County Supervisor Neil Derry left. Tribal Member James Ramos right.
BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com
Published: 06 June 2012 07:03 PM
Get ready for the sequel.
San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry and former San Manuel tribal chairman James Ramos will face each other again in November.
Their primary race was the most bitter and expensive of the county contests decided Tuesday, June 5.
Ramos, 45, a San Bernardino community college trustee, won about 47 percent of the vote, a few points short of the majority he needed to avoid a November runoff.
Derry, 43, got about 33 percent. Former Twentynine Palms Mayor Jim Bagley, 56, who was vastly outspent by Ramos and Derry, got 20 percent of the vote.
Ramos said the momentum is on his side.
“You have about 67 percent of the voters say they really do want a change other than the incumbent that’s there,” he said.
Derry on Wednesday said that he was taking a few days off from the campaign and declined to comment.
“I’m not doing interviews about the campaign,” he said.
The race was an increasingly negative one in which voters were blanketed with campaign mailers from Derry and Ramos attacking one other.
Derry called Ramos a tax cheat, sought to link him to a 2007 gang investigation at the San Manuel reservation and questioned whether as a member of the tribe he could truly represent county residents.
Ramos accused Derry of wanting to divide the community by injecting race into the campaign and attempting to make it partisan by highlighting Ramos’ Democratic affiliation.
He said his support on election night shows that voters are past those issues and want to “end this negative image that San Bernardino County has been plagued with.”
Ramos painted Derry as part of the county’s “chain of corruption,” reminding voters that Derry pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor campaign-finance violation. One mailer included jail mug shots of former county officials arrested on corruption charges, including Derry’s former chief of staff, Jim Erwin.
Ramos said he had to respond to Derry’s “drastically negative” campaign but only exposed “things that were factual and true.”
Derry has acknowledged that he went after Ramos first, scoffing at Ramos’ claim that he wanted a positive campaign.
He called the charges against him bogus, meant to hurt him politically and said it was legitimate to question whether Ramos is exempt from some taxes as a tribal member.
The campaign got strikingly personal at times. Last week, Derry accused Ramos of being caught taking down a campaign sign after he saw Ramos standing by the side of the road in Highland speaking to a sheriff’s deputy. Derry stopped to take a photo and the picture was posted on a website run by Erwin.
But the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Ramos had stopped to fix one of his own signs and the deputy, who knew him, had just stopped to say hello.
Derry said Tuesday night that he believed he ran a good campaign but was outspent by his rival.
To read entire story, click here.
It is a shame that we have to endure more months of “mud slinging”, initiated by Supervisor Derry. November, 2012 will bring a breathe of fresh air as JAMES RAMOS will win as THIRD DISTRICT COUNTRY SUPERVISOR FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO.
Marcus
Well said.
Derry and Irwin are nuts.
They don’t have a prayer in Nov. Most smart observers saw that last fall.
Derry’s few racists friends won’t get him elected ever again in this county.
Marcus,
You are right in using the term Third District “Country” Supervisor.
November isn’t quite in the bag for Ramos and I don’t think he believes it is.
He would be naive to think that.
Two candidate races are a different animal, and Derry and James are in a runoff.
James spent nearly a million dollars and didn’t win outright.
There will be three times as many voters in Novemebr than in June.
The (Ramos) campaign wanted to win this in June for reasons not publicly known.
Some events are likely to transpire soon that will affect one of Ramos’ main supporters.
But not James. He was being used.
It will likely have an affect on the runoff.
Like I said, James had nothing to do with what happened. But it was done to give him an edge. And it did.
I would expect a totally different campaign and a much more money spent by both sides.
Right on Country, Wrong on result:
Please tell us what will be happening.
Please tell us what was done to give Ramos an edge.
If you can’t do this now, it will look like you are just telling stories, lying if you will, just starting gossip and rumors trying to slime Ramos.
I still don’t understand how the lower income folks of the third district could possibly think that a rich casino boss who pays no taxes could possibly have their best interests at heart.
I’m with you that. In 4 years we will see how truly dirty Casino Boss Ramos is.
Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock:
Nothing elitist about you.
But more to the point, if we were able to get rid of the corrupt politicians in the third district maybe the “lower income folk” could do better.
Maybe they could do well enough to be a snob like you!
Repairman:
Regarding Comment #7 and getting rid of the “corrupt politicians,” I’m with you all the way.
Let’s start with District Attorney Mike Ramos, whose prosecution of Neil Derry was textbook selective and politically motivated prosecution, and whose prosecution of Jeff Burum and The Colonies was textbook grandstanding and vindictiveness.
According to the article, “Derry has acknowledged that he went after Ramos first.”
I would be VERY surprised if Neil Derry actually said that, since James Ramos clearly acted first when his “associate” Mike Ramos filed the silly felony charges against Neil Derry.
Derry had a lot of serious issues he needed TO POINT OUT TO US VOTERS THAT WERE ON THE TABLE REGARDING JAMES RAMOS STATUS AS A “NATIVE INDIAN”.. .THAT IS NOT GOING AFTER ANYONE…
…THAT JAMES RAMOS IS A WHINING BABY AND SCREECHES “RACISM! RACISM!” SIMPLY BECAUSE DERRY POINTS OUTS THAT RAMOS LIVES IN A RESERVATION,
A FACT
AND WAS THE CHIEF & HEAD OF THAT “NATION” UP UNTIL THIS APRIL- BECAUSE IT HURT HIS CAMPAIGN SO MUCH HE QUIT AS CHIEF…IF THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT WHY DID HE STEP DOWN IN A HEART BEAT???
A FACT
…STATING THE DANGERS OF ELECTING A MAN WHO IS NOT LEGALLY BOUND TO FOLLOW THE LAW OR REGULATIONS THAT HE WILL PASS AND IMPOSE ON THE THIRD DISTRICT CITIZENS IS A TRUE DANGER AND DERRY HAS THE RESPONSIBILITY TO EDUCATE US AND WARN US ON THAT BEFORE WE CAST OUR NEXT VOTE…dERRY HAS FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE!
INFORMING IS NOT RACISM…GOT THAT RAMOS????????
The opinions of you Derry supporters carry no weight what soever! None of you gave a prediction that was even remotely close. Your efforts to try and belittle Mr Ramos victory or explain it away are tantamount to sour grapes and poor sportsmanship. Have a little dignity about yourselves and realize that times are changing and if you do not keep up you will be nothing more than a useless relic of a bygone political age.
Neil needs to face the facts that the Bagley voters won’t come to him. They voted against him ! Come November the voters will be focused and Ramos campaign was well run and getting better. Derry’s was flailing and trying to paint Ramos as a corrupt casino boss. It fell flat on its face and the voters saw through it.
All Ramos has to do is mail that one piece “you be the Jury” and its over for Neil. Neil’s taking a few days off to talk to his money people and see if they are stupid enough to sink more money into his failing campaign. Remember, Neil has no employable skills and this was the best job he’s ever had. Neil is the absolute poster child for the Peter Principle.
Erwin’s influence in Derry’s campaign was evident and disastrous.
Neil needs to throw in the towel, resign and face the facts that he can’t win. Bagley will endorse Ramos eventually. Even if he doesn’t Ramos wins.
Dean….the fact that the paper reported low voter turn out coupled with the mythical idea that Republicans vote religiously can only lead to the conclusion that either Republicans voted for Ramos or many of them felt disenfranchised by Derry and they stayed home. Even if Bagely refused to endorse Ramos, Ramos only needs a small portion of those voters to win. It is not realistic to think 100% of Bagley’s votes would go to Derry based on the theory of Derry being a fellow Republican…..Your assessment of Derry’s situation is spot on. Derry should resign. I doubt he will find any financial backing other than colonies and he will spend the next five months slinging mud and making things worse for himself.
While Derry may not have run a great campaign, Ramos ran a deceptive one. He disguised himself in his mailers as a Republican with his Elephant logo and Republican endorsements. I spoke with some who thought he was a Republican because of those mailers. I would be curious to know how many others were deceived by those mailers.
