Despite D.A. probe, Miguel Pulido wins 11th term as Santa Ana mayor

Embattled Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido won an unprecedented 11th term in Tuesday’s election despite an ongoing district attorney investigation into a downtown real estate deal.

Pulido easily outpaced Councilman Roman Reyna and Mark I. Lopez in the voting, but he remains in the minority on a council that largely no longer supports him.
Voters first elected Pulido to the City Council in 1986, and during this campaign, he touted his years of leadership while pushing development projects such as the Artists Village and Discovery Science Center, along with his huge support for a light-rail system connecting Santa Ana with neighboring Garden Grove and Anaheim.

The Orange County district attorney’s office and the state’s Fair Political Practices Committee are investigating Pulido’s relationship with an auto-parts business owner, with whom the mayor swapped real estate.

In the transaction, the mayor exchanged a piece of downtown real estate for a house in Westminster, records show.

Real estate records showed that both pieces of real estate were valued at $200,000. But after the sale was recorded, the Orange County accessor’s officer determined that the Westminster home had an appraised valued of $430,000.

Pulido’s family later sold the house for a $197,000 profit.

Fifteen months later, Pulido and his council colleagues voted to make the auto-parts dealer the sole provider for the city’s fleet of 753 vehicles. The three-year contract was valued at $1.35 million.

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