One Race Could Tip Council’s Balance of Power

At Santa Ana’s Bali Hi Mobile Homes Lodge last year, residents began cooking up what they hoped might be a local revolution.

Angered by a city-approved sign in their neighborhood promoting a Vietnamese business district in neighboring Westminster, they sought City Council candidates to challenge the Santa Ana’s entrenched power structure.

Instead, they discovered a general lack of interest in local politics -- or a resignation that little will change because of the difficulty in unseating incumbents.

The mobile home park group known as Dave’s Neighbors drummed up only two challengers to run for the City Council.

If there’s going to be a revolution on the Santa Ana City Council, it likely will be triggered by just one race -- the election for the Ward 3 seat, which represents the city’s most affluent neighborhoods, north of 17th Street, and is home to Mayor Miguel Pulido and other city leaders.

It is the only seat where an incumbent is not running. In the two other council seats up for election, and for the mayoral post, the incumbents are expected to be easily reelected.

But riding in the balance of the Ward 3 election is the majority control of the City Council.

Three council members -- Claudia Alvarez, Lisa Bist and Mike Garcia -- are supporting Carlos Bustamante, 39. He also is endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce.

His opponent, Alexander “Sandy” Nalle, 65, is supported by Pulido and council members Jose Solorio, Alberta D. Christy and Brett Franklin, who is leaving his seat because of term limits. Nalle also has the support of the Santa Ana Police Officers Assn. and the Santa Ana Firemen’s Benevolent Assn.

Bustamante’s election would undermine Pulido’s majority control of the City Council; Nalle’s election would preserve the mayor’s political base.

Nalle, a city planning commissioner and real estate salesman, has amassed a $44,574 campaign coffer, greater than any other candidate; Bustamante, who works in the Orange County public information office, has raised $32,734.

Republican activist Art Pedroza said the two candidates “are really not that different. Choose your flavor.” But he said that because of his Latino surname in a city where 75% of the residents speak Spanish, Bustamante will do well.

Pulido, who did not return calls for comment, has told the Chamber of Commerce committee endorsing candidates that there are enough Latinos on the seven-member council, which has four Latinos including himself.

Bustamante is the “best chance we have” to upset the established power base, Pedroza said. “It’s so hard for a challenger to run a serious campaign because the power is in just a few hands,” he said.

In his mayoral reelection bid, Pulido, 48, entrenched in the council since 1986, collected $36,231 in contributions.

His challenger, Stanley Fiala, 56, founder of a company that seeks to stop the aging process, has raised less than $1,000 and has campaigned primarily through an Internet newsgroup of active residents. Fiala ran for the City Council in 2002, getting 432 votes.

In his reelection bid, Solorio, 34, faces one of the candidates supported by Dave’s Neighbors: Jose Soto, a playwright and waiter. Solorio collected $33,351 as of Sept. 30, about 10 times as much as his challenger.

Alvarez, 35, who unsuccessfully challenged Tom Umberg for the Democratic nomination for the 69th Assembly seat, faces two challengers: Roman Reyna, a 35-year-old YMCA program coordinator who is on Dave’s slate; and Lynette Verino, a 35-year-old businesswoman and former planning commissioner endorsed by Umberg and Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana).

Alvarez upset some voters by supporting construction of a 37-story tower after receiving an Assembly campaign contribution from the developer. Alvarez did not return calls for comment.

Her critics say developers have buttressed her campaign treasury, which tops $33,000. Verino has raised less than half that amount, and Reyna has collected about a fifth as much as Alvarez.

Her opponents hope they can overcome the financial disparity by walking neighborhoods.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily work in this city,” said resident Howard Kieffer, a political consultant. Kieffer points out that in a city with 370,000 residents and 87,000 voters, fewer than 30,000 regularly vote.

The city’s ward system stipulates that candidates live in the wards they represent but they are elected at-large. As a result, grass-roots candidates are hard-pressed to compete against better financed ones in citywide campaigns.

Reyna says he wants his candidacy to challenge that phenomenon. “I’m hoping that my candidacy makes people think that we as a people need to step up. We’re walking the city, we’re registering people to vote and telling them their voice does count.”