Community Lied to by Art Martinez De Vara’s Newspaper

Starting Monday, July 28th, a newspaper called “The Sandy Oaks Chronicle” was handed out to residents of Waterwood and the City of Sandy Oaks.  On page 4 of the newspaper there is a section titled “OFFICE: BOARD OF ALDERMEN” and the second to last sentence reads:

All candidates were invited to participate in this voter’s guide, those who submitted content are listed below.

Of the 8 people running for city council only 5 are presented. The 3 missing are Micki Ball, David Tremblay, and Cathleen Recio. When asked about this, each of these 3 said they were not contacted by anyone about providing any information to The Sandy Oaks Chronicle.

The 5 candidates with platforms in the newspaper are Dale Burmaster, Douglas Tomasini, Earnest Gay, Joel Ortega, and Pedro Orduno. These 5 men are all part of SOPAC: the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee.

Creators of a voter’s guide with missing candidates

Emmanuel Delfin is listed as Editor-in-Chief of The Sandy Oaks Chronicle and just so happens to be the Editor for the Von Ormy Star, a newspaper created by Art Martinez de Vara, mayor of Von Ormy.

Martinez de Vara is the adviser for SOPAC, which is located in Von Ormy. He is also the legal adviser to the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO) that Pedro Orduno and Jim Clement started. He happens to have written the 2 longest articles in The Sandy Oaks Chronicle.

Other than an unnamed “staff writer”, there are only 3 authors listed in the newspaper:
Martinez de Vara – advisor to SOPAC/Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks/ Clement and Orduno
Pedro Orduno – running for city council
Consuelo Orduno – Pedro’s wife

Another connection is the front page article by an unnamed author that has a picture of the Valero with gas at $3.73. This is an exact picture taken from “cityofsandyoaks.info”, a website that Pedro Orduno owns and that Consuelo Orduno mentions in one of the articles she authored.

There are 12 pages to the Sandy Oaks Chronicle.  Advertisements take up more than 2 pages.  SOPAC advertising takes up an entire page and the “Voter’s Guide” of SOPAC-only candidates takes up another 2 pages.  About 30% of the entire “newspaper” content is dedicated to SOPAC and the other 70% is authored by people associated with SOPAC.

Featured Image Courtesy of Walker Report