Election 2009 - 19 Days And Counting - I Know Something You Don't Know
by
Robert Stanford

The Modesto Bee said that the Modesto City Council race for District 4 has been a "lively campaign". Somehow I get the feeling that I was not necessarily included in that statement.

The Bee indicated that this is actually a race between my two opponents - Perine and Muratore. In their latest piece, the Bee caressed the hand that feeds them and endorsed Joe Muratore (You know - the Robber Baron of the Petrulakis, Madison and Zagaris - PMZ machine).

They made sure to take the extra effort to do everything they could to make me look like a fringe idiot, knowing nothing about the Modesto City Council or what it's primary functions are and dismissed my candidacy as anything but "credible".

Yesterday, I spoke on the phone with a Bee reporter for an upcoming story in the Modesto Bee and she asked if I agreed with her that the piece about me was "good".

I told her that for the Modesto Bee to label me as a "self described" activist, was not only the second time this title has been used, but was a complete dismissal of years of work I have performed on behalf of the community. She disagreed that the label "self described" was negative, until I pointed out that the context in which it was used was to substantiate that I was not even a credible candidate.

Maybe if they had not completely excluded me from so many stories over the years, I would have a bit more credibility as something more than just a "self-described activist". When before, I would have attributed this misnomer to being misunderstood, I know attribute it to being a threat - on a very small scale, mind you.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky they did not make me headline news and do to me something similar to what they did to Riverbank mayoral candidate Dave White. It seemed to many that the Modesto Bee was really scraping the bottom of the barrel for a headline story and leaving many of us wondering what White had done to them to make them so vigilant in their unethical journalistic public flogging.

And not that I am one to stick up for one of my opponents, however, saying that Jeff Perine would be tempted to cede to the Modesto Police Officer's Association (MPOA) was a bit of a stretch in my opinion. Why? Because his family are police officers and he won the MPOA endorsement? So suddenly that makes him a credible candidate (unlike myself) but not as good as Muratore? Weak. Perine does not strike me as a weak individual. I thought he deserved better than that. Even though, he too, fed from the developer's contribution feed bag.

Of course why would the Modesto Bee turn their backs on what is perhaps the only business entity in Modesto that even allows for us to still have a fledgling paper in the first place? The most successful business in the city - PMZ and respectively Petrulakis, Madison and Zagaris (PMZ again).

Of course one would not want to make enemies of the shadow government acronym - PMZ - Petrulakis, Madison and Zagaris.

Maybe that's what Riverbank mayoral candidate Dave White did. We certainly were warned by Petrulakis himself that he would have a hand in the destruction of people's reputations. Since I am not a "credible candidate" I am not a threat. Not in the minds of those that think they are so knowledgeable about local politics, but have been unable to make the shift from city wide elections to district elections when examining and offering to the public their expertise on watching the Modesto City Council races as though they were cock fights.

For the greatest part of the campaign the Modesto Bee did not take any interest in issues whatsoever. It was all about endorsements, raising money, planting signs and getting the message out. They asked the candidates what their strategies were on an ongoing basis. I was not willing to disclose so much. Why would I want to disclose my strategies?

Of course the price for non-disclosure is dismissal. If you do not say what you are doing then it must be because you are doing nothing. And of course that is how the Modesto Bee sums up my career as an activist - nothing more than a reference to myself.

In all of the detailed and suspense filled stories the Modesto Bee has done on the actual campaign itself at the expense of detailing the issues, they have invariably failed to bring to light the realities of this council race. Not just in my district, but in others.

Joe Cataline is running against incumbent Kristen Olsen for district 5. For many of the voters in district 5 and beyond, Ms. Olsen represents all the council housekeeping responsibilities as would be attributed to the "Princess And the Pea". Perhaps this is part of the reason we call her the "Shopping Cart Princess". After all, grant money solves everything, right?

I consider Joe Cataline as one of the three that need to win this election to literally save our city from the brink of disaster caused by unrelented greed of our current city council members and those they themselves wish to recruit to maintain the precedence of the Old Guard. Those three are respectively, Myself (Robert Stanford) Al Nava, and Joe Cataline.

Visiting with Mr. Cataline over breakfast the other day, he recounted to me the most fascinating event that confirmed for me, much of what I have heard over the past couple of years regarding Kristen Olsen and her puppet master middle man and husband - Rod Olsen.

