In a perfect world, we could judge candidates for Stockton City Council solely on their backgrounds, platforms, or records as incumbents and not on their ties to dubious players.
But that’s not the town we live in. Here, there’s a political machine powered by ambition, misinformation, and greed. If the plundering of Stockton Unified is any indication the city is at risk.
After all, the 209 Times misinformation site covered for the Stockton Unified board majority whose bad practices generated two withering Grand Jury reports and an FBI investigation over missing millions. It never called its allies out for removing the guard rails and the fiasco that ensued.
Questionable ties are not the only metrics by which council candidates should be judged, of course. But, unless you live in a dream world, it’s the right place to start, if you want to fight for your city.
Which brings us to the March 5 primary. Last week we noted that the top two finishers in the mayoral race are both supported by the 209 Times (see “misinformation,” above).
The misinformation machine did well for itself in two of three council races, too.
Though let’s start with the good news, District 4.
There, with 97.6% of votes counted, Gina Valdez-Bracamonte is in first with 33.33% of the vote. Mario Enriquez is second with 30.67%.
Two excellent candidates.
Valdez-Bracamonte took $350 and built her nonprofit, Bread of Life, into a multimillion-dollar powerhouse distributing food to poor people facing hunger in the San Joaquin Valley. A real angel.
“I’m running for the people,” she said at a forum. “I did much with Bread of Life. I think that with a larger platform I could do more.”
Mario Enriquez is a skilled leader. He boasts a degree in public administration, worked for the UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, was a National Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has been through leadership programs. He was selected as a Post-Graduate Fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and has lobbying experience at local, state, and federal level. A gay man, he wants to “restore LGBTQ+ representation on the City Council.”
“Stockton has always been my North Star,” he said at the same forum.
Stockton would be well served by either candidate. It’s a shame voters can’t elect both.
In District 2, Mariela Ponce topped the field with 38.26%, Waqar Rizvi was next with 24.51%.
“Mysterious Mariela” skipped all candidate forums. She does no interviews. Though her campaign or supporters have sent out mailers, her legally required disclosure forms report no income or expenditures. Few even know her occupation: health care worker at Community Medical Center.
That she finished ahead of Rizvi appears to be because of support from the 209 Times, its ridiculous hits on Rizvi (I’ll cite an example in a minute), and the mailers.
Those mailers raise legitimate campaign issues. But they bear no “paid for” disclaimer as required by law.
If Ponce wants to quell dark money rumors and avoid complaints to the FPPC—to say nothing of obliging voters with the transparency they deserve—she must fill out her legally required campaign paperwork and reveal her donors, campaign managers, and financial interests.
What voters should be able to screen out, if they so choose, is another Michele Padilla. Padilla is a stooge for the worst elements in city politics. She recently nominated—guess who?—209 Times founder Motecuzoma Sanchez to the Planning Commission.
Her motion died at council March 19 for lack of a second. Even Mayor Kevin Lincoln, who is a candidate for Congress, did not second a motion to appoint the toxic Sanchez.
But Padilla’s nomination is exactly how the machine works. It is how all City Hall will work if the machine wins a council majority. Your needs won’t matter. Only their appetites.
Rizvi, a planning commissioner and a county employee is, by all accounts, a smart, civic-minded man running for the right reasons.
The 209 Times launched one of the lamest attacks imaginable on him: that his racist white backers forbade him to use his real first name, Muhammad, fearing voter Islamophobia, and Rizvi caved to this cultural affront.
Unlike Rizvi’s backers, “We stand with our middle eastern and Muslim members of our community,” the 209 Times wrote.
Oh, bullshit. Rizvi goes by his middle name because his brother’s first name is Muhammad, too. Their parents gave them different middle names, but Rizvi goes by Waqar to avoid confusion.
It’s worth noting that Motecuzoma Sanchez was born Patrick Powell. By the 209 Times’ logic, his legal name change makes him a sellout to his European heritage.
Also in District 2, former Mayor Anthony Silva, attempting a comeback, appears to have finished just short of the top two with 22.29%.
Finally, District 6.
Entertainment businessman Jason Lee Johnson, who goes by Jason Lee, surpassed incumbent council member Kimberly Warmsley 41.58% to 30.82%.
Vice-mayor Warmsley is a former Planning Commissioner. A well-educated Stockton native, she has worked to get health, equity, and economic development into south Stockton.
Jason Lee, a local-boy-makes-good story, founded Hollywood Unlocked, a gossip and news website, after leaving Stockton. He hosts the podcast “Hollywood Unlocked with Jason Lee” and the television series “The Jason Lee Show.” He’s starred on reality TV. He once worked as Head of Media and Partnerships for Ye, a.k.a. Kanye West.
Lee’s Tinsel Town knowledge, however, does not translate to Stockton government savvy. On his first foray in 2023 he ran into a buzzsaw. Mayor Kevin Lincoln and he foolishly tried to get around the municipal appropriations process and basically just hand Lee $2 million (later, other sums) of public money for a nebulous youth program.
Lee evidently expected special treatment. That showed a worrisome disrespect for the process. But instead of being instantly admitted through the velvet ropes and into the V.I.P. lounge, his bid was diverted into the regular channels, found glaringly inadequate by city staff, and he got no funds.
The day after the fateful money-denying council vote, Lee posted that he had met with Motecuzoma Sanchez. So there you go.
Lee did answer the basic question—Why walk out on a supposed $50 million empire and the glitz of Hollywood to run for council in Stockton?—when asked by a Sacramento publication.
“After looking for people whose campaign I could help finance and really support, I didn’t find anyone who wanted to do it,” he told The Observer. “So I decided to step up and be that person.”
But he has not answered questions about records which appear to show him delinquent on his taxes. Or about all the lawsuits he’s been involved in. Or about his real city of residence (his records give conflicting information, though the City Clerk ratified him as a Stockton resident). Or about some of the raw sexual things he has said when the cameras are rolling.
Lee should quit basking in puff-piece journalism, or writing his own flattering narrative, and answer serious questions.
Far outspending his rivals, Lee has pumped $74,000 of his own money into his campaign, according to reports filed through Feb. 23. The bulk of an additional $43,000 came, unusually, from Southern California and out of state, not from Stockton.
Lee also brings star power to his race. He showed up to an NAACP forum with actress-comedian Tiffany Haddish. He may bring around more celebs. That’s a new twist.
Lee may be the well-intentioned homeboy he claims to be, here to make a difference. But he merits scrutiny. Not everyone from La-La Land is who they appear to be.
Michael Fitzgerald’s column runs on Wednesdays. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email: mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com.
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