Rick Rivas vows to unseat Anthony Botelho in 2012
An email between a supervisor and his former campaign
manager
– who vowed to unseat the elected official in the message – has
caused a stir in the county’s political community.
In the email sent June 21, Rick Rivas, a local campaign adviser
for an array of candidates in recent years and the brother of
District 3 Supervisor Robert Rivas, strongly urged that District 2
Supervisor Anthony Botelho not seek reelection next year. The email
followed by noting he was going to find someone better suited for
Botelho’s job.
Rick Rivas vows to unseat Anthony Botelho in 2012
An email between a supervisor and his former campaign manager – who vowed to unseat the elected official in the message – has caused a stir in the county’s political community.
In the email sent June 21, Rick Rivas, a local campaign adviser for an array of candidates in recent years and the brother of District 3 Supervisor Robert Rivas, strongly urged that District 2 Supervisor Anthony Botelho not seek reelection next year. The email followed by noting he was going to find someone better suited for Botelho’s job.
“As a lifelong resident of San Benito County, I believe that our community deserves better,” Rick Rivas wrote. “For the sake of your constituents and the future of our neighborhoods, I’d encourage you to not seek reelection. You are simply not fit to serve the public.”
The email quickly circulated among community leaders and was eventually posted on a website for the San Benito County chapter of the Friends of the Constitution – which is run by the county’s Republican Central Committee Chairman Marvin Jones. The website confused Rick Rivas with brother and supervisor, Robert Rivas.
Robert Rivas contended he did not know about the email when it was sent.
In the email message, Rick Rivas, who was Botelho’s campaign manager during the 2008 election, criticized the District 2 supervisor and called him one of the “poorest performing elected officials” he has worked with.
“Sadly, while I believe that you have your heart in the right place, I think your decision making has been detrimental to progress and hurtful to our community,” Rivas wrote.
Rivas in an interview Tuesday said he wanted the email to show why he wouldn’t be Botelho’s campaign manager in the upcoming election. Rivas said he also sent a copy of the email to Robert Frusetta, a friend of and campaign volunteer for Botelho, because he wanted him to know his stance after they both had worked on the 2008 campaign.
“I felt he should know where I stood,” Rivas said.
Rivas referred to the county board’s 5-0 approval of the Panoche Valley solar project in November and the 3-2 approval last month in transferring 911 dispatch services to Santa Cruz as reasons why he as become increasingly worried about the board’s direction.
“These issues have been two of the most significant decisions the Board has made in recent memory,” Rivas wrote. “Unfortunately for our residents, your position on both has been wrong.”
Botelho wasn’t the only supporter of those projects, but Rivas pinpointed Botelho as the board’s “weakest link,” Rivas said in the interview. Despite approval votes from supervisors Jaime De La Cruz on the solar project and Margie Barrios on both – those two also are up for reelection next year – Rivas has no current plans to try to unseat them.
“I think the other supervisors have been doing a good job,” he said.
Botelho said he thought Rivas was planning something similar for the other supervisors.
“I think Mr. Rivas has plans for the three supervisors running,” he said.
Part of Rivas’ plan against Botelho is the creation of a coalition called Reform San Benito County, Rivas said. The group, outlined in the email to Botelho, was created by 25 community members who hope to find better leaders in the community, according to the email.
“San Benito County deserves better leaders,” Rivas said. “Supervisor Botelho has had eight years to get results and there are no results. To be better off, we need to bring in new ideas and a different approach.”
Rivas said the non-partisan group aims to get the county “going in the right direction.” The group will endorse both Republican and Democratic candidates but will not support candidates endorsed by the “extreme right-winged” Republicans.
“The extreme right-wing is part of the problem,” he said.
And it’s that same group that Rivas blamed for the release of the email he considered private.
“I think it’s very important to point out this was a private email,” he said in the interview two weeks after the message was sent out. ” I was hired to be his campaign manager in 2008, and he constantly checked back for my advice. I would give advice on what they were working on. To me this was an email between me and my client, Anthony Botelho.”
He continued, “I was shocked and surprised when it got into the hands of the Republican leaders.”
Botelho was surprised by the email’s contents, he said, and thought it could hurt his relationship on the board with Robert Rivas.
“I found it to be very disappointing especially when we are trying to … get off to a working relationship with my colleague on the board,” Botelho said.
The email makes it harder to create that working relationship, he said.
“Of course, it makes it a whole lot harder,” he said. “But there is some hard work ahead of us. It really needs to be a team effort.”
But Robert Rivas insisted he had no part of the email.
“To be quite frank, I had no idea,” he said. “I heard about it when everyone else did. I was told by a third party.”
He said he believes the email would not hurt his relationship with the Botelho, because he wanted to move forward.
“My goal is to move on for San Benito County,” he said. “We need to move on for the people of this county and to make it a better community.”
Rick Rivas never told his brother because he said he didn’t “need his permission,” and he doesn’t discuss his conversations with other elected officials with his brother, he said.
“My policy is not to discuss that with my brother,” he said.
In the past few years Rick Rivas has had contact with all of the supervisors, giving them advice, he said. And he never discusses the matters with his brother, he said.
Rivas thought the distribution of the email was simply a negative campaign ploy from the “extreme right-winged” Republicans and he wasn’t going to apologize or back down from his stance, he said.
“We don’t live in Cuba, Venezuela or Libya,” he said. “We live in the United States of America, and thankfully. If you don’t think a supervisor or an elected official is doing a good job you can elect someone else. I encourage everyone to speak out against an official that isn’t doing a good job.”
The county’s Democratic Party Chairman Gregory Rivera and Republican leader Jones did not immediately return phone calls.
Excerpts from Rick Rivas email June 21 to Supervisor Anthony Botelho
To read the full e-mail, visit www.freelancenews.com
“As you know, our County is going through very difficult times – some of the worst since the Great Depression. Tough times call for tough leaders and sound decision making. I think you’d agree that we can’t afford to make mistakes during times like these.
Sadly, while I Believe that you have your heart in the right place, I think your decision making has been detrimental to progress and hurtful to our community. That’s why I concluded that this message must be sent today.”
“I’ve worked with over 75 elected officials in California and throughout the country, so I have a pretty good sense of what separates great elected officials fro those that are only OK. You decisions have been so misguided that I believe that you rank as one of the poorest performing elected officials I’ve ever worked with.”
“Let me be clear: I think you’re a smart person and a savy businessman. But when it comes to public service, I think that your deficiencies are significant and unacceptable. Over the past six years, you have failed to provide a vision for our county and have certainly not provided an adequate vision for county staff. Your lack of leadership has left our County floundering and in a dire financial situation.
Clearly, our county deserves better leadership than you have to offer.
With that aid, in the case that you do pursue re-election, I will do anything that is legally possible to defeat you.”
“I have already begun seeking a better representative to run from your area and I’m confident that you will be defeated should you decide to run again. After all, you are weak politically and will not withstand a competent opponent.
Additionally, I will be partnering with other local residents to ensure that San Benito County is rebuilt — from the ground up. We’re going to begin by electing the right candidates – from school board, city council, to the Board of Supervisors. These new crop of leaders will then build the best teams to move our county in the right direction.”