Mr. Cataline was walking his precincts with his father and they just happened to run into both Kristen Olsen and her puppet master middle man and husban - Rod Olsen. Low and behold, clenched in Mr. Olsen's hand were several of Mr. Cataline's walking pieces. Both himself and Kristen Olsen had been following Mr. Cataline and picking up the brochures he had been painstakingly leaving on the doors of voters in that district. Perhaps rather than stooping to such petty and shameful tactics, the Shopping Cart Princess might want to consider walking her precincts more than just on the weekends. But why do that, when your old man can bully out a win for you?

When I was walking just yesterday, I happened to run into one of my constituents on his daily walk and walked with him for a while. He said that Joe Muratore had "showed up at his house again". He said Muratore was upset. That Muratore said to him, "I see you have Stanford's sign in your yard, but I wanted to come to your door anyway."

My loyal voter told Muratore that he read in the Bee where I called Joe Muratore a "shill" for a development machine that had destroyed Modesto. Muratore rebuked my claim and said that all of his contributions had come in one hundred dollars increments from individuals and that he had taken not one penny from developers. Well, that of course is not true - his 460's are online at modbee.com and show that Muratore, once again, is lying.

In the La Loma neighborhood, the voters there had the typical concerns - slow growth and crime. But what's more, they were concerned about Joe Muratore's approach to solving the homeless "problem".

It sounded to me like he had been coached by the La Loma Gustapo maker himself, Mike Moridian. The things that I heard from these people, unless Muratore's name had been mentioned, sounded to me exactly like what Mike Moridian would say and what I have heard him say countless times to the members o the La Loma neighborhood association. "Get rid of them" and "Make them someone else's problem".

Muratore said that he intended to shut down all social services for the homeless. That in this way the problem would be solved, because without services they would "become someone else's problem". Don't forget, this is coming from a guy that sits on the Salvation Army Red Shield Committee. One of the feathers in a cap that leads to "strong civic involvement". Kind of like a picture of Muratore planting a tree north of Yosemite and then calling it the "Airport Neighborhood." I'm real bad with directions too, but I don't believe that brings into question my credibility as a Modesto City Council candidate. Nor does it his. He is obviously more than qualified. But I guess he doesn't think so.

Mike Zagaris use to be prominently listed on Joe Muratore's website as one of his endorsements. That was, of course until on a local radio show he was called out for it. During that same show, Muratore called in to say that it was a mistake. It was not him that had the endorsement, it was Jeff Perine that was endorsed by Mike Zagaris.

And poof - the endorsement listing on the website was gone. Who can blame him? After all, who would want the most powerful man in Modesto endorsing their campaign? Not me.

Bob Schmal died a couple of weeks ago now. In that time, Muratore has had print jobs run for a mass mailing of the District and Bob Schmal is still listed as an endorsement for "Joe". It makes me wonder - now that Bob Schmal knows what's really going on, do you think Muratore will still be getting any financing from Mr. Schmal? Muratore is so talented he will probably be able to extract it from Mr. Schmal's estate. I am sure Petrulakis would have no problem in drawing up the necessary paperwork for Mr. Schmal's estate to make a contribution to further the cause of the prospective overlord's campaign.

Now I don't feel so sad that the actual last conversation that I had with Mr. Schmal was at a United Way board meeting in which I accused him of being too possessive with his contacts in the National Weed and Seed program. Of course to do this, I had to interrupt his litany of mentionable lunch dates with the Sheriff, Chief of police and other notable notables of the community that had absolutely nothing to do with the topics at hand other than the great Bob Schmal was there.

In this flyer, Joe drew out a map of the respective district 4. On this map there was a picture attributed to the Modesto Airport District with a quote and endorsement from the past president of the now defunct Airport Neighbor's United. An organization that went through the same non-accountability problems as our local YMCA but just not on the same scale. With that being said, I really don't think it would have mattered to her that Muratore had mentioned twice that he would be open to eliminating the Modesto Airport District as a whole, or that he publicly referred to this individual and her neighbors who actually live there as "those people on the other side of the tracks".

I have had to work many times harder than my opponents. They have specified targeted lists. So do I, however, mine encompass much more than just those that have voted the last three elections - they are much more comprehensive and take other factors into account other than just merely being able to vote.

While Joe Muratore makes no effort to correct the public's assumption that he is related to a previous council member by the same name of Muratore, I too have made no effort to educate the public that my name has no connection with the University. Of course most of the public do not think that in my case, and it makes for an honest device to use the Stanford University fonts and colors on my campaign material. Makes up for the lack of a "Harvard" degree, extension or otherwise.

I speak Spanish. This is very effective when I speak with Latino voters.

I am slow growth. This is very effective when I speak with the majority of voters that have watched Modesto pave into hell.

I am honest and sincere. This is very effective to everyone I talk to.

And I know something you don't know.