Dean:
Neil Derry worked for the Southern California Edison Company, a firm not known for hiring people without “employable skills.”
Any business success James Ramos has experienced is 100% the result of being able to run a gambling monopoly. Even so, didn’t 2 of his businesses fail?
#12
how true…I had to set many co workers and family members straight about that…and they were offended by Ramos deceptive tactics!
Imagine that, uninformed Republicans. HA HA HA. What a joke. Let me do you all a favor.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/california-reaming-why-the-golden-state-booted-the-gop-and-other-states-will-too-20120604?link=mostpopular5
Because so many of you can’t figure out what happened Tuesday night, read the article attached to the above link. After doing so, contemplate what that information means and how it applies to the IE. If you can’t figure out what went wrong for derry after reading the article then Derry doesn’t belong in politics and the rest of you should leave the country.
If Ramos is willing to deceive voters about his political affiliation, how else will he deceive us if he gets elected? How a candidate campaigns says a lot about his character.
#17, I have no real facts about how many Republicans were actually deceived or misinformed by Ramos’ mailers. I just mentioned a couple that I met who were questioning whether he was a Republican after seeing the mailer knowing Ramos’ positions. I just wonder if Ramos would have received as many votes that he did had he not used Republican icons. Anonymous #16 pointed out people’s reaction after finding out about the deception. I predict the same reaction when people find out what a fraud he really is.
As for the Rolling Stones article, take an honest look at CA’s economy. Are we really better off with Democrats and moderates in charge? We’ll talk again in Nov.
Also, why should I leave the country just because I disagree with you?
I think Was Ramos Deceptive? #19 shows the problem with a lot of the G.O.P. voters. They are willing to vote for anyone that is a Republican no matter who it is, corrupt, on probation it doesn’t matter. Stay the course, vote conservative, as the fat boy say’s.
I don’t deny that people vote along partisan lines; both Dems and Reps do as well as other political party members. Each party stands for some general principles. Joining a particular party means that you also agree with those general principles. When a candidate runs as a Dem or Rep, we expect that they also hold to the general principles of that party. I realize that is not always the case, which is why voters have to do their homework on candidates.
My question is about Ramos: why did Ramos think he had to deceive people into thinking he was a Republican when he was not?
Was Ramos Deceptive……This is really a non issue. Do you recall when Postmus ran for assessor? Williamson took him to court because Postmus campaign signs read simply: Postmus Assesor….That simple. Williamson argued that the signs were misleading because he was the incumbent assessor and the signs made people think Postmus was. The judge ruled for Postmus…..People need to do their homework. With as nasty as the campaign got, I highly doubt that anyone didn’t know that in fact Mr Ramos was a Democrat. That is even more so for Republican voters who always vote religiously and according to party dictates. Now if you still believe otherwise then it is proof of a fragmenting and weakening Republican party.
Was Ramos Deceptive….As to my telling you to leave the country, I only meant it in a way to jolt you to consider what the article is saying. I know you have every right to be here and have your own opinion. The article isn’t bashing the GOP, The article is warning the GOP. You are right about the status of California and truth be told, I have no interest in living in a country that is absent a GOP. I see the needed qualities that are lacking in the Democratic party are found in the GOP and also what is lacking in the GOP is found in the Democratic party. The problem is that the GOP is not keeping pace with the demographics of America and they are alienating potential supporters. Change is inevitable, there is just no way around it. The wonderful era of yesterday is gone and there is no return to it. If the Democrats are the stewards of American civil rights then it can be argued that the Republicans are definitely the stewards of American heritage. There is no need for these two to be at odds. However, the GOP need to embrace instead alienate the variety of people that are here. If not, like the article points out, they will face a generation in the wilderness.
#15- Derry would not be hired back by SCE managers who he worked for and with. When you mention his name they just shake their heads. Neil’s a nice guy but he doesn’t bring much to the workplace. SCE admittedly made a mistake when they didn’t check Derry out prior to their hiring of him. Being government relations representative is a not a high level job. Pete Aguliar was one with Arrowhead Credit Union and he was terrible. I had personal dealings with him and he never followed through with anything. A total waste of time. In talking to an SCE regional manager he said the same thing about Derry. He did say Neil was very good about charging every meal he could to SCE though!
