*Updated, with new info on the bottom…
I will always be a fan of Art Pedroza, the county's original political blogger and the man behind Orange Juice!, because he's living proof that people's political philosophies can change—in Art's case, he went from a homo-hating, MEChA-bashing Republican to a Prop. 8-opposing virtual Aztlanista who tells it like it is, damn public opinion. Nevertheless, Art has an uphill battle in his campaign to wrest the SanTana City Council's Ward Three seat from Busty Bustamante—Busty has far outraised Art (more on Busty's campaign donors super-soon) and has the advantage of his incumbency, as incompetent and plain-pendejo Busty may be.
But hopefully, Busty has committed the error of this political season with a flier he sent out to SanTana declined-to-state voters attacking Pedroza. First off: is Busty that scared of Pedroza—a man with no institutional support—to spend thousands of dollars on a flier attacking what Busty's handlers label a “gadfly”? As much as I love Orange Juice!, the vast majority of SanTana's voters haven't heard of Pedroza or his blog—until now. Busty's flier is really just an advertisement to visit Pedroza's blog—shit, Busty's folks should file their effort as a donation to Pedroza.
Worse than that, though, is the flier itself: a picture of Pedroza buried under nuts with the legend “Is This Nutty [Gustavo's note: “nutty” is in Halloween-squiggly font] Or What?: Political Gadfly Art Pedroza Wants to Get Elected to the Santa Ana City Council.” On the back, Busty N Co. gathered some Pedroza quotes over the years at Orange Juice!—but none of it is damning. So Art once talked about how the California State Constitution was written in Spanish—who cares? And who cares if Pedroza says that Cesar Chavez's illegals-hating ways will never get much publicity? It's true. The other quotes, if you read them carefully, show why the Libertarian Party endorsed Pedroza, which Busty's handlers ridiculously characterized as a party “which seeks to legalize prostitution and hard-core drugs.” HA! Libertarians are much more committed to liberty than the OC GOP, a collection of self-hating gays, hypocrites, and felons—and those are the reputable folks.
It remains to be seen if Pedroza can pull the monumental upset, but one thing is clear: Busty is the stupidest politician this reporter has seen since the days of Harald Martin—and given that Busty works in the Banana Republic, which has spawned Papi Pulido, Nativo Lopez, Claudia Alvarez, and Ted Moreno, that is quite the accomplishment. Good luck, Art—at least this campaign has been as entertaining as the wackiness that passes for political discourse in Irvine!
*UPDATE: Trying to find out all the morons who wasted their money giving Pedroza a free ad for his blog, but one of the people behind it was Matt “Jubal” Cunningham of OC Blog, who openly despises Pedroza. Geez, Matt: You're supposed to be smart when it comes to political consulting. On one hand, I give you credit for being able to convince people to give money. On the other hand, if you're really trying to publicly smack Art, it landed with the equivalent force of a Vlad Guerrero postseason hit.
