Pedroza Pulls Papers for Ward 3 in Santa Ana

We received this press release this morning.  At the risk of being accused of regurgitation press releases by an Orange Juice Blogger, here you go.

SANTA ANA – Art Pedroza, the editor of Orange County’s first political blog, pulled campaign papers today to challenge incumbent Carlos Bustamante for the Santa Ana City Council seat in Ward 3. He founded the Orange Juice Blog in 2003, which now has a dozen writers. His popular political site averages almost 900 visits per day and won OC Weekly’s Best Blog of 2007 Award. It celebrated its fifth anniversary this July, and has surpassed 1.2 million page views.

Pedroza graduated summa cum laude from the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. He also has an MBA from the Keller Graduate University of Management and is a Don Bosco Technical Institute graduate.Pedroza is currently an adjunct instructor at Cerritos College, where he has taught since 2003. He is a member of the American Federation of Teachers, Local Number 6251.

Pedroza is the President Elect for the Orange County Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers. He is also an active member of the National Safety Council and both the American Bio Recovery Association and the Association of Professionals in Infection Control.

Pedroza’s opponent, Carlos Bustamante, recently resigned from two state commissions after Orange Juice and other local blogs reported that he had been caught making a pejorative but sexist remark about new Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and urged State Senators to vote against his appointment. Bustamante infamously suggested to Santa Ana Police Chief Walters that he perhaps should have ‘had boobs’ or ‘worn a water-bra’ to curry favor with County Supervisors after Hutchens, OC’s first female Sheriff, was selected to replace indicted former Sheriff Mike Carona.

Pedroza has previously served honorably on two Santa Ana City Commissions: the Santa Ana Public Library Board and the Housing and Redevelopment Commission. Pedroza is also a graduate of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program and has completed the Pew Foundation’s Civic Entrepreneur Initiative. He is a member of the Santa Ana CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Team, which is affiliated with both the Santa Ana Police Department and the Santa Ana Fire Department. He is a former president of Santa Ana Neighborhood Housing Services and has served two terms on the Communications Linkages Board, overseeing the City’s neighborhood associations. He has been active in both the Artesia-Pilar Neighborhood Association and the Park Santiago Neighborhood Association.

Pedroza has been a constant critic of the current Santa Ana City Council. He opposed Measure D which extended City Council terms, as well as Measure G which rewarded the inept SAUSD board by appropriating them additional funds. He also opposed the two water rate increases that the City Council passed in the past ten months and has repeatedly criticized City Administrators for the lack of public libraries in such a large city.

Pedroza resides in the Park Santiago neighborhood of Santa Ana with his wife of 21 years, Camille, and his four children. Pedroza’s campaign website is available at http://artpedroza.com/.

Good Luck Art. Remember, campaigns are not won or lost by keyboards. And one final note. In the world of blogs ang bloggesr, sonetimes fiction becomes fact. Sovern, for ther record. We had the story here first on January 3, 2008. Eventhough at that time the story was satire and not fact.