The following is a press release from an organization unaffiliated with Voice of OC. The views expressed here are not those of Voice of OC.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SANTA ANA RESIDENTS AGAINST CORRUPTION LAUNCHES A RECALL EFFORT AGAINST MAYOR MIGUEL PULIDO
Santa Ana, California – March 14, 2017:
Miguel Pulido has been on the Santa Ana City Council for 31 years; the last 23 as the City’s Mayor. Unfortunately for our City, the Mayor has used that long tenure not for the public good, but rather to line his own pockets and those of his special interests. In that time, the Mayor:
- profited nearly $200,000 in an undisclosed land swap deal with an individual with business before the City;
- killed $500,000 in previously approved funding for sorely needed community programs for our children;
- voted to let a bad cop fired by our Police Chief for criminal misconduct, back on the police force; and
- has been fined over $15,000 by the Fair Political Practices Commission, and an Orange County Superior Court Judge for 11 separate violations for failing to disclose his financial interests, and, in one case, voting on a matter in which he had a financial interest. The FPPC determined, and the Mayor agreed, that his vote on the matter was “more than an inadvertent oversight.”
Santa Ana Residents Against Corruption has decided to do something about it. We are a grassroots movement comprised purely of volunteers united by our conviction that the corrupt Mayor must be removed from office, and that a recall is the best vehicle to accomplish that goal. To that end, today we are filing a Notice of Intention to Circulate a Recall Petition against Mayor Pulido with the City Clerk.
The Mayor has struggled to win a majority share of the vote in his last four elections: twice he failed to garner 50% of the vote, and the other two times he barely crossed the 50% threshold. All four of those Mayoral elections involved two or more candidates dividing the anti-Pulido vote.
Mayor Pulido will not have the benefit of a divide-and-conquer strategy in a recall. There are only two options in a recall election: Shall Miguel Pulido be recalled from the office of Mayor? Yes or No. There is not a third or fourth option. So the Mayor will have to run against himself and his own record, and we believe that he will lose on such a recall ballot.
But to get to a recall special election, we must qualify our petition by obtaining a sufficient amount of signatures of Santa Ana registered voters. There are 103,916 registered voters in the City. We need to collect a minimum of 10% of that total—10,392. Our goal is to collect 15,000 signatures, both to serve as a cushion against any signatures that are disqualified, and as a message to send to our Mayor that the community will no longer tolerate his corrupt actions that are having an adverse effect on our community.
We cannot do this alone.
We need the help of every person, both resident and non-resident alike, interested in helping Santa Ana finally rid itself once and for all of Mayor Pulido and the special interests he represents. To that end, we humbly ask you for your signature on the recall petition, your help in spreading the word to other voters, and your time volunteering to help us end the corruption by recalling the Mayor.
There is good reason as to why Mayor Pulido has been in power for so long. It is difficult to dislodge an entrenched power, even one that is so blatantly and unapologetically corrupt. Special interests who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Santa Ana elections in favor of that entrenched power make the task of dislodging corrupt politicians such as Mayor Pulido even more difficult. But if you will partner with us by making a financial contribution of any amount, we promise you that your money will be put toward marshalling the resources necessary to combat what is inevitably going to be a large war chest funded by the special interests protecting Mayor Pulido.
We are many, and Mayor Pulido and his special interests are few. Together we can do great things. Together we can recall Mayor Pulido. Please visit us at our website, recallmayormiguelpulido.com, or visit our pages on Facebook (Recall Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido), Twitter (@Recallpulido) and Instagram (recallpulido) for more information and updates on the recall campaign.
Si se puede.
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