Dean…Would SCE hire a person on probation?
#22 Careful. You just compared Ramos to Postmus. You know what happened to Postmus.
Get real. He didn’t pretend to be a Republican. He was endorsed by a grip of them. Learn to read. It was plainly stated on the literature.
#26… if you only knew the triplets who endorsed Ramos … and those who Ramos approached but REFUSED to endorse…
Do you know whose cousin Dutton’s wife is? (Recall that Dutton endorsed Ramos)
Has Ramos ever “donated” to LLUMC (which is owned and administratively operated by the church)?
How is Emmerson related to the church?
Does Lewis benefit from Ramos’ “donation” to Univ of Redlands?
#27… who said “pretend”? the word was deceptive… learn to read
Anon #29 you are correct, James Ramos is too lame pull off a “pretend”
However, “DECEPTION” comes easy to him, it’s in his blood.
Wow, Ramos must be pretty good if he could deceive 47% of voter last Tuesday night. However, Mr Derry can no longer deceive anyone into believing that he is an honest politician as 67% voted against his incumbency.
As I stated before, I don’t know how many people were actually deceived by Ramos’ ads. I for one, was not. And several people I know saw through the deception immediately when they saw the ads. My point is that Ramos ATTEMPTED to deceive people. Why?
It’s very obvious that deception was his intent by his use of the Elephant logo, which is a Republican symbol. I looked at all his ads that were posted on this site on May 28. I didn’t see any mention of the word Democrat or that he is endorsed by specific Democrats. But he did do an entire ad connecting himself to Republican leaders. One ad says “Neil Derry Does Not Represent Republican Values” as if Ramos does. Why would a Democrat care about Republican values? I don’t know if all the ads were posted because the specific one I’m referring to isn’t. Look at the ads and judge for yourself.
Was Ramos Deceptive?….Get over it.
Was Ramos Deceptive?:
Do you think derry was being deceptive when he was laundering that campaign contribution? You know the one, it’s the one where he had the choice of surrendering to authorities or being arrested.
It’s the one where he had to plead guilty to avoid felony charges.
It’s the one he’s still on probation for.
Repairman you repeated statments about derrys conviction might be taken a little more seriously when you start calling for DA Ramos arrest for laundering 10000 to his wife. If J Ramos serious about stoping the corruption then he should reject DA Ramos endosement and call for his arrest. But that doesn’t fit into you agenda so you will either say that’s not you problem or just ignore that truth.
ha ha ha ha:
Was derry being deceptive or not? that was the question.
Let me help you with the answer since you can’t seem to understand what the concept of truth is, or you realized you wouldn’t be able to answer the question without admitting derry was at least trying ( evidently he wasn’t vary good at it ) to be deceptive when he laundered that $5,000.00 contribution.
So YES he was being deceptive, that is why he is on probation now.
Mailers should flood Redlands warning the community of how Mike and Gretchen Ramos have held fundraisers for their “political committee” and then Husband Mike Ramos laundered those “contributions” into Gretchen Ramos’ personal bank account for her personal enjoyment- and we’ll add their faces to that chain link mailer James Ramos mailed out!!
The Ramos’ were fined, MIKE AND GRETCHEN WERE CAUGHT TAKING “CONTRIBUTIONS” AND TRANSFERRING THEM TO GRETCHEN’S PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT
ON A NON-ELECTION YEAR, AND ON A YEAR NO ONE WAS OPPOSING RAMOS!!
YET GRETCHEN CLAIMS THOSE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS MIKE QUIETLY FUNNELED TO HER WERE FOR RUNNING HIS CAMPAIGN, AGAINST WHO- CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST??????
