SALINAS UNDER SIEGE: CABALLERO SHAKES DOWN PAC MONEY WHILE HER CITY DESCENDS INTO CHAOS
May 30, 2006

Hollister -- 28^th District Assembly candidate Ignacio Velázquez is accusing Democrat candidate Anna Caballero of “shaking down special-interest PAC money” while her own city of Salinas “descends into chaos.”

Velázquez points to three drive-by shootings over the Memorial Day weekend as “fresh and tragic evidence” that Anna Caballero “cannot and will not stop the gangs in Salinas.  “Anna can point to all the twisted and manipulated statistics she likes, but the headlines tell the story: Salinas under Anna Caballero is a virtual war zone, looking more like Baghdad or Basra than the county seat of Monterey County.” 

“Anna Caballero appears too busy grabbing hundreds of thousands of dollars from shadowy Sacramento political action committees to do anything to end the violence and mayhem on the streets of her city.

Perhaps her background as a criminal defense attorney explains why she has decided to cede control of Salinas’ streets to criminal gangs”, Velázquez commented. “If she can’t stop the killing in Salinas, she needs to step aside and let the community choose a new mayor who will do so.”

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VELAZQUEZ TARGETS DEMOCRATS IN 28^th AD RACE
April 3, 2006

Hollister -- In a strikingly bold and highly unprecedented move, 28^th Assembly District Republican candidate Ignacio Velázquez has released a mailing to 28,000 medium-to-high propensity Democrat households promoting his candidacy for the Assembly and offering himself as an alternative to the two “official" candidates, Anna Caballero and Ana Ventura Phares.

The mailer, announcing a "Democrats for Velázquez" campaign, features a letter to Democrats from Hollister Mayor and San Benito County Marshal Robert Scattini, a lifelong Democrat.  Scattini says Velázquez, regardless of his party registration, "is simply the better choice for Democrats." He claims that neither Caballero nor Ventura-Phares "have demonstrated any competence in dealing with the issues of stopping gangs, providing quality education for our children, improving the local economy to create high-paying jobs, or making housing more affordable for working families."

Velázquez says the purpose of the mailing is to "connect with the thousands of Democrats in the 28^th who are dissatisfied with their choices in the primary and to invite them to rally around my candidacy to return state government to the people." The mailer includes an attached support card for voters who want to be “Democrats for Velázquez.”

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VELAZQUEZ ANNOUNCES MORE ENDORSEMENTS
February 15, 2006

Hollister -- Republican Ignacio Velázquez has announced two new endorsements in the 28^th Assembly District race.

King City Council member Jeff Pereira and former Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ray Belgard have declared their support for the Hollister business owner seeking to replace term-limited Assemblyman Simón Salinas. The 28^th District covers the Salinas Valley, Watsonville, southern Santa Clara County and all of San Benito County.

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VELAZQUEZ PRAISES PERKINS ON WITHDRAWAL
February 10, 2006

Hollister -- 28^th Assembly District Republican candidate Ignacio Velázquez is praising Monterey County Farm Bureau Director Bob Perkins after the latter's announcement that he is withdrawing as a candidate for the GOP nomination in the June 6 primary.

“Bob knows that his expertise and guidance are needed by the agricultural industry in Monterey County. Bob is very dedicated to the preservation and success of that industry and it makes sense that he wants to continue his important work with the Farm Bureau,” Velázquez said.  Velázquez said his campaign is “gaining more momentum each and every day” and released an impressive list of Central Coast leaders who are supporting his candidacy.

“I have endorsements from mayors, council members, county supervisors, and planning commissioners from every county in the District and the list continues to grow. I am convinced that we can unite the Republican Party behind my candidacy and go on to defeat either Democrat in November. This race is totally winnable.”

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VELAZQUEZ BLASTS CABALLERO’S "BLOODY FRIDAY"
February 6, 2006 

Hollister -- 28^th Assembly District candidate Ignacio Velázquez is calling the series of gang attacks which wounded five people in Salinas late Friday night and early Saturday morning as the latest “tragic examples of the inept leadership of Mayor Anna Caballero.”

“Clearly, Anna Caballero has lost control of her city. If she cannot fulfill her primary responsibility of protecting the lives of Salinas’ residents, then she has no business holding the position of mayor, let alone asking the voters to give her a job promotion to the State Assembly,” said the Hollister business owner who is seeking the Republican nomination for the Assembly seat being vacated by Simón Salinas. 

Velázquez said Caballero can participate in “as many town hall meetings and forums as she chooses but the rhetoric does not match the reality. The people of Salinas are being terrorized on a daily basis and her policies are doing nothing to improve the situation. She appears paralyzed and powerless in the face of a concerted drive by gang warlords to seize control of the streets of our District’s largest city.”

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STATEMENT TO THE PRESS ON POLITICAL CORRUPTION
January 17, 2006

"Despite the current bribery and corruption scandal enveloping the nation’s capital,  it must be emphasized that political corruption does not begin and end in Washington, D.C., or in Sacramento for that matter. County and municipal government is often the focal point for unethical political practices that contribute mightily to the overall loss of faith voters have in their elected officials.

