Claremont Insider: Sam the Man

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Sam the Man


Q: What do you believe in?
A: What do you have?

A Democratic Party representative has been making phone calls to Claremont Democrats to get them to vote for Sam Pedroza. We got to thinking about some of Pedroza's campaign promises--he spoke out at a city council meeting against the Baseline Rd. project, then not long after went to another council meeting to speak out for the same project (there's video of this--look for a post of the flip-flops, coming to YouTube soon). Pedroza's also argued for the Padua Sports Park and has argued at council for putting the sports complex in the gravel pit.

Pedroza's also been trying to appeal to both the Claremont 400 and to the others--people who support McHenry or Nasiali. He's told the non-400 voting public that he's his own man. "I'm not 'Judy's' [Wright's] man," he tells them. He tries to tell the non-400 that he will vote his own way. Yet, his record as a city commissioner is to knuckle under to the 400 every time.

Maybe Pedroza is really Dr. Faustus, the character from the German folktale who sells his soul to the devil for the gifts of power and knowledge. Or maybe Pedroza's more like the Klaus Maria Brandauer character from the 1981 Hungarian movie " Mephisto". Based on a real life person, the Brandauer character who, to continue his acting career, sells himself and his values in pre-World War II Germany. That character has the movie's last lines. Staring into the camera, he says, "What do you want? I'm just an actor...."

Our post from yesterday included a reader letter from a voter who had pretty much the same concerns after attending a Pedroza campaign event. The worry is that Pedroza's a career politician, willing to promise anything to anyone, but standing for little or nothing.

Buyer beware!