After Election 2016, California Republicans were
discouraged.
We have gotten dispersed, set aside if you will.
Can Republicans in blue states make a difference? Is it a
lost cause?
California Republicans will turn into the Hawaii GOP or the
Rhode Island GOP if we don’t take drastic measures. Not going with the flow,
but standing against the current is the only way. I had written in a previous
piece about the need for audacity. If Republicans stop being weak-kneed, but
articulate a clear message with fighting spirit, then they can win anywhere.
I found one audacious Republican, and in the most unlikely of
places: Jack Guerrero, councilman for the city of Cudahy. This little-known working-class
community he represents is one square mile, but how it manages to contain so
much drama is beyond me.
Another Southeast city much like Bell, Cudahy has become embroiled
in numerous scandals. As recently as 2011, one councilman voted to change a
city ordinance and allow a shorter turnaround time for city councilmembers to
take on another civil service positions. Within days, Perez became the highly
paid city manager. And he managed the city like a mafia boss.
Commissioners who did not vote his way, whether on planning
or public safety, would get a pink slip in the mail. One commissioner drove to
city hall, confronted him with the discharge notice, then ripped it up in his
face. Other residents complained about the incessant roadblocks to construction
on their property or businesses. Unless you knew a guy, your project was going
nowhere. That’s corruption at its core.
In 2012-2013, two of Cudahy’s city councilmembers were
tried, arrested, and convicted on bribery and public corruption charges. Then
three young politicos ran for city council in 2013 and won. They were the
reformers: Chris Garcia, Baru Sanchez, and Jack Guerrero. Guerrero was the lone
Republican, and attack mailers smeared him with a stereotyped black
“Republican” stamp on his pictured forehead. The smear failed, and he won. In a
matter of months though, his two reform colleagues would cave and join the corrupt
dark side of Cudahy politics.
The same corruption game has played out for the last four
years. Garcia had run on a platform against corruption. Today, he takes big
campaign money from private vendors and friends, who in turn receive lavish, extravagant
contracts. Add to that an embarrassingly high salary and insurance package for
the current city manager Jose Pulido, who himself has been fired from Temple
City (and
after receiving a $10,000 bonus!).
Cudahy contracts now include evergreen clauses, meaning that
any agreement receives automatic renewal unless the city council acts to delay
or end renewal. Shouldn’t city services require vetting from term to term? Not
in Cudahy, according to the corrupt city council majority.
For the past four years, Guerrero has been the lone voice
exposing this rampant fiscal mismanagement and pay-for-play among his corrupt colleagues.
While most councilmen strive for comity and congeniality at all costs, Guerrero
routinely challenges the lies, distortions, and misstatements of his peers.
After all, elected officials serve their constituents. Their goal is not to
arbitrarily get along with the other councilmembers and play nice.
That’s the kind of audacity we need to see in our local and
state governments.
And it’s not as though Cudahy’s mismanagement and Guerrero’s
exposure has fallen on deaf ears. The
California state controller issued a scathing report against this little
city for its massive financial woes. Internal controls to minimize budgetary
waste and fraud have failed miserably. This indictment hit the evening news! To
make matters worse, the near-bankrupt municipality was order to pay back
millions of dollars that the city coffers simply could not cough up. Instead of
fixing the problem, Chris Garcia and his corrupt crew have routinely silenced
dissent in city council chambers, from Guerrero as well as concerned citizens,
many of whom had supported Garcia and company before.
But how did I get started in Cudahy? I had arrived to
protest the sanctuary city, a cynical ploy by Garcia to buy influence and cover
up for their misdeeds. He got a little positive press for the move, but nothing
more.
At our first meeting there, We the People Rising called out
the corruption they visited on their working class residents. We tackled the
sanctuary city issue briefly. Eventually, other members of the community rose
up and shouted down the city council. Chris Garcia fled the
chambers (but not before mocking me, claiming that my zipper was open).
We filed formal complaints against the city for violating
our freedom of speech. The
Los Angeles County District Attorney agreed with us! Another win for basic
freedoms against corruption. A second time, Garcia criticized his opponents as
“white supremacists—even though our team includes Hispanic and African-Americans members.
Fox News picked
up on that offensive rant.
These little Cudahy councilmembers are incompetent entitled children,
yet they have advertised themselves as the new and vibrant future of a
struggling working-class community that is 99% Latino. Now they are merely exposing
themselves as the same old corrupt cabal, but this time with only baby faces.
But Guerrero is not afraid to fight back. He fights against
corruption. He fights for the rule of law. And he is not afraid to tell his
constituents that he is a Republican, even though the city is 88% Democratic.
His opponents used every dirty trick in the book to shut
down his re-election chances. They played the Trump card very hard throughout
the three months election cycle. Jack’s supporters have worried that his
Republican credentials would drag down his chances. On election night, Guerrero
was the top vote getter.
That’s right!
In the bluest city of the bluest county in one of the bluest
states in the union, a conservative Republican, outspoken about his mission of
service, won! If that’s not audacious, I don’t know what it.
Republicans have no excuse. It’s time to put up and fight—and
win!
