Thursday, October 19, 2006

Tom Fuentes, campaign advisor

OK, now bear with me here. Back in March, DtB noted a remark that appeared in Orange Juice in February (Trustee Fuentes):
An anonymous blogger posted a comment on OC Blog today insinuating that Tan Nguyen, the former Democrat who is running in the GOP primary against Santa Ana School Board Member Rosie Avila, for the 47th Congressional District, paid Tom Fuentes to work on his campaign. I took the time to look up Nguyen's campaign filings, and sure enough he paid Fuentes a total of $10,000. However, the report is murky as to what Fuentes did to earn the money…It turns out that Fuentes, the former Chair of the Republican Party of Orange County, is indeed acting as a senior adviser to Nguyen, according to Nguyen's latest mailer….
You’ll recall that, back in 1988, Mr. Tom Fuentes got into hot water concerning a certain dirty trick designed to discourage Latino voters. As Gustavo Arellano explained back in 2005:
You [Tom] approved the use of poll guards to stand outside polling places in Latino neighborhoods when they cast ballots for the 72nd Assembly District race. The Republican Party candidate, Curt Pringle, won the election. But the subsequent furor led to your resignation as communications director for the Catholic Diocese of Orange, an exodus of Latino voters from the GOP (the first of many, it would turn out) and various settlements of lawsuits regarding the matter totaling more than $480,000. (Tom Fuentes)
This finally brings us to this morning’s LA Times and OC Register:
A state attorney general's investigation into letters apparently designed to suppress Latino voter turnout in Orange County for the upcoming election is focusing on the campaign of Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

Nguyen, who has made halting illegal immigration part of his platform, is running an underdog campaign to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez, who represents Santa Ana and is Orange County's only Democratic member of Congress.

In a fast-moving examination that began just days after the letters were mailed, sources said investigators tracked down the location where they were printed and mailed to an estimated 14,000 Democratic voters in central Orange County.

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, appearing Wednesday on the Patt Morrison show on 89.3 KPCC FM, said his office believes it knows who financed the letters, but said interviews were still being conducted and declined to provide further detail.

"That's the preliminary assessment, that there were one or more Republican candidates for office that were associated with this effort," Lockyer said.

A spokesman for Lockyer declined to elaborate. But two sources with direct knowledge of the inquiry said investigators were focusing on Nguyen's campaign, and a third said agents had interviewed Nguyen at his office...

...The letter, which purports to be from a Huntington Beach-based group, warns that immigrants will not be permitted to vote in the election. It also warns that the state has developed a tracking system that will allow the names of Latino voters to be handed over to anti-immigrant groups.

"You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time," the letter, written in Spanish, says....(Investigation into OC letter)

This morning’s OC Register (State Probe) appears to offer an even more in-depth report. Check it out.

I’ve gotta run. Gotta give a test in a half hour!

What does it all mean?

Garsh, I dunno.

Site Meter

UPDATE (11:00 p.m.):

MATT COKER has posted the letter (translated into English) on his blog:
Greetings [NAME WITHHELD],

You are being sent this letter because you were recently registered to vote. If you are a citizen of the United States, we ask that you participate in the democratic process of voting.

You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time, and you will be deported for voting without having a right to do so.

At the same time, you are advised that the government of the United States is installing a new computer system to verify the names of all new registered voters that vote in the October and November elections. Anti-immigration organizations can ask for information from this new computer system.

Unlike Mexico, here there is no incentive to vote. There is not a voter registration card in the United States. Therefore, it is useless and dangerous to vote in any election if you are not a citizen of the United States.

Do not listen to any politician that tells you the opposite. They are only looking out for their own interests. They only want to win elections without any regard to what happens to you.

Sincerely,

Sergio Ramirez

Day two of retaliation? —Where's Glenn?


Facilities and Maintenance workers told me today that, once again, Director Wayne Ward seems to be meting out retaliation for workers' speaking out about Wayne's unprofessionalism (see this & this). At least that's how they see it.

This morning (I'm told), Wayne asked the custodians' lead worker to pull a custodian from the pair who were supposed to clean the B-quad. The custodian's new job? Scraping gum from around the A400 building.

I actually saw him doing that this morning. Scraping. That scraper didn't look very efficient. The worker didn't look very happy.

Meanwhile, the other custodian was left to clean the entire B-quad by himself. Naturally, that put him behind his cleaning schedule.

I'm told that there is a pressure washer for this "gum" job. Evidently, a grounds worker had used the washer to blast gum from the same area two days ago, but, evidently, Wayne decided that the effort wasn't good enough.

But he didn't ask the grounds worker to finish his job. Instead, he pulled a custodial team apart, insuring that they fall behind their schedule.

Plus the custodian wasn't given the pressure washer to use.

GLENN? Are you listening, Glenn? Have you a clue, Glenn?

RECENTLY, I mentioned that a certain manager at IVC got into trouble a few months ago for using the college credit card to buy gas for his car. (At this point, you should imagine the sound of sirens.)

I've been told that more than one manager was caught doing this. (Now, please imagine the sound of, oh, a snazzy Camaro. Vroom.)


Site Meter

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...