[ESPAÑOL]

By Arturo Castañares
Publisher

Electing someone to represent us on the County Board of Supervisors is a serious decision and we need to have trust in that person, but Paloma Aguirre has now been caught lying about her opponent twice in as many weeks. 

As uncomfortable as that may be to hear, the current Mayor of Imperial Beach made it very easy to disprove her own comments she made recently online about her opponent, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann.

Aguirre and McCann are running against each other in a July 1st Special Election to replace Supervisor Nora Vargas who resigned in January.

Last week, Aguirre falsely attacked McCann as having been part of a wide-ranging corruption scandal in 2010 involving local school officials but McCann hadn't even been elected to that school board when the criminal activity took place. 

A San Diego Union-Tribune article from the time clearly stated that McCann was “the only one of five trustees not involved in a wide-ranging South County corruption case.” 

La Prensa San Diego published an article last week about Aguirre’s false attack yet she didn’t even bother retracting her comments. She just kept plugging away at her smear campaign and made it even worse this week. 

On Wednesday, Aguirre claimed McCann made money from a condo project he voted to approve in 2018 as a member of the Chula Vista City Council. 

“John McCann promoted the Amara Bay development as Mayor. Then his company got caught selling the same condos he voted to approve,” Aguirre claimed on her own social media account this week. 

The problem with Aguirre’s claim is that the Amara Bay project isn’t even built yet and McCann’s family real estate business has no financial ties to the future project. Period. 

Aguirre knows the project isn't built yet so she either blatantly lied about her opponent or she is so out of touch that she is disqualified from serving in public office. 

Not everything is fair in love and politics.

Making yourself seem like the best candidate is fair, but lying about your opponent isn’t and it shouldn’t be tolerated by the public. 

When Aguirre lied about McCann’s involvement in the school corruption scandal, current school board member Rudy Lopez Jr. blasted her online saying “you wouldn't have to go negative if you hadn't run out of positive things to say about yourself.”

Lopez is right!

If Aguirre has run out of positive things to say about herself she shouldn’t simply resort to making up lies about her opponent in a desperate attempt to win an election. 

The public deserves a better campaign than that.

McCann has served on the Chula Vista City Council for 20 years; 16 as a Councilman and the last two years as Mayor. 

Aguirre served four years as an Imperial Beach City Councilmember and the last two as Mayor. 

We would expect a sitting Mayor to have more control, dignity, and honesty than to simply make up lies about her opponent —especially lies that are so easy to disprove. 

When we can't trust our elected leaders to tell us the truth about small things how can we trust them on the big things?

Paloma Aguirre owes John McCann an apology for defaming him and she owes the voters a retraction of her social media comments. 

South Bay voters should know the truth about the candidates in this race as they deliberate on which one deserves to represent us on the County Board of Supervisors. 

Aguirre has damaged her own credibility by trying to ruin her opponent's. 

Time will tell if voters hold it against her in the election or let it slide as just another politician trying to get ahead.