Inland Empire Progressive

  Read:   Gary Miller vs. Pete Aguilar: Super PACs Of Realtors, Credit Union Spend Big In California Primary Election Los Angeles and Orange County developers versus Nevada banks. These are two are the so called front runners in the race for the 31st Congressional District of California. No, no the politicians running, they are just surrogates. Proxies in a battle over one thing…houses. One thing we can be sure of, is that if one of these men is elected the local control is lost and the destiny of the Inland Empire will be handed over to outsiders.

Rep. Gary Miller loves to tell folks what he will do in Washington, D.C. But what about here, specifically in the Inland Empire? Our region can be compared to Detroit and Nevada in terms of unemployment and foreclosure rates. Yet you hear nothing from Washington politicians about what to do about this housing crisis. But Rep. Gary Miller knows what he wants to do. Congressman Gary Miller will let Orange County and Los Angeles developers run amok in cities with high foreclosure rates. My city of San Bernardino will be carved up and given away to the outside interests of the Building Industry. His largest supporters are San Bernardino councilmen John Valdivia and John Roberts   Robert Jenkins. These councilmen could care less about local control, seeing as our police force of San Bernardino is consisted largely of folks from different cities and they were big supporters of Mr. Valdivia and Roberts Jenkins. Blight, Crime, and Poverty will all increase under Mr. Miller’s plan fo...

  Vision, Integrity, and Leadership. I have worked with Renea Wickman since the early days of 2008. Back then a no-name novice with a funny name, Barack Obama, went on to become our 44th President. It wasn’t easy, but we did it. Since then Renea Wickman and I have worked hard to build a more Democratic Inland Empire and challenge the one party rule that has led to so much corruption here. We have succeeded in making Inland Empire Democrats know that they are not alone and that they have just as much power to shape our destiny as Republicans do. However, this time the stakes are higher. The Inland Empire is on the precipice of being over run by outside special interests from Orange County and Los Angeles developers by supporters of Gary Miller. At the same time, Nevada banking interests are looking to carve up the Inland Empire by supporters of Mayor Pete Aguilar. Vote for a true voice of Local Control on June 5th. Vote Renea Wickman.

If Pete Aguilar defended his superiors’ engagement in this type of banking activity, imagine what he will do for Wall Street… Loose standards and easy money. That’s the basic premise of what happened  at Arrowhead Credit Union. Larry Sharp, Mayor Pete Aguilar, and others might have used bank funds inappropriately for lobbying and election influence. The housing market was hot in the Inland Empire. But restrictions on how Credit Unions made loans prevented them from lending to non-members. This is why they needed the PAC, for influence. Pete Aguilar as the Vice President of Governmental Affairs at Arrowhead Credit Union, led that effort. However, in the end it did not end well. Arrowhead Credit Union was fined multiple times for faulty record keeping and extremely loose credit standards. This is why one small business owner left. Ineptitude by Arrowhead Credit Union led to the arrest prominent African-American Pastor T. Elliot of Mount Zion Baptist Church. Mr. Elliot sued, but ...

Listen: Election 2012: In Inland Empire, Economic Distress May Drive Voters: The California Report | The California Report *Correction: The 31st is where Rep. Gary Miller is running, not the 35th. From redistricting to Ontario Airport, the talk in political circles is about two words: Local Control. With so much talk about local control, how is it that we, the residents of the Inland Empire, are now in the process of becoming renters to Orange County and LA interests.  Right now foreclosed homes are being auctioned off to outside interests for the highest bet. These outside interests may be thinking that they are helping by providing employment. But what is the cost? Local residents have little to no say in shaping the future of the Inland Empire. The building industry is heavily backing Rep. Gary Miller in the 31st Congressional District race. I wonder if the loss of local control was the price that was paid.