Yes, Derry has his baggage, but Ramos is no saint. All you Ramos defenders need to take an honest look at him. Can he really be a better Supervisor? He can’t even answer a question about his positions without reading off statements from a binder written for him. He has no ideas of his own. He’s a puppet. The only defense of Ramos is that Neil Derry is corrupt. Ramos has a history of corruption, too. With only 2 candidates, it’s just a matter of who’s less corrupt and the extent of his corruption.
#38 – not who is “less corrupt” but MORE CORRUPT.
What did Ramos do to impact positively to district 3 other than “donate” gambling-addicted losers’ monies?
Nice dodge repairman, that right there says it all. You could careless about if derry took any money at all. You just oppose him and that is the only thing you have to keep pushing because Ramos has no good points to show he could do a better job. He handed millions of dollars from his casino to his “friends” now he wants to be able to do it with our tax dollars and his vote on the bos.
ha ha ha ha:
I do care that derry is CORRUPT, and THAT is why I oppose him.
So is that your starting point or are we just standing by waiting for you to ramp up your campain against DA Ramos too? And again if you feel J. Ramos is the answer are you now saying he needs to call for Da Ramos’s arrest because if Derry is corrupt for laundering $5000 dollars is DA ramos and his wife just as corrupt for doing that with $10000 ?
ha ha ha ha:
Have you alerted the anchorites?
Ha HA HA…..The DA isn’t going anywhere. Derry is. If Ramos was guilty Derry should have never have followed in his footsteps. Doing so only opened him up to these well founded charges of corruption. What’s the difference between him and the DA you ask, simply put, Derry is up for re-election. He should have been more careful.
I tried going to the authorities but I was told that since I wasn’t running for office and I didn’t own a casino that I could use to contribute thousands of dollars to them, there was no point in charging DA Ramos with crime that the fppc had already ruled deserved only a fine. Since I wasn’t running for office there wasnt a reason to arrest him before I anounced I was running
Red Anon says to- Was Ramos Deceptive?
“Get over it.”
Is he trying to tell us that RIGHT and WRONG should never be an issue or pointed out? We should all just…
“Get over it!”
Yeah, that reflects Ramos’ arrogant attitude.
Anonymous:
In Comment #44, you refer to “well founded charges of corruption” against Neil Derry.
Don’t you mean “well FUNDED charges of corruption?”
Anon#46….The “get over it” was in reference to WAS RAMOS DECEPTIVE’s insistence to continue harping on an issue that has no substance.
OOF #47…..I meant well founded charges as in Derry couldn’t escape and had to plead guilty. Not well funded as when Jeff Burum gives Four hundred thousand dollars to Supervisors that vote to give him $102 million dollars.
Ramos X 2 is in trouble now that Petey for Congress is dead…
Anonymous #47:
For other examples of “well funded,” how about the outside counsel representing the county in The Colonies trial. According to Judge Warner’s Statement of Intended decision, Jones Day had eight attorneys attend the 18 day trial. Assuming $250 per hour and 8 hour days, that’s $288,000.
Or how about Dennis Hansberger’s reelection campaign? After the settlement, The Colonies made a donation to PAC that donated money to the campaign of the Supervisor who was adamantly opposed to any settlement. Not surprisingly, you don’t read about that in the local media.
OOF…actually colonies donations to Hansberger were mentioned right alongside the fact that colonies donated to his opponent Derry. The interesting thing about this is that they take a bookie approach to political support of a candidate. They don’t stand on any principle other than making profit at all costs and so lay off their bets by buying both sides of a campaign so that whoever wins is indebted to them. I doubt you took this approach prior to last weeks primary. Did you have Derry and Ramos signes on your yard? That kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it?
As to the lawyer bills, I’m sure colonies attorneys charged more. Had our supervisors not been so corrupt, the county would have walked away paying a lot less than $102 million and the lawyer expenses would have been justified. However, Burum’s subversion of the legal system has continued to cost tax payers and what you suggest is that we close our eyes and continue to allow him to rape tax payer coffers. The votes against the sitting supervisor last week were just as much against Burum as they were Derry. You Burum employees sit in your perch and pay no mind the common folk. popular oppinion is going against you all, It sucks when you have alot of money, but not enough to bribe every citizen.