONE on the Council has voted on this issue, including Martinez. This is a smokescreen. The fact is the current Council would never vote for this. And Martinez has NEVER called for any sort of sanctuary for gangs. That is a blatant lie.
- Did Martinez oppose the short lived INS program to convince immigrants to volunteer to be deported? Who knows? This program was so stupid it boggles the mind. The Bush administration had no choice but to close down this program because no one wanted to deport themselves.
- What other radical views is Martinez hiding from us? None that I know of. A better question would be why are Pulido and his henchmen lying about the condition of our city? Why do they keep insisting that crime is going down when Santa Ana leads the entire County in violent crime?
- Will corruption and crime stop if we vote for Pulido? Why should it? He has been in office for over 20 years – and this year we have already had as many violent murders in this city as we did ALL of last year – 23 to be exact. Pulido has done NOTHING to stop crime in our city. I doubt Martinez could do any worse than the ineffective Pulido.
Will this scurrilous attack work? I doubt it. Santa Ana voters want change. They are tired of being lied to by Pulido and his gang. Even if they don’t vote for Martinez, many of them will vote for George Collins. In either case Pulido won’t get those votes. Martinez will also benefit from being the only woman in the Mayor’s race. This could be the year Pulido finally pays the price for being such a lame Mayor. Shame on Pulido and his awful supporters for resorting to these anonymous attacks. Once again they have shredded the very Code of Ethics that Pulido and company voted into law.
Art,
I think you’re pushing it by claiming that this is like what McCain is doing. Let’s not forget that Tony Rezko has had sentencing set aside, so he can sing to the Feds. The friends you keep do matter as well the attitudes of those you associate with.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-rezko-sentencing-09-oct09,0,3822074.story
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08212008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/baracks_favors_for_corrupt_crony_125390.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4111483
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/01/rezko/
I have some good stuff coming about the years that Obama sat on the board of a 501c3 that literally tried to circumvent the judicial system to garner the judgments they wanted, rather than the way the judicial branch is supposed to work. He did it on a continuing basis, not a short term basis. There is a pattern there.
Ms. Martinez on the other hand has made great strides from her youth in making good for herself, her family and the community. This kind of insinuation certainly looks like it’s from team Pulido and should not be allowed to continue. If he isn’t the ring leader, he needs to come out and publicly renounce this type of activity. DO IT NOW! By not doing so, he shows the kind of poor or lack of, leadership that many of us know has been the downfall of this city.