By: John J.
In my years living in Downey, this has been the most contentious election I have ever seen. I’m very happy to see progressive candidates entering the race looking to disrupt the status quo.
However, in the weeks leading up to the election a mysterious “Downey Leadership Council” has put out dubious and misleading statements on endorsing candidates. So, who are they? There’s not a lot of information out there, but here’s what is available:
Their website is unfinished and aside from a generic paragraph stating it is made up of “everyday citizens, small business owners, and other community stakeholders”. What does this mean? Who is on the council? Who decides who’s on the council? How does one join the council? The website also has a “Events” and “Contribute” tab which is usually an indication of a non-profit organization.
I used GuideStar which is a national Non-Profit Organization directory and found no results for any Downey Leadership Council. The page was created on August 29th, almost two months before our election.
The one thing that stood out to me is the server information. The server is a website called CampaignRep and is listed as hosting 26 domains. Two of those domains belong to Blanca Pacheco and Mario Trujillo. Out of 26 websites this server hosts, two belong to two of the candidates its endorsing.
That seems very strange and it is no shock that this council is endorsing these candidates, but how close is the council to these candidates?
Further, the treasurer for this PAC (Political Action Committee) is also the treasurer for Mario’s individual PAC. Both bank accounts are at the same bank branch.
Coincidentally, the Trujillo campaign slogan, “For a Stronger Downey,” as well as the word “Leadership” are the same as those used on that anonymous page and its logo.
Next, we have their Facebook page. The page was put up almost a week after the Downey Leadership Council website on September 8th. The page has been pretty pedestrian, mostly reposting news from the city and positive stories from our city council and mayor.
However recently they’ve attacked District 5 candidate Juan Martinez and their last post on October 3rd was announcing the Downey Candidate Forum “Winners”. Who did they say won the forum? You guessed it: Blanca Pacheco, Eric Pierce, and Mario Trujillo. As someone who viewed the entire forum, I can tell you that this type of event is not set up to have “winners and losers”
There have also been mailers sent out endorsing the three candidates as an official Democratic Party endorsement when this has not been the case.
I’m not sure who is behind the Downey Leadership Council, but whoever is has launched a very deceptive and dishonest attack on the candidates not named Mario Trujillo, Eric Pierce, or Blanca Pacheco. If I were these candidates, I would immediately denounce any endorsement from this organization. As of this writing the election is in 1 week, I’m hoping something changes soon.
