James Ramos

San Manuel Tribal Chairman James Ramos formally announced his bid for Third District Supervisor, the seat currently held by Supervisor Neil Derry.  One of the interesting things about this announcement is the list of supporters he has already garnered.  Those supporting his candidacy include city of San Bernardino mayor Pat Morris; city of Redlands mayor Pete Aguilar; city of San Bernardino city councilman Fred Shorett; city of Highland mayor pro tem Penny Lilburn; city of Yucaipa mayor Dick Riddell; city of Yucaipa councilwoman Denise Hoyt; President of San Bernardino Community College District Board of Trustees Carleton W. Lockwood Jr.; former Assemblyman Russ Bogh; and  Senator Bill Emmerson.

Considering that Ramos is a Democrat, it should be surprising to see how many Republicans are supporting him over the Republican incumbent.  Well, no it isn’t really.  Money talks, or in this case, campaign contributions talk.   And San Manuel likes to spread them around.  We wouldn’t want any of our good Republicans to get on the wrong side of a major campaign donor, now would we?

In all fairness, a good many of  the names above are old guard Hansberger supporters.  Settling scores ranks second only to campaign contributions.  I don’t think it takes a crystal ball to predict this will be one of the nastiest campaigns in county history if both men stay in the race.