EDITORIAL - Madera will have a new mayor in December, Mr. Santos Garcia. Our new mayor accepted money from the socialist arm of the Democratic Party and owes his entire success to Republican spoiler-candidate Steve Salter for splitting the vote. Madera City Councilman Santos Garcia beat sitting mayor Andy Medellin by less than 500 votes with 4587 of the total 11,103 votes cast, But Salter scored 2416 votes, splitting the votes available in the westside of Madera with Medellin who scored 4097 votes. In short, of the total votes, over 6500 of the electorate voted against Garcia denying him any clear mandate.
Garcia, who raised $55k mostly from union sources, raised $13k in just the last three days. He also took thousands of dollars from the Central California Progressive Political Action Committee and the city council campaign fund for Fresno City Councilmember Esmerelda Sorin, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (A.O.C.) of the west coast. I wonder how the conservative Salter will sleep at night knowing that it's possible he caused the beginnings of socialism on the city council?
Santos also controlled the campaigns of Anita Evans and Artemio Villegas who were running for the city council on his slate. In the case of Villegas, the candidate had raised no money as of October 20th but in the last three days received thousands from union sources including Valley Forward, which is the FRESNO-MADERA-TULARE-KINGS LABOR COUNCIL 501c4 organization known for professional canvasing and ballot harvesting. With Ms. Evans’s campaign, as of October 20th, she had raised only $1000 until the last three days when her campaign filed a California disclosure form 497 because of last-minute donations, again from Valley Forward and local unions.
Garcia has still failed to answer accusations that during his 2018 city council race against then Councilmember Charles Rigby, his campaign paid homeless voters with gift cards to register and vote for his slate of candidates in that election. In addition, six months after being sworn into his council seat the California Fair Political Practices Commission fined the councilmember for failing to file his campaign disclosures in a timely manner in violation of Government Code Section 84200.
Anita Evans won her bid to replace two-term council member Derek Robinson with a two-to-one margin. Artemio Villegas also won his race against two-term councilmember Donald Holley. Both Evans and Villegas will also be sworn into the Madera City Council next month.
Santos’ third candidate did not fair as well against Councilmember Jose Rodriguez who easily kept his seat despite challenges from Madera Tribune reporter DJ Becker and political new-comer, Jorge Mendoza. Becker received most of her support from Madera housing developer Mike Pistoresi and Ripon developer Khalid Chaudhry, who owns several blighted properties in the area of Olive Avenue and Madera Avenue that have caused headaches for Madera City Code Enforcement. Mendoza, who was mentored by former Madera County Supervisor Rick Farinelli, did not file any campaign disclosures in October.
Garcia was also backing two candidates for the Madera County Board of Education, Zimri Padilla and Brian Ramirez. Only Padilla, area 7, was successfully elected
A question to ponder after this election, with all the money the unions have pumped into the Madera City Council over the last three years, what will they expect from soon to be Mayor Garcia and his new council? Will Madera be able to afford whatever the costs will be to the taxpayers?
