Latino Vote Did Make a Difference

Your headlines concerning the Latino vote making a difference are most accurate. This was true on election day in Santa Ana. Emotions played out at the polls. Did the sleeping giant awaken with a vengeance? Or did the giant feel that enough is enough and wouldn’t take it any longer? Whatever the reason, more Latinos than ever turned out to vote Nov. 3.

For our new citizens, the polls were an experience and an opportunity to voice their discontent. For others, voting was a real challenge, physically and emotionally.

Some of the Latinos were linguistically handicapped by not being able to fully understand the propositions, and some chose not to vote for or against any. Others vowed to vote only for those names they recognized and only for the local candidates.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) and Assembly candidate Lou Correa were the main reasons for so many Latinos coming to the polls. They felt they had reasons to vote. These campaigns ran smoothly and efficiently. Their poll watchers and runners were at one polling place every hour. They were very young, very determined and stayed focused. They were Latino students who were well-trained, courteous and patient.

ENRIQUETA LOPEZ RAMOS

Santa Ana

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Re “Angry Local GOP Leaders Criticize State Chair,” Nov. 6:

You neglected an important factor in the GOP losses in Central Orange County.

Rob Hurtt’s former Senate district and Jim Morrissey’s former Assembly district overlap Loretta Sanchez’s congressional district.

GOP congressional candidate Bob Dornan’s arrogant campaign (Virgin of Guadalupe mailers to Hispanic-surnamed voters), run from his Virginia plantation, mobilized a reaction and voter turnout that carried Joe Dunn and Lou Correa in on Sanchez’s coattails.

If the GOP is looking for someone to criticize, they should look at their own failure to support a reasonable GOP candidate in the primary (Judge Jim Gray comes to mind). Instead, the GOP kingmakers wilted before B-1 Bob’s bombast.

If the Lincoln Club kingmakers have any remaining doubt about who and what they endorsed by default against Sanchez, they need only watch the videotape of the Dornan family refusing to yield the TV lectern for Matt Fong’s concession speech. After a half-hour of rambling indulgence in self-pity and blaming everyone but himself for his dismissal by the voters, by a double-digit margin, he led an assault on Fong and his staff!

ALAN NESTLINGER

Santa Ana

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People are quick to disparage, but slow to offer rational alternatives. Frank M. Bagrash wrote about his “subtly influenced” experience of voting at Coast Bible Church in Mission Viejo (Letters, Nov. 8).

Separation of church and state has nothing to do with difficult election times. When it comes to election day, the registrar of voters will take whoever volunteers and set up wherever is offered without a single thought for these politically correct times.

CARA PETTITE

Anaheim

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Re Jerry Hicks’ Oct. 31 column on state Sen. Rob Hurtt’s campaign mailer:

We received that mailer, and it does not appear to be a cheap shot. It just refutes some of the mud that the campaign of his opponent, Joe Dunn, has been slinging.

My nominee for cheap-shot election mailer is Friends of Tom Daly for their attacking Bob Zemel. The cover is based on the dollar bill. George Washington’s picture has been replaced with a photo of Bob Zemel, under which it says “paid no dollars.”

Other messages include: “lotsa unpaid taxes” and “This note is absolutely worthless for all debts, public and private.”

Inside it headlines: “Bob Zemel isn’t responsible enough to handle his own finances. . . . Now Zemel wants to be your next Mayor!”

The text accuses him of not paying his taxes, not filing tax returns, getting foreclosure notices, etc. I can’t easily verify if any of these claims are accurate, but I’m very dubious of their truth. He is currently a city councilman and, if these claims were true, it seems likely that they would have been made before.

ROBERT BILES

Anaheim