We would do well to recall, for example, the bribery and influence-peddling scandal that struck Fresno, California a decade ago, a scandal that took down a number of area politicians. And, last year, we learned of a similar public corruption controversy in San Diego.  I have long believed that the fight for clean government should commence in our local communities where citizens have the opportunity to remove the cancer of corruption before it can metastasize to higher levels of government.

In my own home county of San Benito, I have been outspoken in my opposition to the ethically and legally questionable activities of certain current and former elected and appointed officials who many believe have used their offices to profit personally at the expense of the public. I cite but one example: A then-county supervisor who cleverly exempted his property holdings from the development ban enshrined in the Measure G initiative voted down by San Benito County voters in 2004. Had Measure G passed, this supervisor's property would have mushroomed in value as it would have been the only land available for development in the entire county.

The opposition of citizens throughout San Benito County to these kind of corrupt practices by elected officials has resulted in a climate of fear and intimidation (engineered by the sitting District Attorney) that has gripped local politics. People are afraid to speak out lest they be subjects of retaliation by the District Attorney. The county has wasted approximately $5 million in lawsuits seeking to protect and cover up corrupt activities by former officials and to launch political persecutions and witch hunts against those who dare to speak out.

San Benito County is just a microcosm of a larger problem. I hear from voters all the time that they feel such corruption has reached the corridors of power in their cities and counties. They ask what they can do. I advise them to organize, to speak out, to fight. But, they can’t do it alone. The powerful forces who profit from political office are often too strong to confront. That’s why today I am calling for the formation of a special unit within the California Department of Justice which will assist citizens in efforts to uncover and expose corrupt political practices in their local government.

These practices commonly include influence-peddling, bribery, unholy financial alliances between big developers (and their high-priced land-use attorneys) with the very officeholders entrusted to make critical land use and zoning decisions, as well as the illegitimate use of local law enforcement agencies (such as the District Attorney’s office) to silence and suppress the efforts of local citizens to unearth the truth about these matters. 

Voters' faith and confidence in their elected officials continues to diminish with each passing year. We can only restore that faith by empowering citizens to take back their government at every level, to give them the tools to drive the moneychangers out of the temple and re-establish honesty and integrity as the hallmarks of responsible governance."

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VELAZQUEZ BLASTS "FAILED LEADERSHIP" OF CABALLERO
January 12, 2006

Hollister -- 28^th Assembly District candidate Ignacio Velázquez is pointing to  the closing of Salinas' long-standing McCormick & Co. plant as another example of the "failed leadership" of Mayor Anna Caballero. Velázquez, a Republican, said the closing of the spice company's operations reflects a "hemorrhaging of businesses and jobs in Salinas" under Caballero.

He mentioned the closures of Ready Pac, Smucker's, Tenneco Automotive, Gabilan Manufacturing and Yoder Bros. Nursery within the past year, which have cost Salinas over 1,000 jobs. The Hollister businessman said Caballero's tenure as Mayor of Salinas has been marked by "closed businesses, shuttered libraries, red-ink budgets, higher taxes, skyrocketing housing prices, and gang-infested neighborhoods. That’s hardly a record that justifies a promotion to Sacramento." 

In contrast, Velázquez pointed to his background building successful businesses that create jobs in the community, saying “California needs real people in policy-making positions, people who understand business, economics, and fiscal responsibility, not more professional politicians divorced from reality.”

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VELAZQUEZ ENTERS RACE FOR 28TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT
January 4, 2006

Hollister -- Declaring that voters of the 28th Assembly District deserve an "independent, common-sense approach to fixing our dysfunctional state government."  Hollister business owner Ignacio Velázquez has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the seat being vacated by term-limited Assemblyman Simon Salinas.

Velasquez, 40, owner of the popular "Vault" restaurant in downtown Hollister said the "same old partisan politics in Sacramento" have created a "poisoned atmosphere of distrust and disgust among California voters who have lost almost all faith that government can really solve problems and address their needs."

He said the the recent special election was a "classic example" of "politicians and special interest groups confusing voter," resulting in the defeat of every initiative on the ballot.

Velázquez, who hold a Bachelor's Degree in Global Studies from Cal State University, Monterey Bay and a Masters Degree from Cal State University, Hayward, is one of San Benito County's leading entrepreneurs, having built several successful businesses in the last twenty years.

"I know first hand the road blocks and obstacles state government places in the way of individuals who want a part of the 'American Dream': to buy a home, build a business and raise a family. 

As the Politicians and lobbyists fight their turf in Sacramento, our roads become more congested, our homes less affordable, our water supply more scarce, while our businesses cannot make a profit and out educational system continues to deteriorate.  It's like Nero fiddling while Rome burns."

Velázquez has also taken a leadership role in fighting political corruption in San Benito County, observing that "corruption in government must be rooted out regardless of whether it is in our state capital or our county seat."

Velázquez said the leading Democrat candidates in the race for the 28th district offer "more of the same: liberal, big government solutions to problems which we already know cannot be solved by just spending more money." 

He says he believes it's time to "reconstruct California's government by devolving power and dollars from Sacramento to the cities and counties where the challenges of transportation, education, housing and water can be best managed by our "supervisors and council members, school boards and water boards, parents and business owners - local people coming together to solve local problems in their local communities, not the State Capitol."

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